[LemMotlow]

Originally Posted by rarend

When done right issues such as the chroma bleeding, color shifting and illegal luma that you point out might become less prominent.

When "done right", whether you use lossless or not, you need a means of controlling the input signal. A proc amp will do it, but most people use capture software that allows them to hook into the proc amp controls that come with capture drivers from your hardware. Most DV capture devices and methods have no such controls. That's because they're really designed for original digital sources that aren't plagued with the kinds of wild voltage and levels variations that characterize analog media and playback devices. The idea behind lossless is that (a) you avoid the first step of image degradation by avoiding DV compression and chroma loss, compression artifacts, and added artifacts that result from analog noise, and (b) besides not having DV disadvantages to clean up you avoid further degradation by using lossless compressors for each subsequent stage of post processing, until you make your final lossy encode to your desired output format(s), which would be the very last step in your total processing chain.

Originally Posted by rarend

For capturing directly to a lossless video format, is there open source / community software that you can recommend? I'm not familiar with any, nor am I with doing so using any of the programs I use.

VirtualDub, AmarecTV. Those are the most popular. If you've never seen either, VDub represents a completely different world of detailed control over more aspects of video capture than you ever imagined. Likely you'll learn a great deal more about video than you would with DV and Pinnacle.

Originally Posted by rarend

For this VHS-capture via a DV camcorder I used Pinnacle because I had it installed and because it is very easy to use. I figured that since the source was DV avi, using DV avi also as the capture format within Pinnacle made sense.

Your source, as you described it, is not DV AVI. It'sanalog tape. Completely different systems. Most of us outgrew Pinnacle many years ago. And DV source itself is never captured. It's transferred 1:1 with Firewire and is never re-encoded as a capture. That's two lossy strikes against your so-called "quality" from the very start. However, if convenience and the push-button route is major priority, you're better off with DV and Pinnacle. Priorities of quality will have to wait for another day.

Originally Posted by rarend

As for the hardware I use to capture, I would very much like to stick to the camcorder setup instead of a capture card.

If your camcorder can't output analog, you can forget about lossless if you continue using it. There are a few good capture cards around that are optimized for analog source and can be used with software mentioned above for lossless capture. The Diamond multimedia VC500 has been a favorite for many years, is still made today, and sells for a fraction of of its original price. Or you can go full hog and try for building an All in Wonder System, which of course would be a huge headache and expense. Either way, lossless will run circles around DV when you get to your final output. Then again, maybe your camera has an analog pass-thru that you can use for lossless capture.

Originally Posted by rarend

I find the visual output quality very good when compared to the analogue source and I find the setup very convenient. Also, the output resolution is higher than the native resolution of VHS so with regard to the resolution the setup is more than sufficient.

No, your DV output has digital artifacts and noise that your tape doesn't have, besides losing about 20% of the original data and 50% of the chroma resolution. How is that "better?" VHS is normally captured lossless at 720x480 with VHS' original color resolution at YUY2 (4:2:2: instead of YV12 4:2:0 or 4:1:1). And you end up with only one lossy encoding step instead of two or even more with additional processing steps. With DV if you use color correction, denoising, special effect overlays, or any other form of image modification, your DV video is lossy re-encoded in its entirety for even more accumulative degradation and noise. DV audio is also a less precise YouTube-level 44.1KHz, whereas VHS is usually captured at uncompressed DVD-compatible 48KHz.

Originally Posted by rarend

And while this particular troublesome footage is from a private VHS recording, I have had excellent results with capturing retail VHS-tapes this way. I got the idea for using a camcorder from VideoHelp.

. Yes, I'm very familiar with the noisy DV crowd over there. And that's where you were taught to go through two lossy capture stages with Pinnacle? Sounds like the blind leading the blind.

Looks like your camera has what you need for lossless. but it won't last long if you keep using that abrasive "cleaning" tape.

Originally Posted by rarend

Might there be a specific Sony codec preferred to capture and do you know where I might find it?

Again, capture VHS to 720x480 using YUY2 color and 48KHz PCM audio. The SONY DV codecs are not lossless. DV is always lossy, period.
-Best CPU efficiency usage, for lossless YUY2 real-time lossless compression: huffYUV 2.1.1 (). Comes in 32vbit + 64bit., use 32-bit for VirtualDub or AmarectTV capture. https://www.videohelp.com/software/HuffYUV
- 2nd best, slightly higher CPU usage but slightly smaller compresses files: Lagarith lossless compression. Easier install for Win7 and Win10 (if using either, you have our condolences). https://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html
- There is also the more geeky ut video coded and magic, optimized for digital source, Make up your own mind there. Media players can all handle huffyuv and Lagarith. Some of the other codecs are not so widely supported.

Originally Posted by rarend

And as for the chroma, luma and color issues, do you think capturing in a lossless format with better software and perhaps using a Sony codec would prevent such issues? Or might they perhaps partially be caused by other factors as well?

They're caused by many factors, from your playback unit to the condition of the tapes, to your levels and saturation controls.....it's an endless list of variables. How much control do you have over those variables with the DV system you're using? None.

Time for the DV crowd to chime in with their usual, which we've all heard and seen since Windows 3.1. Have at it. There's, nothing more to add here. Offhand it sounds as if you're looking for ease and convenience, an absence of any need for cleanup, and a perfect capture that looks like DVD instead of like VHS tape. It won't happen. Without work, VHS always looks like VHS. DV just makes it look a little worse and makes it easier to blame the source for the results.

Good luck. My guess is that you'll stick with DV. It's not better. It's just easier.