Do any of you have any experience with capturing video? I have recently bought a device that connects between a video player and computer to transfer video from VHS tapes to the PC. I want to transfer old home movies, and It works fine until I get to sections that are a bit shaky, for instance from inside a moving vehicle. These play perfectly well on the TV but when converted to the PC they are distorted by wavy black lines like this.
Mike
In article , Muddymike writes
Amateur opinion only:
It looks like sync loss, lines or frames. I'm guessing the video camera didn't like being thrown about and it resulted in sync aberrations in the recorded stream. Tellys are designed to be tolerant of sync interruptions as they have to receive over air broadcasts where disruptions would be commonplace. The good news is that since it displays ok on the telly then all the picture information is there, it just needs the framing recovered. Oh, and the reason the capture card doesn't like it is because it does not have the same complexity of sync circuitry in it and it is expecting a nice clean sync every line and frame to start its conversion sequence.
Solutions? This is where my amateur knowledge falls down, I know there are frame recovery boxes out there and I _believe_ putting that between your player and the capture box would do the job but I don't know where to get one or how much that cost. I don't know whether re-recording from your player to another video recorder would duplicate the errored stream or might recover the framing, that would be for experimentation. Is it an original, first generation, recording? If not then that answers that question, simple copying will not recover sync.
I'd expect a backstreet transfer house to duplicate the error unless you specifically describe the error and they have frame recovery hardware that they know how to use.
Good luck.
In message , Muddymike writes
All I know about this is how little I know.
When I had problems vaguely like this, I followed advice to get a video camera with a line input (these were originally quite expensive because they were taxed as a recorder not a camera), feed the VHS machine into that and take the output on to whatever device came next. I think the camera sorts out the sync. I got my camera from ebay.
The only other thing to say is that if you feed the video into the PC and the audio via the audio of the PC, you can end up with the lip sync drifting out. My first very cheap adapter from somewhere like Aldi did this. I replaced it with something that encoded the lot via the same internal clock. I can't off the top of my head remember what or where that unit is.
I was using this to copy some instructional NTSC videos from the US.
course.
Yes, I agree with the consensus so far, timing errors.
I have an old, largely analogue, time base corrector that I use to correct this sort of thing.
Bill's idea of using a camcorder with a base band input is a particularly good one. True the quality will go down one generation, but the sync timing should be restored.
Enlarging on that idea, do you have access to a stand alone DVD recorder? They were popular before PVRs became ubiquitous. You could try to record the raw footage onto a DVD, then transfer the VOB files to a computer for editing if required.
If it doesn't work adiquetly first time you may need to experiment using different equipment including different VHS machines playing the tape.
The quality does not have to fall a generation since with the right camcorder, you can feed analogue video in and have it convert it on the fly and output it via firewire. It never needs to go anywhere near the tape.
Chances are you will need a full TBC. However some of the sync shaping devices designed for video to video dubbing may help, since they tend to restore the sync pulses a little (and mask stuff in the vertical retrace like macrovision protection)
It looks like loss of sync. I wonder if the input is AC coupled with a capacitor of too low a value and the average DC value at the input to the converter is following too closely the the picture content. Do the scenes that go out of lock always have a large expanse of white near the top of the picture and do the scenes that work tend to be darker towards the top of the screen?
If these are the actual originals, there is probably shaky scanning in reality, but the tv is coping with it in real time. You would probably find an attempt to edit the video over to another machine will produce bad results too. You need some form of timebase correction it seems, or at least a system which can cope with poor synch. Brian
I would suggest playing the tape on one of the up-market domestic VHS players that has a TBC built in. For example our Panasonic NV-HS960 would fit the bill: if the TBC is enabled it outputs rock-steady syncs whatever's on the tape.
Richard.
Actually this might be the one occasion where the best advice would be to simply point a camera at the monitor. At least you are guaranteed a result.
In message , John Rumm writes
Yes, that is something like what I used to do. It never went near the tape. I may well have used firewire directly into the PC rather than any other interface, as I do use firewire quite a bit (audio interfaces).
The camcorder (JVC GR-DX100EK) I bought on ebay was quite cheap.
I can't help the OP but I wondered how would you know if your VCR had a TBC built-in and are any good vcrs manufactured any more? I thought the big names had stopped? There must be a lot of people out there with tapes and they won't all be rushing to replace these with dvds, so I would have thought there would have been a market for a few more years yet.
It's obvious on the NV-HS960: there's a button on the front to switch it on and off!
There's an NV-HS960 on eBay at the moment:
Charity shops won't take pre-recorded VHS tapes, so I'd guess the number left in use is small.
We still occasionally use our VHS machine to record Eurosport. Since the sound and video are received from two different satellites - the only way to receive Eurosport free as far as I know - we need an analogue-input recording device and the NV-HS960 is all we've got.
Richard.
I recently did this ....
Couple of things...
I used an ADVC 300 analogue to DV converter box (picked up used one on eBay) hugely better than the USB converter leads, and corrects a lot of synch issues. Give full control over adjustments. Professional A-D converters I run my VHS/SVHS tapes (using SVHS & RCA audio) into the ADVC300
I put output vis FireWire into PC .. and captured using a simple Video capture s/w utility .... "Windows media Capture" it is simple and bomb proof.
You then have your digital AVI files ...
An option you could try is use a cammcorder in pass through mode ... it would aslo give you an AVI output ... but without correction options.
On two vides Ihad bad frame lock, so I also run though a TBC as well ..... but for most things the ADVC300 did it all.
If you want to tweak, adjust, restore .... then you can do all this for free ... (or spend a fortune on s/ware)
The two tools best placed for restoration work (or any adjustment) are virtualdub
Both are Freware ...
For a beginner, virtualdub is probably the best place to start. It has a GUI interface and is easily controlled and previewed. There are also plenty of tutorials and posts in the restoration forum on how to use it and get the best from it. Avisynth is a script based frame server with even better filters than virtualdub, however it has a steep learning curve as it has no GUI or command-line interface. Instead you program it in a text editor like notepad.
Fo me I would create AVI files of max quality, adusting Chroma, Luminance, etc with VirtualDub.
Then use a linear editor for creating final movies ... I found a great deal on Sony Vegas .. got older program cheap as chips on eBay and bought upgrade form Vegas to current version. His does the flashy movie creation .. wipes, transitions, multiple audio tracks etc. It works very well .. drag, drop, so easy to use.
I think Windows now includes a basic video editor if you don't want to buy.
I recently did this ....
Couple of things...
I used an ADVC 300 analogue to DV converter box (picked up used one on eBay) hugely better than the USB converter leads, and corrects a lot of synch issues. Give full control over adjustments. Professional A-D converters I run my VHS/SVHS tapes (using SVHS & RCA audio) into the ADVC300
I put output vis FireWire into PC .. and captured using a simple Video capture s/w utility .... "Windows media Capture" it is simple and bomb proof.
You then have your digital AVI files ...
An option you could try is use a cammcorder in pass through mode ... it would aslo give you an AVI output ... but without correction options.
On two vides Ihad bad frame lock, so I also run though a TBC as well ..... but for most things the ADVC300 did it all.
If you want to tweak, adjust, restore .... then you can do all this for free ... (or spend a fortune on s/ware)
The two tools best placed for restoration work (or any adjustment) are virtualdub
Both are Freware ...
For a beginner, virtualdub is probably the best place to start. It has a GUI interface and is easily controlled and previewed. There are also plenty of tutorials and posts in the restoration forum on how to use it and get the best from it. Avisynth is a script based frame server with even better filters than virtualdub, however it has a steep learning curve as it has no GUI or command-line interface. Instead you program it in a text editor like notepad.
Fo me I would create AVI files of max quality, adusting Chroma, Luminance, etc with VirtualDub.
Then use a linear editor for creating final movies ... I found a great deal on Sony Vegas .. got older program cheap as chips on eBay and bought upgrade form Vegas to current version. His does the flashy movie creation .. wipes, transitions, multiple audio tracks etc. It works very well .. drag, drop, so easy to use.
I think Windows now includes a basic video editor if you don't want to buy.
I know I have been slow coming back to this but I was waiting for the opportunity to dig out an old portable TV with built in VHS player. On playing a wobbly bit on that the image on the TV screen is perfect, sadly the image captured onto the PC still has the wobbly lines, AAAArrrgh!!!
Mike
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