Got a few VHS I'd like to digitise. Still have a working VHS player. But no longer a PC with analogue video inputs.
Bought a CVBS and S-Video to USB convertor from Ebay. Seemed to be hundreds of them advertised, but all looked the same, and remarkably cheap. Under a tenner including software CD.
It does sort of work, but with a timing error in old money. Picture is split into four and displace so the left is on the right etc and the blanking in the middle.
The CD does say for Win10. but the generic USB driver Windows has installed is likely the problem?
Don't mind spending more to get something that works.
I have found even the ones from Aldi to be virtually useless. I think the Dazzle is a reasonable compromise. Not sure if this is the same as the one I use:-
One option I have found that works ok, is using an old Canon "i" series camcorder as a digitizer - feeding CVBS into the camera, and taking the output via Firewire to the PC. Probably needs to be a desktop these days to allow a firewire card to be installed, but I expect suitable cameras could be had cheaply from ebay now.
I tried a cheap one from an eBay seller but it didn't work reliably. I'm of the view that paying more for something is probably worthwhile in this case but have yet to take the plunge. Google offers lots of options to a search for usb video converter.
The TV Capture market collapsed a few years back, with KWorld going out of business. Generally, you could get something working, but the capture software always left something to be desired.
When retail for an item collapses, it reflects back on chip manufacture. Companies stop making the chips, if there's no way to get people to buy them.
I would start with Windows Device Manager, find the capture device in the USB section, do Properties, HardwareID, and get the VEN and DEV. Run the numbers through here.
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eb1a eMPIA Technology, Inc. 2841 EM2840 Video Capture
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Alternately, you can use Uwe's program for getting info from the USB device. This is for Windows. It will take a bit of slogging to find the two numbers there.
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The objective is to get an identifier which can be used to track down alternate software.
If the drivers offered worked, they would deliver a capture stream to a known OS interface, and then you could look for something to save the output from there.
Baseband capture, would be around 20MB/sec or so. If the content was MJPEG compressed, the bandwidth required would be a lot lower, but the image might be a bit fuzzy and need sharpening in post. Some of these devices might even have an MPEG compressor in hardware.
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Startech are nice, in that they indicate what chip is inside their product. They aren't always competitive on price. I picked this one, just to see what companies are still making chips. And to see if there are any Chinese upstarts. There's really no incentive for new market entrants for VHS capture.
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AV Input Composite, Audio RCA, S-Video
Industry Standards NTSC, PAL, SECAM Video Encoding: MPEG 1, MPEG 2, and MPEG 4 DirectShow Compatible
Chipset ID EM28281 <===
Using that, I got a hit here.
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"some chinese manufacturers use this label for at least four completely different clones"
Syntek STK1160 (USB video bridge) # lsusb Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05e1:0408 Syntek
Empia EM2860 (EM2861 ?) (USB video bridge) # The new Startech might # lsusb # be a problem... Bus XXX Device XXX: ID eb1a:2861 eMPIA
Somagic SMI-2021CBE (USB video bridge) # lsusb Bus XXX Device XXX: ID 1c88:0007 Somagic, Inc. # Uses firmware
USB video capture QS702 SHENZHEN FUSHICAI ELECTRONIC # lsusb Bus XXX Device XXX: ID 1b71:3002
So it does seem the business is alive and well. And means we don't know exactly what's in your Easycap clone. The Empia was just a guess, based on the last time the question came up.
There needs to be a control to select NTSC/PAL/SECAM etc for the current problem to get fixed.
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Capture alternatives:
VLC ? Media : Open Capture Device [
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Or perhaps AMCAP.
"Free AMCAP Alternate?"
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I seem to have a copy of this. There is an option called video capture filter, that if the driver exposes the NTSC/PAL control, it will be visible in video capture filter. There is another AMCAP which is more featured than this, but it costs money (properties unknown).
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To do captures, I think it uses the olde "preallocate space please" idea, where you somehow have to define a large file space for it to use, in advance of doing a capture. Which is the height of foolishness. But what are you going to do.
That's why VLC might be your first choice of third-party capture.
Don't throw the AMCAP away, as you will be trying it again and again, as you acquire various pieces of hardware crap. It's one of those "hope springs eternal" kind of things.
When I was doing this, I had to find a VCR that sent its output in some odd format, N4334 or something like that. It was because the normal player does not send out the correct sync. signal. Most TV sets interpret it ok, but the recorder has nothing to latch onto. Then I used an EZ-something USB device to make the conversion. It only talks to Windows (7 in my case), but does a perfectly acceptable job. This was maybe 7 or 8 years ago now.
I have just remembered that some of those things were needed as I was converting NTSC tapes to UK digital. The device is indeed an EZCap, and it uses Arcsoft software.
I also have a Hauppauge device, which works fine as long as the original tape is not NTSC.
I had a Dazzle, with Pinnacle, which worked pretty well. However, when I moved to a newer version of Windows, the software was not supported and I had to buy the later version. That worked okay, until the hardware was no longer supported after a later update. At which point I bought a Roxio unit, that still works after a number of years and afew more upgrades to Windows.
My best "buy" was an old Windows XP PC with a video-capture card and software. I got it second-hand, partly in lieu of payment from someone that I had done some PC support work for. It does excellent quality captures from any PAL source, whether VHS or a Sky box (when I wanted to copy things off that we were about to lose when we cancelled our Sky subscription). OK, that's "OK by composite video" - still a bit fuzzy and soft compared with digital SD, but good in that the colours were solid and didn't flicker. The only disadvantages were a) it couldn't handle copy-protected pre-recorded VHS - and I had a couple of films that I'd bought on VHS and which weren't available later on DVD; and b) the PC was big and cumbersome to get out and take downstairs to the VHS/Sky.
So I bought a USB PAL-to-MPEG converter. I think it was Hauppauge - a reasonably reputable brand. It can do copy-protected fine, but the picture quality is not as good: some colours flicker or have pronounced dot-patterning. And that was even the case with a Sky box, which you'd think would produce good steady, standards-compliant PAL unlike VHS where there could be timing problems. But it's allowed me to take copies of those films so we can watch them on Plex etc.
I'm not sure if either of my devices can do NTSC. I have an NTSC VHS tape that I recorded while I was staying with my sister in the US. If I can fin it I'll have to try it as an academic exercise, as long as either of my converters can handle NTSC-443: 525/30 but with the colour encoded as PAL at
4.43 MHz rather than as NTSC at 3.58 MHz. "Modern" TVs and VCRs (modern when VHS and analogue TV was still used) could sync with NTSC-443 and display the picture in colour. I remember my big Panasonic CRT TV would change a *very* noisy relay to change the sync frequency, and the picture was smaller - less wide to match it being less high because of the fewer lines.
Bought this one a couple of years ago to convert a few old tapes with:
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It just worked without any problem (with 2 different VCRs and various tapes).
I seem to remember that it insisted on you using the software that came with it (EasyCap I think it was called) - I tried it with various other, more safisticated ones, but without any luck, so converted first with it, and edited later with another.
Yes. I had Pinnacle Studio on XP which came with a video capture card, and that worked very well indeed with tape based systems. Sadly, it wouldn't work on later than XP.
I would not bank on that working very well, especially for sound. I think it sounds like either it needs usb2 not three and a driver that is designed for what is actually coming in. Looks like the synchronisation is not being seen. I'm sure some time ago there used to be a kit for this in the high street shops but beware of commercial videos as the copy protection can cause it to not work. Brian
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