Capturing VHS to PC with a high definition resolution...?

[edDV]

I wonder if something like this would help improve the video quality of VHS captures in HD:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HDTV-Video-Enhan...QQcmdZViewItem

An upscaler doesn't necessarily improve the video, it's just a display format converter

Every HDTV sold has a built in upscaler for it's composite, S-Video and analog component inputs. CRT HD sets can display these inputs directly at 720x480 as they often do for progressive DVD. They can display interlaced or progressive and upscale to 1080 or some other number lines.

A LCD or plasma TV must convert the analog input to the native monitor resolution (say 1024x856, 1280x720 or any other number) and deinterlace it. This too is all built in.

An external upscaler attempts to do something similar but it knows nothing about the TV's native display or native resolution, it just knows about HDTV input connections like 720p or 1080i. These boxes often make the image worse than just plugging the S-video cable into the TV. Why upscale VHS to 1920x1080i only to have the TV downscale it to it's internal display resolution which almost always is far less than 1920x1080?

We have been discussing capturing analog sources at highest quality for preservation in an intermediate format that can be easily encoded with a future HD or SD codec. Future codecs will allow either greater quality or higher compression than today's DVD MPeg2.

[slacker]

Okay EdDV,

I'm not 100% comfortable with the dvd recorder route (not enough control), so...

I already have what I consider a very good capture device, an HP branded Bali USB PVR which uses the highly acclaimed Broadcom BCM7040 chip (also used in Tivo units). Let me know if anyone has heard otherwise regarding this chip. This I will set at 15mb I-frame ONLY.

Additionally, I am going this week to purchase the HC90 with analog/digital passthru (as I can't find the Panasonic GS400 anywhere). I will try to post some comparisons shortly (in a week or so) or at least let you know narratively what my findings have been.

[FulciLives]

For what it is worth ... here are some screen grabs from a MPEG-2 capture. This is a 15,000kbps CBR "I" Frame only capture using the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 (a USB2 capture device with hardware MPEG encoding). The source is the pre-record WS VHS of ARMAGEDDON straight out from the VCR (Toshiba 6 head Hi-Fi Stereo model) to the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 using composite video. The MPEG capture was loaded into VirtualDubMod and images were copied and pasted into PhotoShop. I then used the SAVE FOR WEB feature to make these JPG images and I tried to get them as close to 100kb as I could since that is the max file size (all are between 90kb and 100kb).















Remember this is a VHS video source.

Here are a few more from cable TV ... the first two are the National Geographic channel (digital cable channel) the second two are from THE HISTORY CHANNEL which is an analog channel even though it went through the "digital" cable box. These two different captures were done "normal style" or in other words direct to a specific DVD spec (I, B, P format) MPEG-2 at 6000kbps VBR. The pics are "I" frames taken from VirtualDubMod to PhotoShop to JPEG (as above). The connection ... Digital cable box to ADS Instant DVD 2.0 with composite video (no S-Video out on my digital box thanks Comcast).









I had an INVADER ZIM capture (for those that wanted to see a CARTOON) but I deleted it by accident ... DOH !

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[slacker]

Fulcilives,

I set my capture device at 15mb I-frame ONLY and it seemed to hold its own. What I wanted to tell you is that it sent my Media Center PC into outer space. Live TV just starting going wacko, freezing, cracking, stuttering. When I put it back to the defaults it worked fine. Don't know what that means, just thought I'd report it.

Got a hold of a new Canon Optura instead of the HC90. Will take footage of the Giants game in a couple of hours to make sure it works. Then go ahead and try the analog-digital passthru on some VHS tapes and compare to the PC capture card route.