VHS Capture Problem

[sdculp]

I have Windows XP Home, Sp 3. My video card is an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700. I have been trying to convert my VHS tapes to DVD. I have tried several video software programs, but all rely on the basic NVIDIA board to do the capturing. Since many of the tapes are vacations, etc., I don’t want to go directly to DVD, but rather to do some editing and combining. I have ShowBiz DVD 2 and Ulead Video Studio 11.

If I send the VHS signal from any one of three VHS players to the capture card I get so much of what I call “color banding” that the recording is useless because there are far to many flickers to edit out. The attached picture shows what I mean by “banding”. There is not much choice of recording parameters. They are as follows:

DVD High (NTSC) Standard: NTSC, resolution: 720x480, Audio format: MPEG-1 Layer 2, Audio sampling rate: 48.0 kHz, Rate control: VBR, Average bit rate: 4.80 Mbps/s, Maximum bit rate: 9.60 Mbps/s, Noise reduction: On, De-interlacing: on, Inverse telecine: On, DVD-compatible.

If I send the VHS signal to the capture card from a recorded VHS-C tape using my Panasonic camcorder there is very little of the banding during a 4 minute recording—maybe 2 or 3 flickers.

If I connect the camcorder or a VHS player directly to a TV, there is no evidence of banding.

There seems to be some combination of effects between a VHS player and the NVIDIA card which causes the problem, but I know nothing of capture or playback methods. Can anyone identify what the problem is?

At this point I am “dead in the water” except for using the few tapes which are on VHS-C. However I am determined to continue with the project. Perhaps a different capture adapter/card is the answer. I looked at the Hauppauge USB Live adapter, but the reviews state that it doesn’t record at 720 x 480 and only records in meg1, and the reviews were pretty bad. I realize it is somewhat of a gamble for me to purchase a capture card/device unless I am able to pinpoint a cause and solution and I would appreciate any advice you can give me.

Thank you

Stuart Culp

[zoobie]

are these home recordings of television or store bought hollywood productions?
sounds like the dreaded macrovision protection
if the latter, you'll have to put something inbetween to remove it

[thecoalman]

Try feeding it a different signal like cable or a brand new VHS tape with freshly recorded material. Post back the results.

[aedipuss]

you can also try using a high quality cable between the devices. make sure all devices are grounded to the same place and use a high quality link cable between them that goes no where near a power cable or other electronic devices.

one other thing. what is up with the weird dimensions? it should be wider than tall - 720 pixels across and 480 tall. not the 352x480 as shown. check you capture settings.

[tinker]

I do not know if your camcorder is capable of this, but I use my digital movie camera as an analog to digital converter and import through firewire directly to software, in my case Premiere, as DV-AVI.
There are some good reviews on Pinacle capture device. It is separate box, but I think it import as mpeg also.

[sdculp]

Most are home video recordings taken with the Panasonic camcorder and then copied to full sized tapes with the VCRs.

A few are commercial recordings of national parks purchased at the park stores 10 years or more ago. I'm sure none have copyright protection. At any rate, they behave the same as the home brew. None are Macrovision. Once in a awhile I see an old tape which doesn't behave this way--well, maybe just one or two flickers, and I thought it might have something to do with tape aging. But new tapes behave the same way. Also, the tape from the VHS-C direct from the camcorder is new, and, as I mentioned above, it still exhibits a flicker once in a while.

I use the dongle that came with NVIDIA for my interface, using commercial audio/video two-wire cable with RCA plugs.

Once, I disconnected the coax TV input to the card and ran coax from the VCR to the video card but that didn't change anything. I use the same cables when I plug it into the TV and it plays fine--that's the wierd part. The television part of the NVIDIA card works fine. That's when I got the idea that the problem might lie in the way NVIDIA treats VHS. NVIDIA tech support was no help. When I switch the card to composite input to view the VCR output, the pictures exhibit the banding the same as they appear in the recorded version.

To take the picture, I used Ulead Video Studio frame capture, but was a little careless. The frame picture dimensions vary as you manually scroll through. I was more careful this time and used Showbiz. The attached picture came out as viewed. Info with the picture said 320x240.

Stu

[zoobie]

you're capping mpeg deinterlaced?
try capping DV-AVI...bettter to edit with

[sdculp]

Although VNIDIA only allows for 3 (good, better, best) versions of mpeg for recording, I have several suites which offer a variety of recorded formats. All exhibit the same banding problem. This brings up an interesting point, however. I’m no expert in video definitions, but for the purpose of this discussion let me define “capture” as the process by which the video board captures the composite VHS signal and converts it into a viewable picture on the monitor. Then define “record” as the process by which the captured signal is converted into various file types.

In my system, the only board which captures the signal is the NVIDIA. This captured signal is then recorded by the NVIDIA board or sent to whatever software package I choose to do the recording. No matter which recording process (mpeg, avi, etc.) I use, the captured signal is flawed (banded) on the monitor even before the recording takes place. If the signal is flawed from the beginning, I don’t see how it could be recorded any better, regardless of the format used. It is for this reason that I think something is wrong with the way the NVIDIA card processes the VHS captured signal. Although the NVIDIA card seems to have no problem with TV.

At times, when the NVIDIA board is set to FM (never really use it) the normally black screen will have a flickering green band, the same as seen in composite only without any video. This is another thing which seems to point to NVIDIA.

With regard to cables, I use the same cables to connect the VHS player (or camcorder) to the television set and the TV views everything just fine. This, again, says to me that the problem is not with the VHS player(s) but with the front end of the NVIDIA board. This is what has prompted me to throw money at the problem and consider some other board or adapter, although it would be a bit of a gamble unless I have an idea of what the problem is. I wrote to Hauppauge tech support for info, but have not received an answer.

What do you think? Would there be a better capture board/adapter to try?

Stu