The TBC on my AG-1980P is making my videos look blocky.

[cowmix]

What am I doing wrong here..

Here's an example.

With TBC:

screen%20shot%202009-09-18%20at%209-18-09%20-%2011.10.26%20pm.png

Without TBC:

screen%20shot%202009-09-18%20at%209-18-09%20-%2011.11.05%20pm.png

Notice how the word "Edgar" is blocky in the TBC capture.

What am I doing wrong?

[lordsmurf]

Can you upload a 5-second motion clip? Hard to see what's going on here with just still images.

[cowmix]

Can you upload a 5-second motion clip? Hard to see what's going on here with just still images.

withtbc.mpg

notbc.mpg

[johns0]

Looks like very low bitrate in low resolution encoded to 720x480,what was your original capture bitrate and resolution?

[cowmix]

Looks like very low bitrate in low resolution encoded to 720x480,what was your original capture bitrate and resolution?

Both clips are use the exact same capture settings. In fact, if I toggle the TBC switch during the capture the problem will come back and go way accordingly.

[lordsmurf]

Your tape has errors that confuse the TBC.

It's not perfectly stable, but you could probably capture this one without the TBC engaged. It's close enough.

You really need a proc amp, the IRE sucks. It's way too bright, lacks contrast.

[jagabo]

Interesting, the TBC has reversed the two fields positions.

MPEG2Source("withtbc.d2v")
ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=true) #so we can crop by odd numbers
SeparateFields()
v1=SelectEven().Crop(0,1,-0,-0).AddBorders(0,0,0,1) #shift this field up
v2=SelectOdd()
Interleave(v1,v2)
Weave()

[lordsmurf]

It added some jitter, too. I ran it through Restream, but it was still worse than the non-TBC version. Again, signal problems inherent to that tape caused it.

I've seen this before.

Sometimes the JVC does better than the Panasonic, on this exact error.

[jagabo]

This is not a field order problem that Restream can fix. The bottom field needs to be moved down by two scan lines, or the top field can be moved up by two scan lines. The earlier script moved the top field up two scan lines. This one moves the bottom field down two scan lines. The alignment is closer to the non-tbc cap.

MPEG2Source("withtbc.d2v")
ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=true) #so we can crop by odd numbers
SeparateFields()
v1=SelectEven()
v2=SelectOdd().Crop(0,0,-0,-1).AddBorders(0,1,0,0) #shift bottom field down
Interleave(v1,v2)
Weave()
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true)

HC m2v from this script:

hc.m2v

[cowmix]

lordsmurf: I forgot to share that the video was 'processed' through the genlock you could buy for the original Amiga 1000. It would wreck the video quality like how you see it.

jagabo: So I could run all my videos through with TBC on and if this happens again I can reprocess those specific goof-ups with yours script? It seems like it fixes the issue quite nicely.

[jagabo]

jagabo: So I could run all my videos through with TBC on and if this happens again I can reprocess those specific goof-ups with yours script?

Yes. If you do this I would recommend you use the highest quality intermediate you can. HuffYUV in AVI, Lagarith in AVI, very high bitrate (15000+ kbps) MPEG 2 with no B frames, etc.