Newbie converting old VHS tapes to digital - but get wavy/scrambled lines

[roguewarrior]

Hello All,

I have an old panasonic vcr attached to my AT USB 650 via composite cables. I can capture the video fine, using uled (came with some hardware) and all. However, the stream has scrambled lines on top and bottom. Is there a simple way to get rid of them?

I have tried VDub but when I go to capture it hangs while doing screen capture. So not sure what to do?

Thanks

[roguewarrior]

I fixed VDub, so that it now can also capture, by clearing the registry - simple. But what do I do to get rid of those lines on top and bottom, they can drive you batty!

[jagabo]

The lines at the top are probably flagging. You'll need a time base corrector to fix that. The garbage at the bottom (~10 lines) is VHS head switching noise. All VHS tapes have that. You don't see them on TV because TVs hide the four edges of the picture. The noise at the bottom can be cropped away or masked. If the flagging at the top isn't too large you can crop or mask that too.

[roguewarrior]

How do you mask? What software do I use?

Thanks for being so helpful

[loster]

You can mask in virtualdub although I'm not sure of the exact setting.

[jagabo]

VirtualDub can crop while capturing: Video -> Cropping... Be sure to crop an even number of scanlines from the top and bottom (not odd numbers). If you are going to DVD you need to restore the frame to the full 480 line height afterwards. You can do that in VirtualDub too -- with the Resize filter's Letterbox option.

[roguewarrior]

Thanks for all the help. But two questions:

1) When I use VDub It herks and jerks when I press start capturing - but looks fine in preview. Also, in ULead no herk and jerk
2) VDub does not give me sound either.

I am using a Panasonic VCR attached to my ATI USB 650 which has hardware encoding. I am using composite connection, and maybe that is why I have no sound. But, I get sound fine with ULead and MovieMaker.

[jagabo]

1) When I use VDub It herks and jerks when I press start capturing - but looks fine in preview. Also, in ULead no herk and jerk

VirtualDub captures uncompressed YUY2 from the 650 USB. Did you select a compression codec? Video -> Compression... I recommend HuffYUV for video capture.

2) VDub does not give me sound either.

I think the default is not to play the sound while previewing and capturing. You can turn it on via the menus. Audio -> Enable Audio Playback.