2001-2010 my capture cards - comparison screenshots

[sanlyn]

As for HDMI cable changing picture quality, well...they do, just as any other type of wire does

Yes, but the failure mode with HDMI is very obvious. Unlike analog cables where you get subtle blurring and ringing at sharp edges, digital errors are obvious bright or dark sparkles:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20056502-1/why-all-hdmi-cables-are-the-same/

If you aren't seeing those the images are identical between two cables.

Well...jagabo, we disagree in some respects. All HDMI isn't "the same", not in the real world of watching displays rather than scopes, and I don't refer to "fails". I can definitely see differences, and I don't think I'm alone. Agreed, though, different cable types do display problems/defects that are characteristic of their type. But I don't know any videophiles or pros who would throw away their coax in favor of twisted-pair .26-gauge Ethernet wire.

Darn it, you got me off topic again. Betcha did that on purpose .

[vaporeon800]

ATI 600 USB for ADC vs Denon AVR-890 for ADC


A comparison to show what effect the AVR-890's inbuilt TBC has on VHS jitter. Both captures were made using the same VCR in Edit mode. For whatever it's worth, the Denon capture was made close to a year after the ATI capture.

Here are the AviSynth scripts I used on the source captures. My goal with the scripts was just to get them looking similar. When actually encoding this video for storage I'll bring the brightest parts down to 235.

AVISource(<avi1>)
Crop(0,0,-4,-2).AddBorders(0,2,0,0,$FFFFFF)

#Histogram().ConvertToRGB() #only for the screenshots

Trim(6590,0)

AVISource(<avi2>)
ColorYUV(off_y=-12).Crop(4,0,-0,-0)

#Histogram().ConvertToRGB() #only for the screenshots

Trim(6330,0)

400 frames from the output of each AVS, in top-field-first Huffyuv AVI:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=262V8K1K (1993-August-comparison.zip, 162MB)

[jagabo]

ATI 600 USB for ADC vs Denon AVR-890 for ADC... A comparison to show what effect the AVR-890's inbuilt TBC has on VHS jitter.

Nice!

[vaporeon800]

Ugh, Imageshack has totally destroyed a bunch of the images in the first post. I would just attach them, but then they are gigantic to scroll through when there are so many (sort of like this post).

Anyway, a new comparison. Denon AVR-890 vs the "Xcard" from danno78.

First I captured with the Denon using its default proc amp settings (because none of its options are actually useful). Then I adjusted it a little using ColorYUV.

Following that, I attempted to match the Xcard's proc amp options to get an output close to the adjusted Denon frame. The bottom 8 pixels of all images here are masked off, and the Xcard frames are shifted down 2 pixels to match the alignment of the Denon.

Denon


Xcard - sharpness 110


Xcard - sharpness 115


Xcard - sharpness 255 (cranked way too high)


I like the available contrast latitude of the Xcard better than what the Denon offers, but sharpness and detail are irking me. Somehow Denon seems to give the most "natural" sharpness level and has more detail. Maybe I'm imagining it. The detail I'm seeing is in the small diagonals of the ANIMANIACS logo: A, N, M. On the Xcard shots, the "Weekdays!" text appears to have little dots inside the text that aren't there on the Denon shots.

[vaporeon800]

I've updated the OP so that it's actually useful again. The messed up ImageShack links are gone and replaced with thumbnailed attachments. Took forever because the darn image uploader spits things out in a random order!!