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  1. Hello, all. First post. I've gotten myself into VHS capturing and archiving and am interested in the best results possible. Since I have a Mac Mini, I've been using external devices and so far have two: a first generation Hauppauge HDPVR and a newer Elgato Game Capture HD. Both seem to have advantages and disadvantages, so it's hard to decide which one I should use going forward. They appear to produce very different quality images, even at their highest settings. Here is an example:



    I'm confused why these two devices would produce such different results. I know the Elgato software tries to automatically deinterlace the stream, which is a big no-no for me, because I want a transfer that's true to the source, so I end up quitting the program right after transfer and going into the data folders to pull out the raw file before it's deinterlaced. Still, there appears to be something up with the interlacing, even in these files (an example of which is shown above). Maybe the hardware does some of the deinterlacing halfway? I'm not sure.

    I would use the Hauppauge except it doesn't handle tracking distortions very well. It seems to quit every time there's a distortion, or the frame will appear out of alignment. Is this something that a TBC would fix? Otherwise the Elgato seems to power through every kind of distortion and there are no sync issues. It also captures audio at about double the bit rate as the Hauppauge, so I would use that, if only I could get the same picture quality as the Hauppauge.

    Is there another device that would work better for digitally archiving VHS? Such as a Canopus DV box like the Grass Valley ADVC55? Along with a TBC like the AVT-8710?
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  2. Formerly 'vaporeon800' Brad's Avatar
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    Is there something in the water? It seems this month everyone is trying to capture/encode some iteration or other of Sailor Moon.

    Video samples are more useful to us than still screen captures taken with unknown software. The forum allows up to 100MB. It is possible that the only thing going on in your example is that the more-compressed Hauppauge file blurs the finer line jitters.
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  3. Heh, yeah I'm mostly trying to preserve Toonami promo footage (perhaps there are others here I can join forces with?) and noticed this during one of the episodes.

    Elgato:


    Hauppauge:


    YouTube processes the video of course, so the difference in interlacing is no longer as distinguishable. Is there a way I can share videos without processing?

    Thank you for your help.
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  4. Formerly 'vaporeon800' Brad's Avatar
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    As I said the forum allows up to 100MB attachments. The YouTube uploads tell us less than your screenshots.
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  5. Oh I see, now.
    Image Attached Files
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  6. Formerly 'vaporeon800' Brad's Avatar
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    Okay, so line jitter all over the place. I would add one of the DVD recorders that have been mentioned here over the years in a passthrough setup.

    I would also say that the Elgato image is overly bright.
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  7. I lowered the contrast with the Elgato software and that seemed to bring it in closer with the Hauppauge. Still, the Elgato is quite noisy regardless of bit rate. Can you think of a reason why that would be so?

    Would a TBC also help with line jitter?

    Incidentally the jitter doesn't appear for me with the Hauppauge when played in VLC.
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  8. Formerly 'vaporeon800' Brad's Avatar
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    The DVD recorders I mentioned would act as line TBC.

    I played both clips in VLC and they are jittery (Yadif 2x deinterlacing).
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  9. Member vhelp's Avatar
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    your elgato demo'ing the artifact reminds me of my directv receiver, they both give similar artifacts over svideo. some devices have poor processing. i suspect that in my case it is related to downscaling hd to sd. so, i suspect the same in your case.

    now, if i throw in a composite instead, then it depends on the capture cards chipset and hardware filter method, etc. etc.

    just a thought.. could this artifact be in the source already ? because, then that would (or might) explain why one does better (to clean) than the other while the artifact is still noticable and similar in both elgato and hauppauge devices.

    try capturing other cartoons from this station and others. also, use a different cartoon series, just in case the series were processed the same. if the other cartoons don't show this artifact, then you have your answer.
    Last edited by vhelp; 10th May 2013 at 19:43.
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