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  1. I found old VHS-C camera and tried to play some tapes.

    But the quality is terrible. I asked father why it's that quality and he said that those cassetes are 10 years old and he recorded many tracks one onto another.

    I doubt there is any filter that can fix that video.

    Or maybe I am wrong?

    Do you think anything can be done to restore it?

    I hope so
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  2. A lot of that can be cleaned up. But you need to start with capturing with a better codec. That mp42 video is way overcompressed. Use a lossless codec like Huffyuv, Lagarith, or UT Video codec.
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    Is this a first generation tape, or has it possibly been copied to another tape at some point? If it is a first generation tape, chances are that a TBC (time base corrector) or a DVD recorder with such functionality would fix the sideways waving issue. I've had good success with a Panasonic DMR-ES15 for example.

    Another issue with your sample is the massive macroblocking (the little tiles or squares effect). This is not a VHS issue at all, but a capture problem. It happens when you try to compress the video to a small file size. Ideally you should be capturing to a lossless AVI format, (big files, maybe 30GB per hour), then adjust the video as needed, and only afterwards encode a viewing copy which can be smaller in file size.

    Also, the capture appears to be a strange mixture of resolution (766x576) and frame rate (23.976). Normally a PAL (Europe) capture should be 720x576 at 25 fps, or an NTSC (US/Japan) capture at 720x480 at 29.97 fps. You need to work on the capture process first.
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  4. Another technique that will help is to make multiple captures and a median filter. That will clean up a lot of those white horizontal comets. But you need to get clean time base first.

    https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/362361-Median%28%29-plugin-for-AviSynth?p=2301748&v...=1#post2301748

    It might help if you fast forward the tape all the way to the end then rewind it. That may loosen up the windings and let the tape move more smoothly through the deck.

    If you only have a few tapes you're better off taking them to a professional that has the right hardware and expertise.
    Last edited by jagabo; 20th Feb 2014 at 09:33.
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  5. Thank you all for replies.

    So this is original tape, no copy but as i wrote earlier it has been overwrited many times.

    As to why this is compressed that way: I don't have any video card to capture it but i have stationary DVD recorder with HDD. I connected this analog camera to this DVD recorder by chinch cable.

    Then I captured this movie from DVD disc with free software.

    I didn't want to take this route. I only caputer 2 minutes of this tape to show to you guys.

    The biggest problem i this waving and this white noise.

    I tried to set tracking on camera but this was the best result.


    I am glad that you said this can be fixed. Now I know that I can invest in better hardware and I will try to capture it to lossless codec.

    Thanks for you help.
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    A professional service may be a good option. But if you want to do it yourself, you don't have to invest too much, at least at first. Get the EzCap device for example. It's perhaps not the best ever, but works fine, certainly much better for this purpose than the DVD recorder you now have.

    It seems that your particular DVD recorder may not have much of a TBC capability, but models which do are easy to find on eBay for example. I got mine for €9 plus shipping.

    If you can get stable enough captures, the white streaks can probably be dealt with.
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  7. Member 2Bdecided's Avatar
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    No one has asked the most obvious question: what does it look like if you connect the output of the camcorder to a TV? (preferably an old CRT one, but a modern flat screen will do).

    If the picture looks just as bad on screen, then maybe the camcorder is broken, or the tapes are wrecked.
    If the picture looks OK on the TV, then a better capture device will help.

    Are you sure the tapes were recorded on that camera?

    Cheers,
    David.
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  8. Yes I am sure this was recorded on that camera. This is the only camera they had.


    The picture looks the same on both TV and built-in LCD screen of camera.

    To be honest I have no Idea if this camera is broken. I just found it and nobody knows if it's broken. It can be.

    I was already thinking about buying "mother" adapter and play this cassete on my Sony VCR.


    Or I will try to record something. Unfortunetely I don't have any fresh cassete. The ony VHS-C cassete I have are those I found.



    I have one maybe stupid question but I am a newbie.

    TBC - is this only hardware or it can be done by software? If I capture this movie to my computer as RAW 1:1 is there any plugin for Virtual Dub or something that can fix this waving or this has to be done by hardware that has access to data stored on tape?


    Another question. If (I don't know this yet but I want to try) my Sony VCR has TBC and I connect camera to VCR by chinch cable will this "data" be transfered over that cable to VCR? I am asking because I don't know if chinch cable can transport TBC information stored on cassete.



    Oh and one more thing. That camera is Panasonic VZ14 model and it has TBC button on it. But when I enable TBC option, the picture jumps like crazy and I can't see anything on it. Even in manual of this camera there is text like "when TBC option breaks the picture, disable it and use tracking".
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  9. Member 2Bdecided's Avatar
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    I would bet that either the camera is broken, or the heads are very dirty, or the tapes are ruined. Did they play back properly just after they were recorded?

    You should be able to see if there's any physical damage (creasing) to the tapes by carefully lifting the cover at the top. (There's a little button on the side you press to release the top cover).


    Be careful with the "mother" adapter. The decent ones are fine, but some people report crappy ones causing the tape to get jammed in the machine, potentially ruining both.


    If it worked properly, the original camcorder with a TBC function built in would be the perfect thing to play your tapes with.

    A TBC fixes slight picture wobbling and bending when capturing, but if something is wrecked or very wrong, it will make things worse. Generally it's a good thing to use when capturing.

    Cheers,
    David.
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    Originally Posted by tom8823 View Post
    TBC - is this only hardware or it can be done by software? If I capture this movie to my computer as RAW 1:1 is there any plugin for Virtual Dub or something that can fix this waving or this has to be done by hardware that has access to data stored on tape?
    It can't practically be fixed in software. The capture devices only capture what is supposedly the visible part of the signal, the timing-related parts of the signal are left out. If you could capture a truly raw signal, then you could fix it in software (essentially implementing a video decoder and TBC), but there is no practical way to do that.

    Another question. If (I don't know this yet but I want to try) my Sony VCR has TBC and I connect camera to VCR by chinch cable will this "data" be transfered over that cable to VCR? I am asking because I don't know if chinch cable can transport TBC information stored on cassete.

    Oh and one more thing. That camera is Panasonic VZ14 model and it has TBC button on it. But when I enable TBC option, the picture jumps like crazy and I can't see anything on it. Even in manual of this camera there is text like "when TBC option breaks the picture, disable it and use tracking".
    There is no particular "TBC information", but the timing information a TBC needs to work on is carried by any kind of video cable - it's an integral part of the video signal.

    Not all TBCs are the same. Certain Panasonic and some other DVD recorder models and certain DV camcorders are known to be particularly good at fixing this sort of distortion. See the thread I linked to earlier, there's plenty of information there
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  11. Thank you for all your answers.

    I will try now to connect this camera to VCR. If that doesn't help I will try to buy mother adapter or another camera.

    Maybe it's just broken camera (I hope).

    The magnetic tape itself looks smooth and normal. No scratches or anything
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  12. You might try a regular VHS deck and a VHS-C adapter cartridge.
    http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-PlayPak-PV-P1-VHS-C-Adaptor/dp/B00006JPWT
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