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  1. Greetings all

    This forum has been a great help in deciding how to digitise my old VHS footage. Many thanks.

    I thought I'd give the USB-Live2 a crack first because of availability and price. No problems with the set up and it seems to be working fine with my computer, but it really doesn't like content via composite from a basic VHS player that was originally edited onto tape from an 8mm camera years ago. Hardly surprising given that tapes are a decade old and composed of numerous quick cuts, dubbed with low grade equipment. The glitching gets pretty nasty. Here's an example http://vimeo.com/94499440 (Warning: explicit lyrics in the soundtrack).

    Because most of this glitching does not occur when viewing on a plasma TV via the same VHS player, I have some hope that I can at least reduce it's severity when capturing to the computer. Currently using the latest version of WinTV v7, but similar problems were apparent when viewing with vdub and VLC.

    Anyone have any ideas how I can improve the quality of this capture?

    Thanks again and kind regards

    Callum
    Last edited by Fatteh; 8th May 2014 at 18:53.
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  2. You're probably going to need a line time base corrector. The best choice for most people is an old panasonic DVD recorder in pass-through mode (the composite signal just passes through the DVD recorder, not recorded onto disc) like the ES15 or ES10.

    https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/319420-Who-uses-a-DVD-recorder-as-a-line-TBC-and-what-do-you-use

    If you have access to another VCR you should try that.
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  3. Excellent. Thanks jagabo.

    I have a newer panasonic DVD+HDD unit, but I'm guessing it's unlikely to have a line TBC? Will try another VCR.
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  4. Originally Posted by Fatteh View Post
    I have a newer panasonic DVD+HDD unit, but I'm guessing it's unlikely to have a line TBC?
    You might as well try it. If you post the model number someone who knows may respond. From what I've read, the Panasonic DMR 5xx series have a line TBC. Though possibly not as effective as the ES series.
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  5. DMR-EH58. Has composite pass through and, apparently, "With its built-in TBC and 3D DNR circuitry, the DMR-EH58 performs an advanced signal conversion that provides optimum picture playback by reducing unwanted jitter."

    Whaddya know? Might not be the sort of line TBC I need, but worth a crack.

    Edit: Just realised the EH58 could probably do the conversion to DVD, then I could rip that to my computer. May not have needed the USB-Live2 at all. Duh. Might be useful for capturing from my old Hi8 tapes though.
    Last edited by Fatteh; 8th May 2014 at 20:44.
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  6. Whether you want to record with the DVD recorder depends on how much processing you want to do later. If you only want cut/paste editing, maybe a few transition effect, recording to DVD is certainly easiest. Using a smart editor (only modified frames are re-encoded) will prevent further loss of quality. If you want to perform advanced filtering it's better to capture with lossless codecs so you don't introduce compression artifacts during capture.

    The noise reduction features on DVD recorders tend to be over aggressive. They may remove detail and create ghosting. If you use the DVD recorder in pass-through mode you should consider disabling the NR, if possible.
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  7. Awesome stuff. A decent lossless capture for long term archiving and future editing sounds like a good plan. Thanks again jagabo.
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  8. One other problem you may encounter: time base errors on VHS tapes may look to the DVD recorder like Macrovision copy protection. When that happens the recorder will refuse to record the video. Most PC capture devices will do the same.
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  9. jagabo, I owe you a beer. Worked like a charm. Just replacing the video linked in my original post with the deglitched version now.

    For anyone that's interested, later model Panasonic DVRs like the DMR-EH58, when used as a pass-through filter, appear to apply some form of TBC to analogue signals that is highly effective at removing bad time based glitching from the output of a low-end VCR. Mint.
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  10. Yes, that's much improved. It might be useful for others in the future if you uploaded short segments showing the with and without TBC caps.
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  11. 'Tis done. In the thread you linked to above. Cheers for the help. Much appreciated.
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