Virtualdub Capture: Inserted frame every 41st frame when capturing

[sventamyra]

Hi

I plan to capture my old VHS movies so I can store (and watch) them on my NAS.

My setup:
Brand new VHS-player
Plexgear USB capture connected to VHS scart
Lifebook Laptop Win7x64 Quadcore i5 processor
Virtualdub 32bit 1.10.4
Capture is made to a second partition of the internal (defragmented) HDD with writespeed of 55MByte/s

Virtualdub settings;
Capture Filter: PAL_B 25fps
Compression Huffyuv (have also tried lagarith)
No other filters

To the issue:
In the timing settings there is a setting called "Insert null frames when captures frames are too far apart".
Whenever this is set, then there is an extra null-frame inserted every 41st frame throughout the whole movie. Sometimes it comes at the 40th frame but almost always at the 41st. I have no dropped frames. The CPU power is about 25% with Huffyuv (and 50% with lagarith). I tried also capturing from the scart-output of my old DVD, and I have the same problem.

So, my question is: Does anyone have any idea why this happens? It is so cyclic, does anyone recognize the pattern?

Should I just go with the Insert-null-frames-setting uncecked? Then I have no null-frames inserted. Is the video still good? - I dont know, hard to say. I guess I would have to make detailed study of a video with a lot of motion. But Im going to capture many hours of VHS, so I want this to be good...

Greatful for advice

[DB83]

AFAIK that option exists to ensure that audio and video are in sync.

Not recommended to ignore this option.

And you have a brand new VHS !!!!!!!

[sventamyra]

Ok, yes I figured so.
So any ideas of what I could do to enhance my situation? For some reason the 41st fram arrives too late in virtualdub... 25fps -> 1,6seconds
I encoded in mp4 and tried to warch on my tv, but it was very obvious

[jagabo]

Try capturing from a device with clean timing -- like a cable box, satellite box, or DVD/Blu-ray player. See if you still have the same problem. If not, the problem is with the VHS tape or player.

But I would just try capturing with the "insert null frames..." setting disabled and see what happens. You might also have to enable the resync audio option to keep audio in sync.

Also, do not let VirtualDub play the audio while you're capturing. That often leads to problems.

[DB83]

Of course a blank frame practically every 2 secs is going to make the screen 'flicker'

IMO there are always timing issues with VHS. Your player might be 'new' - still intrigued how you got hold of that - but the tapes are not. And were not recorded on that.

I guess a TBC would help but not so sure.

[sventamyra]

Hi. Well I tried also with my DVD (see original post) and I have the same issue there, so its not the VHS thats causing the problem. Any other ideas?
In trying to capture without inserys to see if I get a good result, but my concern is that Im not sure that I can determine that in a good manner. I would prefer to solve the problem with inserts turned on

Could there be some service in win7 that delays the throughput from the usb port every 1,6second?

[davexnet]

Try some different capture software ?

[DB83]

It could be your system set up.

Disconnect from the internet and close any non essential services eg updates and anti-virus. Consider what else may be using your usb resources. Since you are recording to a non-OS drive then that can be discounted.

As above. Other capture software may help. But most will not support lossless. Even so try the software that came with the device. It may do the job.

[sventamyra]

Hi. Thanks for all input.
There is a software fron Honestech that comes with the usb, but it only captures directly to Mpeg2

I tried VirtualVCR but get no picture. Also tried Stoik but it seem very instable. I get picture sometimes but then only in ntsc, eventhough the filter is set to PAL_B. I tried FlyCAP but get no valid audiodevice to record from.

Any other s/w to recommend for avi-capture? I intend to do processing in virtualdub and then compression in Handbrake

[hech54]

I use DScaler with my Hauppauge USB capture stick.

[sventamyra]

Ok. When I removed the inserts I got the expected delay in the audio. Several seconds.

BUT. I have to apologize, when I turned off the internet adaptor and captured with inserts enabled, the inserted frames dropped from thousands in one hour to about 200. So thanks for the help!

Now, 200 may not sound much, but all of a sudden, the inserted frames come quite irregularly, but several times they come in batches of 4-8 frames. And this looks quite bad in a movie.

I turned off internet, firewall, virus protection. What else should I look for?

[DB83]

I would first use the capture software that came with the unit and capture at dvd-quality mpeg2.

[sventamyra]

Mmm, but its really lame. It records directly to mpeg2. It gives me three quality options, and no filtering. I was under the impression that editing and filtering is best done prior to lossy compression?

I havent tried, but since the issues are more ralated to win7, I would have similar issues with this software...

[DB83]

What am I seeking to establish is if your system has the same sort of issues with a 'lighter' capture module.

This is just for test purposes. Then we can, hopefully, consider the root cause.

My own system is not so powerful as yours but I do not experience dropped, or inserted, frames with it.

[sventamyra]

Ah, good idea, ill try