Hardware Video Processors and Filters

Seeker47 · Member Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Location: A State of Mind, USA

This has been a very useful thread, by now stretching to 6 sections. I must confess that I haven't gone more than about halfway through it, although I intend to print it out for easier reference.

It is now painfully clear to me that the Sima CT-200 I bought just won't cut it. Most likely, it never had any tbc functionality. The documentation is non-existent, so there was no way to check. I don't see that it contributes much of anything on xfers, to be perfectly honest. Fortunately, I only paid half-price for it, and that was probably too much.

Onward. In the video-processing arena, what can any of you learned folks tell me about the Faroudja DVP 1000 or the DVDO Iscan Ultra MM504B ? (The latter brought up NO hits at all in keyword searches here.) I expect either of these is probably massive overkill for videotape to dvd xfers, and maybe I'd be better off with one of the Datavideo units ? I'd like to go with something that is effective and not too complicated to set up or use. If it has a more versatile range of applications, that might go a ways toward justifying a higher cost. (Which is why I flagged those two pricier models for your comments.)

marksk918 · Member Joined: 14 May 2005 Location: usa

does anyone have an opinion on the vidicraft detailer II versus the detailer III?

fredfillis · Token Aussie Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Location: United States

I'm soon to be a very newbie in this area so please be gentle with me.

I'm about to build a new computer. I have about 50 hours of video on Hi8 tapes that I want to burn onto DVD. Pretty much a exercise in backing up.

I have intended to buy a Canopus MPEG Pro EMR to capture my video to MPEG2 in "real time".

However, when I stumbled onto this topic I got to thinking whether I needed to "correct" my video prior to capturing. I'm sure my tapes could be better (noise, color etc) and maybe by using a H/W processor prior to capturing I'll get the best result.

I notice many users here mention VCR's and DVD recorders so my assumption (probably wrong) is that the source video is hooked up as an input to a processor, video is viewed on a TV and tweaked, and the enhanced video is recorded back to tape or DVD on a second unit. Do I have that correct?

Assuming that to be the case, I could hook up my Hi8 Camera to a processor as the source, tweak the video and have my MPEG Pro EMR on the output and capture as MPEG 2 directly to my PC for authoring.

Do I have any of this correct?

Is anyone out there doing something like this already?

Am I overkilling here?

Thanks!

trhouse · Member Joined: 28 Aug 2003

It depends on the specific equipment you use. Some processors have a bypass mode so you can switch it out to see the unprocessed image or a split screen mode so you can see both simultaneously, others have neither.

If your camcorder does not have IRE 0 output, you may need a process amplifier to get the correct black level. The MPEG Pro EMR is hardwired to accept only an IRE 0 source. There is a lot of information about this if you go to the Capture Cards tab at the left and search on this device.

DB Cooper · Member Joined: 19 May 2006 Location: United States

I have a Vidicraft IVE-100 Stablizer. I got it off ebay. The person I bought it from could not find the adapter

All it says on the chassis is 12V .2A. I opened the case and cannot find any Power supply diodes and the outer ring of the jack is ground. Generally an AC input does not have one side grounded. I need to have someone that has one of these units confirm that it is 12VDC and that ground is negative. It does have a voltage regulator (probably for +5VDC) I have over 30 years of professional electronics experience and have learned, NEVER ASSUME anything, always double check and make certain. Also any information about this unit would be appreciated. Like is it a frame or line stabilizer and will it stabilize color. I have very old tapes I am trying to salvage and convert to DVD. Some have the video tearing at the top of the screen. The VCR video stabilizer corrects most of this, but then I get color streaks in the area that was tearing. I have a TBC-1000 but still it is not corrected. If the VITs signal could be completely reproduced correctly, I would think these problems could be eliminated. I don't even know if tapes have the VITs like TV braodcast has.

I also need copies of manuals for these Vidicraft units if anyone has them and can scan them:

IVE-100
PROC AMP (No model number, has a meter on the left side for luminance level)
Detailer IV

Thanks,

DB
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vdbdubber · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2006 Location: United States

I have a For-A FA 425 TBC that I use only when necessary, usually when transferring an old ¾ tape to a BetaCam, for restoration purposes. On occasion I will use it when going from a BetaCam to our hard drive to help with sync issues.

I always get two mirrored angled bars that travel across the screen. They are usually subtle and more visible in black areas, but I still can’t help but think there is some way of getting rid of them. Is this a power issue? I have not read about anyone else with this problem, in which case I hope it is easily fixable by some obvious method that slips passed me.

I have attached an image to help illustrate the issue. It is not a screen shot, and the lines are thinned and darkened to exaggerate the problem.

perniente · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Location: New Mexico

Orinoco_Womble · Member Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Location: New Zealand

Can anyone please recommend models/brands of PAL proc amps that are any good?

bourboner · Member Joined: 23 Sep 2007 Location: Australia

CTB-100 (aka AVT-8710)

ACE "Advanced Converter Enhancer" (no longer available)

Edirol VMC-1 (has firewire output!)

All these are NTSC/PAL and have full-frame TBC and proc amp controls. I don't know how available they are. They all do pretty much the same thing.

I have the CTB-100 and the ACE. The ACE is a beautiful device that replaced my CTB-100. I wish I could replace them both with the Edirol unit! Anyone wanna swap?

Otherwise, look out on ebay soon lol!

Orinoco_Womble · Member Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Location: New Zealand

Thanks for the advice bourboner. I'd like to avoid quantisation errors due to multiple AD/DA conversions. Can you or anyone else please recommend any proc amps that work in the analogue domain?

Also, does anyone know of any ‘chroma rise time accelerator / bandwidth expanders’ that will work in PAL land? The only one that I’m aware of is the Faroudja VS-50, but the comb filter looks like it’s getting pretty old in the tooth and would certainly not work as well as a more modern comb filter.
Can a Faroudja line quadruplier be set to do the same thing without scaling the image up or deinterlacing?

Seeker47 · Member Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Location: A State of Mind, USA