Composite to S-video at VCR or TBC

[qlizard]

I bought this TBC to help clean up the output from some very old VHS tapes.
http://www.primeimageinc.com/C_SYNC_SPEC.htm
It has inputs and outputs for composite and S-video. My source were regular VHS recordings, so composite in nature. I am playing them with a SVHS JVC vcr with built in TBC. I was going to use the "image stabilization" feature of the VCR (which turns off the TBC) and then use the standalone TBC to correct the signal. I'm going to be checking a bunch of settings and configurations, but I thought maybe someone here had some thoughts.

My question is this. Where, if anywhere do you think I should convert the signal to S-video, at the VCR or at the TBC? I am capturing it through my digital camcorder which has both composite and S-video in.
So in other words, should I output the original composite signal through the S-video "out" on the VCR and go in and out through the TBC S-video, or should I output from the VCR in composite, go to the TBC composite "in" and through the S-video "out", or I guess, composite all the way through (which I wasn't planning on).
Thoughts?

[yoda313]

Hello,
I have little experience with svideo but my suggestion would be to keep the same format throughout. Stick with svideo all the way since it's the better transmission for video to begin with.

Kevin

[FOO]

Svideo can't help any if the signal was composite to start with.
I'd prove that if I were you, and try it both ways.

[yoda313]

Hello,
FOO - it wouldn't hurt going svideo all the way would it? So what if the original was composite (I didn't pay attention to the note of the original recording). In the end the signal won't improve 100% any way. Why not keep the cables the same? Won't swaping one or the other affect it a little?

Kevin

[FOO]

I misread. I thought the VCR had composite out

[qlizard]

The VCR has both S-video and composite out.
I guess my question is, which device is better suited for converting the composite signal to S-video, the VCR or the TBC? I know I'll have to verify by testing, but I thought someone may have an idea to get me started.

[BrainStorm69]

My experience is that the picture starts out better (mainly a little less color bleeding) if you use the vcr's s-video to begin with. Once the bleeding starts, I would imagine that going to s-video further down the chain of devices will help less.

[trevlac]

The VCR has both S-video and composite out.
I guess my question is, which device is better suited for converting the composite signal to S-video, the VCR or the TBC? I know I'll have to verify by testing, but I thought someone may have an idea to get me started.

On a VHS tape, luma an chroma are not mixed together (as they are in an NTSC composite signal). A VCR mixes them when it creates composite out.

So in theory, s-video out is even a good option for a VHS tape. In practice, it might not make a difference if the original signal was really bad and/or your various equipment did a good job at seperating the signal.

As Foo said. Try it and see.

[gshelley61]

I've had better success using composite video all the way through the signal chain for standard VHS and laserdisc (which are composite native signals to begin with), then my DVD recorder does the luma and chroma decoding prior to MPEG2 encoding. When I start with a filtered s-video signal (from my s-vhs VCR or laserdisc player), I usually will see some dot crawl or other artifacts in the finished recording for some reason.

The composite video out on my laserdisc player is also brighter and sharper than the s-video out. The comb filter in my laserdisc player is from the mid-90's and simply can't compete with the comb filter in my JVC DVD recorder.

Try several different configurations to see what turns out best for you.

[qlizard]

On a VHS tape, luma an chroma are not mixed together (as they are in an NTSC composite signal). A VCR mixes them when it creates composite out.

This is really excellent information. I thought they were already mixed together, and the SVHS VCR used some internal comb filter to output S-video. I was wondering if the comb filter in the TBC would be superior. I will start with S-video from the VCR but test it against other configs.
thanks