Can a digital video stablizer improve non-copywrited VHS tapes?

[Regor21]

I have been looking at getting a Digital Video Stabilizer to help in copying some VHS tapes that I have. The thing is that the ones that I have to copy are not copy written. But, they do need some improvement in the quality of the video on them.
Currently a TBC is not in my financial future and I have been looking at stabilizers with the idea that these $25 to $40 gadgets can help me.

Can anyone give me some information on what, if any improvement I may expect. I don't expect the end results to be of Blu-ray quality or even re-mastered DVD quality, but any improvement could make a big difference.

Thanks

[johns0]

Digital Video Stabilizer is a cheap way to copy the basic macrovision protected vhs and wont help improve the quality of non protected vhs.

[victoriabears]

I am just finishing my project of approx 1000 vhs tapes conversion to dvd, and once I found that playing a speckled tape (No its not a rare bird) it was a recording with sparkles on it from poor satellite reception, i played it on a standard vcr and looped the signal through 3 other vcr;s and the picture improved and the speckles dissapeared, once I discovered that I feel anything may work ! I used a datavideo tbc 1000 which did seem to stablise the recording more than the avt 8710, but it depends on what your quality threshold is like, the trouble with this forum is some want perfection and state what they use and others go out and buy all the stuff and then find they would have been happy with a combo !

Gives us more information, how many tapes?,,are they sp/lp/slp recordings, what equipment do you have, so we can advise you in the best way, computer capture is a whole different learning technique and I am only using that for my troublesome tapes, also is the material you have available on dvd anyways?

[Regor21]

Hi, Victoriabears.

I only have about 200 or so VHS tapes. Some contain old B-movies that may never be on(or are hard to get on) DVD, some contain recordings of TV shows, documentaries, and specials, including some local programing and tapes from my now broken beyond repair vhs video camera. I don't plan to dub all of these, but I would like to keep a few on DVD.

I have three VHS players, 1 JVC, 1 Phillips, and 1 GE, all are over the counter consumer models with no special built in filters like the upper pro-sumer/ professional models. The Phillips actually gives a better signal than the other two and I use this one the most, it's called an SV2000 Model SCZ162. I use a setting call "Rental Play", which is suppose to (according to the Manual) "enables you to improve the picture quality when playing worn cassettes", which does give some improvement.

I have been recording to a Liteon 5115GHC+ DVD recorder via rear input jacks to DVD-R for some and DVD+/-RW for others. The RW disks are then transferred to the PC and I have been using Avidemux to trim out commercials and do some filtering. I, then convert to MPG, use DVDStyler to create a menu and burn with IMGBurn. While my results have been coming out quite well, and in some cases very good quality, it is very time consuming. About an hour to convert a 45 minute video with filtering to an MPG.

What I am looking for is a reasonably inexpensive way to improve the video as it input into the DVD Recorder so that the number of filters can be reduced and the encoding time as well.

As I mentioned in my first post, I'm not looking for Blu-ray or even professional commercial DVD quality video. I just want to make them as good as I can to suit me.

Over the past couple of weeks I have looked at a couple of different Video Stabilizer offered online, some just state that they only remove Macrovision, a couple state that they do improve the incoming video.

So, do they help in anyway with improving the video? If so, which ones should I be looking for?

[victoriabears]

I would stick with what you are doing, 45 minutes to encode an hour of footage is nothing, be more patient if I may suggest, you sound like you have the right mind set and I really do not think a stabiliser will help, in your budget I could only suggest a vidicraft detailer, like:-

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Vidicraft-Audio-Video-Processor-AVP-100-/250667300856?cmd=ViewItem&...item3a5cef77f8

they detailer two turns up on Ebay now and again, I have that and it enhances nicely but many times you can get into fixing something that actually is fine as it is.

One huge factor in todays world is that modern dvd players and LCD TV's actually fix a lot of the picture quality problems on vhs transfers, the trick is knowing what does what and saving your time.

Where in Canada are you?, by my handle you can guess my location.

[Regor21]

I'm on the other side of the country from you, Victoriabears. I live in Bonavista, NL.

Thanks for the help. I am planning to try VirtualDub as a replacement to Avidemux. When I get more time this fall/winter.

If I do decide to try a Stabilizer, I'll let you know if which one and if it makes any difference to the video.


Oh, that's 1 hour for 45 minutes of video and audio.

[lordsmurf]

You really should read the posts found at
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/forumdisplay.php/dvd-project-help-9.html
and https://forum.videohelp.com/forums/41-Restoration

And articles found at http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video/index-record-capture.htm

You're missing out. The info at those places will answer your questions, and then some.

[orsetto]

victoriabears nailed it for you in his first reply: don't bother, unless you have $40 to throw away a cheap stabilizer will not improve anything and will more likely degrade the image by making it lighter and noisier. These are single-purpose little pods, all they accomplish is a quick-n-dirty, side-effect-riddled stripping of MacroVision from commercial tapes. Even that function is much better served by a TBC like AVT-8710 or DataVideo TBC-1000.

If you're reasonably happy with your results and workflow, just keep at it. For tips on using the PC for tape dubbing, and a great many other things, visit LordSmurf's digitalfaq sites: lots of expert advice based on long experience there. If you want to significantly "beef up" the appearance of your rare B-movie tapes, it really needs to be done on the VCR end: the internal noise cleaners and so-called "TBC" in a JVC, Panasonic AG1980, or various DVHS decks will instantly filter a lot of grain, color shifting and other garbage on the fly, without you having to apply as much filtering on the PC. The results from these pricey VCRs varies: sometimes its too soft and the PC touchup works better, sometimes the VCR runs rings around anything you can do in the PC. Whether its worth it to you to spend the time and money acquiring a high-end VCR for just 200 tape conversions depends on your budget and priorities. I've found that most tapes of "rare B movies" don't benefit all that much from processing or fancy VCRs: often the print aired on TV is a horrid faded 16mm print from the dark ages, and you can't add detail or quality that isn't there to begin with. Its a matter of taste, but more often than not the effect of PC filters and especially fancier VCRs on old "B movies" is just a change in overall look, a shifting around and trading off of one image aspect for another. Some find the changes significantly appealing, others feel its "frying pan into fire". Its terribly subjective.

For higher-quality source tapes of newer TV material, or your own camcorder stuff, the thousands of tips here and on digitalfaq can have much stronger influence. A subscription to cable and TCM can yield many surprisingly obscure movies over a year or two, I've actually dispensed with copying many old B movie tapes by just waiting for airings on TCM. They aren't perfect, and cable/satellite certainly adds compression artifacts, but the newer TCM source prints generally beat the ancient syndicated prints on my old VHS tv tapes or the typical bootleg.

[Regor21]

Thanks Lord Smurf for the links, I'm sure that I'll get a lot of info on these to help me out.

Orsetto, I have TCM and love it. Most of the tapes I will be dubbing will contain TV shows, docs and special that may never be offered on DVD or any cable/satellite channel. I have hours of programing created by our local TV station that relates to my home town and about 50 tapes from my VHS camcorder. These are the main items I'll be trying to save.

Thanks everyone.

When I came to this site first it was to get information on what type of DVD recorder to get, I have since learned to improve my recordings, create my own DVD menus and DVD's and much more.

[lordsmurf]

When I came to this site first it was to get information on what type of DVD recorder to get, I have since learned to improve my recordings, create my own DVD menus and DVD's and much more.

Excellent! I love hearing that.

[handyguy]

I use a dual deck dvd/vhs recorder. I can then edit them on my computer. But my deck has pretty nice copy improvement filters. Most dvd recorders do.