Capturing Intentionally Distorted VHS/Analog

[Grizzly Abrams]

Hi-- First post here. I'm working on a project with some intentionally distorted video. Much of it was shot on a Canon DSLR, dumped to VHS, then re-captured (in Final Cut Pro 6) with what I have at hand: a Panasonic mini-DV camera in pass-through mode.

This worked fine for most of the footage (though I had to transcode to DV to get it to show up in FCP-- am I right in thinking that's the only way to do this with the DV camera?), but I also have some scrambled footage that I want to capture that the Panasonic won't pass [I could not find a way to turn off the 'blue screen' or video muting on the DV camera]. I rigged up a sort of DIY scrambler by combining the video signal going from my MacBook (via the DV camera, of course) with a sine wave at 15734.35Hz (I found info on how to do this via some guy's YouTube video), which gave me some nice, curvy distortions and generally pleasant analog-looking abstract stuff.

I'm using a Panasonic AG-1970 for my VHS deck, and the capture of this scrambled footage works to some degree when using its TBC. HOWEVER, it still doesn't work that well (dropouts), and the lovely analog distortions have been reduced to jagged digital-looking artifacts by the TBC before it even gets to the DV camera.

SO MY QUESTION IS: Is there any way to capture this heavily distorted analog video so that it looks more like it does on my CRT TV? Is there a box or something that will do it without warping the signal further? My TV has no video outs; I tried running the signal through an old 70s Sanyo monitor (it has an out jack) to see if I could somehow "fool" the DV camera into passing the signal, but that didn't work.


I know little about electronics/video (obvious?)….Any help would be appreciated….I am on something of a deadline.

[Grizzly Abrams]

Oh, I am NTSC, if that makes a difference.

[Brad]

Seems to me you want a frame synch (full-frame TBC) with no line-straightening ability. Trouble is, these TBCs need to provide a stable signal and will opt to copy data from previous fields/frames rather than distorted garbage.

Maybe someone else has a more informed idea.

[DB83]

or you could try the Heath Robinson approach and simply film the tv screen.

[Grizzly Abrams]

Thanks for the replies. DB83, I thought about just shooting the TV screen, but I wanted the distortions I created to be "clean"-looking, ie, without the additional distortions that shooting the screen would bring in...if that makes sense.


Does anyone else have other thoughts on how I might capture these analog distortions in their "truer" form?

Are there any converter boxes that can be set to allow stuff like this to pass through without giving the blue/black noise suppression screen? An external TBC maybe?

Could it be partly the DV compression that's contributing to this?

[DB83]

The distortion is obviously killing the signal in the digital realm. I would expect, but not for certain, that a TBC would not help since that attempts to fix any distortion.

You need to keep this, I would have thought, in the analgue realm which is why a CRT can deal with it. A DTV would probably cough. You could try a dvd-recorder if you can put your hands on one.

The main, additional distortion when filming a tv screen is the interlacing scan where you see a thin line moving down the screen.

[jagabo]

I wonder if a Macrovision stripper "video stabilizer" would work.

[Grizzly Abrams]

DB83-- Would the DVD recorder need to be a DVD-VCR combo, or could a standalone DVD player work just as well, do you think? I guess my concern is that my distortions could be seen as Macrovision by the DVD recorder...not sure how much of an issue that is.

jagabo-- I'm looking into "stabilizers" now; I see the Dimax Grex claims to not make any video signal conversions...How much do these stabilizers 'clean up' the picture?

[DB83]

Well, the distortion could be seen as MV. There would be no differnce in using a combi to a stand-alone in that respect whereas with a stand-alone you do have the option of using a stabilizer. Of course, you can try a stabilizer without a dvd-recorder as jagabo suggests.

The real answer is that no-one knows the effect of using this equipment since this is an exception rather than a rule.

[Grizzly Abrams]

Hmmm...for starters I think I'll try the stabilizer with my DV camera setup. Thanks for your input.

If anyone else has further thoughts on this, please let me know.