VHS archiving

[JamesLing]

Hi, I just bought a MPEG 1 / 2 encoding capture PCI card and wanted to archive some of those movies which I have recorded on tapes from LDs. After recording on tapes, according to the VCR manual, the result will be an NTSC 3.58. Video capturing from a PAL tapes is excellent. But when I tried to capture from any NTSC tapes, the video will freeze whereas the audio was not affected. When I get back to the shop on this problem, they told me that there exists 2 NTSC format and the card I bought was not for receiving NTSC 3.58. Is this true? If so, how can I overcome this?

Appreciate very much if anyone can help.

[ironwood321]

Are you playing prerecorded tapes from the laserdisk which someone already done for you. Did you create these tapes and how?

Do you have a dual standard vcr?

If you have a dual stadard vcdr you will have to set NTSC 3.5 mode to capture them in NTSC.

[JamesLing]

Hey, thanks for asking. No, my VCR has to be set to NTSC 3.58 when I am recording from an LD. According to the VCR manual, the end result would be an NTSC 3.58. Do you think you can help me further?

[ironwood321]

You play these tape back into your computer in the NTSC3.58 format. Set your video according to you manual to this and check the output on a normal PAL TV. You should see a black and white picture.

Set you capture card to NTSC M and play your tape back in this mode. You should ened up with good captures in colour. 29.97fps 640 x 480

What capture hardware and software are you using to capture? Out of curiosity so I can find some background information what vcr recoder do you have?

When you recorded your ntsc laser disks, does you laser disk player output a true NTSC 3.58 signal or a hybrid PAL60 or NTSC 4.43?
You can tell this if you TV not a multistandard ie PAL and you recive a colour signal on playback.

[JamesLing]

Thanks for your advise. Seems like the capture card is working properly now. I did some further testing like playing an LD disc and DVD disc into the capture card and the card was able to capture and encode. Seems like it was a false alarm after all. It could be that my old VCR player is out of shape. I will try again with another player to playback my NTSC tapes the next time. Will keep you inform of the result. Thanks again.

[JamesLing]

Hi ironwood321, good news, it was my VCR player all along. I tried with a new VCR player and everything work out fine. Thanks for help. Hope to hear from you sometimes.