SVHS = Black and White picture

[aiw9800proman]

Hi all,

Before I spend even more money on my quest for perfect vhs to mpeg2 conversion, I thought I would try svhs.

Hooked up as follows :

Scart adapter (with svhs port) plugged into vcr player, gold plated scart and audio leads into aiw breakout box.
Picture is black and white and so is capture, does this occur because my vcr player does not support svhs or is it because the original tape is not svhs ? Or both ?

Cheers

M

[Richard_G]

Usual cause is a vhs player that doesn't support Svideo. Scart supports all formats but only the pins that are being used have anything connected to them. You'll need to use composite instead (or buy a better video machine). The quality won't be quite as good but it will still be as good as the vhs source.

[aiw9800proman]

Cheers Richard,

Someone told me to try svhs and I thought it was a bit pointless with an original tape that is only vhs, but I have been assured it would improve things.

Is it really worth me buying a vcr player with svhs capabilities if my original source format is an old vhs tape ?

Cheers

[Will Hay]

...is it really worth me buying a vcr player with svhs capabilities if my original source format is an old vhs tape?

Nope, from my experience not in the slightest.
Will

[wingnut]

Hi all,

would concur with the idea of not needing an svhs deck but with one small note. Some, (NOT all), S-VHS decks have built in time base correctors. Using one of those decks and then capturing via SVHS will make a huge difference as the picture time base will be rock steady. This can also stop frame lockups/picture breakup and sound sync depending on how sensitive your capture card is.

Oh but do I wish I could afford a TBC since I have around 600+VHS tapes to convert over the coming year

Cheers

Ed

[aiw9800proman]

Thanks,

A friend of mine has a timelapse svhs recorder / player, used for cctv purposes. Im wondering if I could try that ?

M

[wingnut]

A friend of mine has a timelapse svhs recorder / player, used for cctv purposes. Im wondering if I could try that ?

I don't see why not. If it can play back tapes at normal speed you should be able to capture from the svhs output. If it has a built in TBC then you should get a much superior capture.

Cheers

Ed

[racerxnet]

It's a 4 pin DIN connecter from the VHS player. The correct term is S video.
SVHS refers to the playback capabilities of the VCR, not the connection itself. And yes, S video vs coax or composite will show an improvment in the picture quality.

[trevlac]

...is it really worth me buying a vcr player with svhs capabilities if my original source format is an old vhs tape?

Nope, from my experience not in the slightest.
Will

I'd have to disagree with Will.... and agree with RacerXnet
s-video connection should improve the PQ of even a VHS tape

Why?

On a VHS tape, the color is recorded seperately from the b&w info. If you used an RCA connection, the vcr must mix the color signal with the b&w signal.

Then your TV/capture card/whatever, must seperate the color from the b&w signal.

An s-video connection carries the color and b&w on different wires. If your vcr can output the 2 signals seperately, you skip 2 steps of messing with the signal (vcr mixing, tv seperating).

Where does this breakdown?

Well, If you recorded the tape from a composite (mixed signal) source, the vcr seperated them to store them. If its seperation was bad, it's still there even if you use s-video. In fact, mixing and seperating again might be a good step here. Studio tapes should be better than home brew.

If your vcr does indeed mix the signal and then seperate it again before you even get it out of the s-video, that'd be a problem.

If one of your signals suffers a delay because it runs thru different circuits or wires, you would have a problem that would not be in a composite source. Namely, the color would shift. This could already be a problem on the tape (due to stretch I'd guess).

A word of warning.... I don't really know what I am talking about. These are just educated guesses. I think Racerxnet knows much more about VCRs than me.

[aiw9800proman]

Thanks for all the replies.

I have concluded that my 2 vcr players do not / will not support using a scart adapter with an svhs cable. Its black and white output on both machines.

Im now back to the drawing board and trying 'in vain' to get a decent mpeg capture from the ati card. I have no editing to do, so capturing with the ati mpeg 'dvd' setting would appear to be the correct way to get the best quality.

The tapes play perfectly through the ati player and if I could capture that quality (or near enough) I would be happy.

I have seen people attaching screen shots in this forum and I am going to do the same. I have tried different variations of these settings with no improvement and im really hoping someone will say "Aha, I know what your doing wrong matey..................."

Ok im not uploading images because it didnt work,

dvd high setting - mpeg2, pal (625) 720x576
interlaced and cropped
48.000 khz 16 bit stereo
p frames = 3
b frames = 2
gop = off
vbr - 8mb
target - 6mb
motion - 70
audio 224 k

videosoap - none (dont need it)

This appears to give me the best quality so far but its no where near good enough.

Any ideas ?

Cheers

[racerxnet]

Will Hay had the same problem with his Svideo to scart connecter producing a Black and White picture. I'm not sure what he did to eliminate the problem. Have you tried another scart adapter? As I have suggested before, you can return it if it does not work. Your assumption that the VCR is the culprit is flawed. What happens when you connect VCR to VCR thru the output of one, to the input of the other and record a tape? I'll bet that the recorded media is in color. If the VCR has a S VIDEO output and you run the cable TV thru the VCR, and you see a color picture, you can eliminate the S VIDEO output as the problem. This seems to be a European SCART problem which is redundant.