Does it make sense 2 buy a new vcr 4 capturing VHS?

[an_fear_rua]

Hello there,
I just got a device called AverTV USB 2 from a company called Aver Media and I get great results when capturing from TV. VCR capturing is almost fine but ... Colours sometimes fade in and out etc. Would it make sense to buy an S-VHS player or recorder? Would that improve the quality in a visible way? WHat should I look for when buying a new vcr?
Thanks for your help

[masterpug]

Yes, but results vary: If you are capturing from vhs tape through s-video it will be better than through rca video cable (the cheap yellow cable), but not as good as if capturing from s-vhs tape! Also, keep in mind that half D1 capture is as good or may even create superior output vs. full D1 720x480, since half D1 is most similar to vhs resolution. For final/best results capture using avisynth or virtualdub filters, since re-encoding AFTER you've captured will yield lower quality, unless you were capturing in uncompressed avi. Anytime you mess with mpg re-encodes, the quality gets worse, and since all vcr transfers can benefit from noise filters like the avisynth (best) and virtualdub (good) have, then becoming proficient with those programs and their filters is smart thing to do for "on the fly filtering". Hope this helps! Oh yeah, best to buy monster high quality s-video cable...makes a difference vs. cheap s-video cables.

[FulciLives]

VCR capturing is almost fine but ... Colours sometimes fade in and out etc.

Perhaps you can explain this with more detail. Also does it happen with what you would consider very good quality tapes ... such as pre-records or maybe even SP speed recording from high quality sources (like a clean cable channel etc.)

Or does it only happen with lessor quality VHS tapes like LP/SLP etc.?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Still Learning Here]

Color fade in and out.... I guess it is macrovision affect?(Copyprotection tape)

[an_fear_rua]

Hello everybody, thanks for your replies so far. When recording or even watching VHS-tapes on the laptop the colours get weaker and the whole picture almost turns to black and white and than to full colour again where it stays for a while. Then the whole thing happens over again. I just got my capture device a few days ago and I only used tapes I considere high quality for my tests. However, those tapes were baught tapes, not home recorded ones. So "Still Learning Here" might be right. I will try recorded tapes tonight. If that was the cause of the problem, it wouldn't be too bad because I mainly want to save my own recordings on DVD.

Could you tell me more about the macrovision effect?

[snafu099]

An older vcr with clean heads that still works well might have two advantages over newer ones.
1. May have manual tracking. Good for old home movies
2. May NOT have macrovision chip built in

[cthomas]

For final/best results capture using avisynth or virtualdub filters, since re-encoding AFTER you've captured will yield lower quality, unless you were capturing in uncompressed avi.

If you have a choice between Adobe Premiere Pro, avisynth, or virtualdub which would be better?

Carl

[FulciLives]

When recording or even watching VHS-tapes on the laptop the colours get weaker and the whole picture almost turns to black and white and than to full colour again where it stays for a while. Then the whole thing happens over again. I just got my capture device a few days ago and I only used tapes I considere high quality for my tests. However, those tapes were baught tapes, not home recorded ones.

It's macrovision. Both the description of the problem ... plus the fact that they are pre-records points to macrovision.

There are at least 2 different kinds of macrovision but the one I have run across in the past does as you say. The image will go from normal to nearly black and white then back up to normal then even higher to like an almost overly saturated look then back down to normal then down to black and white and it repeats this over and over again.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman