Converting many old VHS videos - how to get best playback?

[tluxon]

We have many hours of video that's important to our family, but most of it is over 10 years old. When I try to capture it straight out of a standard VCR, the resulting digital video doesn't look nearly as good as the same tape appears on TV. Playback on the TV looks quite good, but when I capture it there are dropouts that are missed.

What are my options for getting better quality video to the PC for capturing? Getting all the content is more important to us than getting the very best quality.

Thanks,

Tim

[thecoalman]

What are you using to capture with, what your editing with, the VCR.........etc etc. Good idea to fill out your profile.

There's is many things you can do to get better quality it just depends on how much time your willing to spend learning how to do it correctly and how deep your pockets are.

BTW if your previewing the video on a computer monitor and deciding it doesn't look as good that isn't a ver good guage. You need to author it to disc before making any judgements.

[tluxon]

I capture with either my AIW or one of my ReplayTVs. I normally don't take the time to author a disk until I know I have a good capture. I check the capture on either the computer or the TV by burning the MPEG2 files to a Data-DVD and playing it in a player that plays raw media files. What I'm looking for is primarily that I don't lose content. I slight compromise in quality is acceptable. However, it is important to me that it looks okay on the computer, because we frequently share our videos on our notebook PCs.

I don't have any problem with newer media. Where I've seen challenges is with our tapes that over 10 years old, which is most of them. Although they seem to play without interruption when played on a VCR to a TV, there are a few momentary dropouts (1 or 2 seconds) when passing through the ReplayTV or the AIW card. I have a stabilizer that was originally purchased for defeating macrovision, but it doesn't always prevent these dropouts, so I'm wondering if there are VCRs that will do a better job than the standard run-of-the-mill Hi-Fi Toshiba or JVC VCRs. Or maybe there's something else I can put in-line besides my stabilizer (The PlayRight by Vidicraft)?

[mexicanto]

my own recomendation :

buy a stand-alone dvd recoder and save the time, and have
and excelent quality

[tluxon]

My Vidicraft PlayRight has been in storage for several years. Should I pull it out and hook it up inline? Are there any moderately-priced VCRs that would make a good alternative?

[trock]

All those kinds of problems went away when I bought a JVC 9911. It was about $250 then, probably less now.

[Delerious]

All those kinds of problems went away when I bought a JVC 9911. It was about $250 then, probably less now.

Where did you find it for that price? The lowest I've found is $359.

[the wordsmith]

If you are recording directly to a PVR the problem is most likely the VCR, unless the PVR bitrate is causing some problems. I personally use the Daytek which has a Liteon drive. I neither know nor care which codecs it uses since all my captures have been pretty clean at the highest bitrate.

Have you tried doing small segment captures (under 1 hour) at the highest quality, and then rejoining them in TMPGEnc DVD Author (trialware)?

I would not waste money on a new VCR unless you do a lot of research first. I went through this hassle when my studio grade Sony deck finally died. I finished up with a new Toshiba, but it cannot compare with my old six head jobby. Trya a local duplicator - now that VHS is dropping off the radar for commercial dupes, you may be able to pick up a studio quality machine that they no longer need. It will have had lots of use, but should still be better than you can buy in the stores these days.

Dropped frames are easier to fix on the PC if you have a good codec BTW.

[lordsmurf]

All those kinds of problems went away when I bought a JVC 9911. It was about $250 then, probably less now.

Where did you find it for that price? The lowest I've found is $359.

Ecost $249