old VHS-C-> DVD. Remove blue bleeding and settings in WINTV-PVR USB2?

[Andy_se]

Hi folks.
I'm about to capture some 15 years old VHS-C tapes with my Hauppauge WINTV-PVR USB2 device. I'll try out the settings but guess it might be something like either 480 or 720x576 5-8 Mb/s. For audio I'm thinking of 192 kbps since it is mainly people talking in the movies.
The tapes are 30 and 45 minutes and some of theme recorded with long-play giving 90 minutes.

The overall quality of the movies is pretty bad.

Anyway there is an annoying blue bleeding in the movies. For example if a scene contains a horizon with trees a day without clouds the tops of the trees will be blue as the heaven.
If there is a transition from blue to black it will have some blue color in the black area near the edge. I think there is too much blue overall in the videos. I tried to decrease the saturation in WinTV2000 it helped somewhat but I didn't get rid of it before it all turned black/white.
I think I can remember the blue tone being there even 15 years ago. Spoke to people back then and was suggested to buy a UV-filter lens. Never did though. Can it be removed in the capture process?
Any help is appreciated
Andy

[dadrab]

Just so I've got it straight, the blue bleed is on the tape itself, not just on a capture?

[Andy_se]

Yepp it's there when looking on the tape on a VCR-TV setup.

Haven't done a capture yet since I bought a Scart <-> S-video, red,white composite and found out that it only gives a black & white picture.
Found out at
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=9206
that it is expected when connecting a VCR with that cable. Need to buy another cable with yellow (picture) composite too or an adapter to convert RGB color to S-video.
I also found one tape in the collection that was has a squeak sound throughout the movie.
That is one of plastic wheels inside that scratches the body of the tape.
Is there a known way/program to edit/filter the sound after being captured?
Otherwise I have to invent something in the all mighty Matlab; the program I love most on my computer.
/Andy

[dadrab]

I'll let some of the folks on this board who know waaaaaay yonder more than I (almost everyone) respond on the color correction, except to say that, according to what I've read in some other threads, there may be no way to repair that damage since it's from the source.

You could, however, try playing the tape on another VCR to see it you get the bleeds there too. If you do, you might be SOL, but again, I'll defer to others with more experience.

As to your sqeaky wheel - give it some grease. Not literally, of course, but I've repaired several tapes with similar problems through the years with a cotton swab and a tiny bit of Dry Lube. You can get it at an auto parts store and it won't attack plastics. Spray some on a paper towel and wipe the swab through it. Then dab the swab around the edges of the squeaky wheel. I've never messed up a tape and it's always worked for me. Less is more in this case.

I've also heard of taking a pencil and "drawing" around both sides of both wheels several times. The graphite in the pencil lead has great "dry" lubrication properties. I've never tried that method, however.

Don't flame me for this. I never scoff at anything that works.

[Andy_se]

This is a snapshot of the blue bleeding.
Not only blue is bleeding as you clearly can see.
/Andy

[gshelley61]

That looks like it may be a Y/C timing problem (the color signal is not aligned with the luma signal). Some professional TBC's have a Y/C timing adjustment that might improve the appearance of your source video.

Here's a standalone video processor that may correct the problem:
http://www.signvideo.com/cr100_color-registration-corrector_video-processor.htm