Laser Disc to VHS to DVD

[Clevo89]

Greetings all,

I'm hoping someone could give me some advice.

First my set up:

a LG VHS player model # GC990W: it can playback SP, LP PAL & NTSC.

The VHS is connected via composite cables to a Kaiser Baas Hybrid USB TV dongle which came with Cyberlink Power Cinema software. Which works fine.

I normally have no problem capturing VHS analogue signals

The Problem:

I've been lent a stack of VHS' which have been used to record stacks of Karaoke songs which were originally on Laser Disc. I know the Laser Disc video format isn't in a normal format but the owner of the VHS videos swears he's used them before when he had a VHS player. Though he later told me he recorded them in LP (I'm highlighting this as I think this is where the problem is).

I've tried capturing using a few different software (Windows Media Centre, WMM, Cyberlink power Ciname, Nero & Corel Video Studio) they all give me the same result. Clear sound but no picture. Let me clarify the picture a bit...it looks like it can't track properly but when I cue forward I can almost see the karaoke text with the cheesy video but it's all garbled (like trying to look at NTSC in a PAL only set-up). When I press play the screen goes blue like it's not getting a signal or it's very garbled)

The odd thing is when the recorded Kareoke stuff finishes I get a clear picture of what was recorded earlier on the VHS tapes. A good clear image...so I know there are no loose cables and everything works as it should... but for some reason the recorded Kareoke stuff doesn't.

I suspect the Laser Disc was connected to a standard CRT TV and the VHS player recorded what was on the screen. These dubs were done about 10 years ago and the owner would like them on DVD.

I'm scratching my head on this one but it's possible I am missing something.... perhaps you can help

[jagabo]

Pal60?

[CobraPilot]

You mention your concerns the videotapes were recorded in LP mode. Do you mean the 4-hour speed? That speed was one never officially sanctioned and might truly be the problem, but the fact the sound is okay is puzzling. The "official" speeds were 2-hour (SP) and 6-hour (EP) (with a T-120 tape).

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/format/vhs/

When the video "recorded earlier" (non-karaoke) becomes visible, is it still at the LP speed, or does it shift to either SP or EP?

[Cornucopia]

I'm not sure where you're coming from with the "Laserdisk format not being a normal format". IT IS. Standard NTSC or Standard PAL. That's it. And basically a COMPOSITE video signal (though there were some that had S-Video outputs).

If your friend had a VHS CAMCORDER and recorded the TV set, you'd likely be getting major strobing from sync/timebase errors, plus color rainbow/moire effects. I sure hope they didn't do that. That's like the WORST possible way to go from LD to VHS (below even RF out to RF in on Ch 3 or 4).
Guess you couldn't get those LD's back and rerecord them in the normal way (composite RCA out -> composite RCA in).

Scott

[jman98]

I suspect the Laser Disc was connected to a standard CRT TV and the VHS player recorded what was on the screen.

That's not possible. VCRs can only record from an input source of some kind. Either you connect cable TV to them or you connect some other kind of video device to them. They don't ever "record what is on the screen".

I suggest that you play those tapes in a working VCR and just see if they can play at all. Don't worry about capturing. Just see if they will play. If they won't even play, then I'd assume the tapes are hosed, possibly beyond repair. Until you can verify that it's even possible to play the tapes, you're just making this more difficult than it needs to be because right now you don't know if your capture process is to blame or if the tapes are just bad. One step at a time. If the tapes can be played correctly in a VCR, then you know that something is wrong with how you are trying to capture them.

[Clevo89]

I see what you mean....

The laser disc video doesn't play (sound only) but it was recorded over used VHS tapes of which the earlier video image comes through fine.

Sounds like I just need to give up on this?

[Clevo89]

I'm not sure where you're coming from with the "Laserdisk format not being a normal format". IT IS. Standard NTSC or Standard PAL. That's it. And basically a COMPOSITE video signal (though there were some that had S-Video outputs).

If your friend had a VHS CAMCORDER and recorded the TV set, you'd likely be getting major strobing from sync/timebase errors, plus color rainbow/moire effects. I sure hope they didn't do that. That's like the WORST possible way to go from LD to VHS (below even RF out to RF in on Ch 3 or 4).
Guess you couldn't get those LD's back and rerecord them in the normal way (composite RCA out -> composite RCA in).

Scott

No it wasn't a telerecroding.

The LD's are long gone...

[Cornucopia]

What LDs were they? (Hollywood stuff or Corporate stuff, or what?) If H'wood, you ought to be able to find other sources of digital copies (pre-recorded VHS, VCD, online/streaming/downloads). If Corporate, check with the corporation...
Otherwise...

Scott

[jagabo]

He said they were karaoke. Probably NTSC-J. I suspect he has NTSC tapes and is trying to play them on a PAL/multisystem player and getting PAL60 output. Very few capture cards will capture that.

[Clevo89]

He said they were karaoke. Probably NTSC-J. I suspect he has NTSC tapes and is trying to play them on a PAL/multisystem player and getting PAL60 output. Very few capture cards will capture that.

After quizzing the owner of the VHS tapes the laser discs were owned by someone else who bought them from Japan. So I suspect that it is in NTSC standard. It gives me something to chase up as my VHS player supposidly plays NTSC but I'm not sure about the capture dongle

Thanks all for the responses so far... if I work something out I will report with a fix

[jagabo]

After quizzing the owner of the VHS tapes the laser discs were owned by someone else who bought them from Japan. So I suspect that it is in NTSC standard. It gives me something to chase up as my VHS player supposidly plays NTSC but I'm not sure about the capture dongle

Yes, PAL VHS players usually output PAL60 when playing NTSC material. You'll need to find a capture device that supports PAL60.

[jman98]

Note that if you end up needing a PAL60 capture device that most capture devices cannot capture PAL60. You should definitely not just assume that any PAL capable capture device will work. We have posts from time from gamers in the UK who need to get PAL60 capture cards. I don't know if this is still true, but the forum search function was broken horribly in the past and only worked from the top of ALL forums. It didn't work at all within individual sections. It's a lot of work but if you search on something like "PAL60" and "capture card" you might find some posts about something that will work.

[jagabo]

There are lots of youtube videos where people discuss PAL60 capture devices.