VCR Preference

[carpedick]

I am looking into capturing some Video, some will be DV, but more than 1/2 will be off of VHS Tapes. Does anyone have a preference about VCR type, or what qualities the VCR should posess in order to get a good quality video going into the computer?

[SingSing]

It depends on how the video is recordered at the first place.
If it is off the air or cable, it is going to be bad on VCD.
If it is from studo tape, you need a un-macrovision box,
and you may want to get a SVHS or ETVHS VCR with Digital filter.
These built in filter does clean up your old video.

[Shannafey]

From the years of experience I have had as a video producer, and home tinkerer, JVC makes the best. They are long lasting and dependable, and of course, JVC invented VHS. I, too would recommend SVHS, as you will be able to dump footage with an S-Video connection, which is much better.

[Gameshow Host]

I just bought myself a s-VHS VCR and did quite a lot of research to try and get the best one. There seems to be very few recorders that have s-video out port on the back, but I found one. S-video is important cos it has seperate channels for luminance and colour, so you get a better capture. Another thing to consider is the number of heads, the more heads the better playback. Try not to get one with just 2, cos 4 and 6 heads aren't much more expensive. I you should definitely go for S-VHS instead of VHS, there may not be any difference in playback quality, but if you're going to record anything with it then S-VHS is a much better quality picture. And there is little difference in price between VHS and SVHS. Also, despite S-VHS tapes being more expensive, you can still record S-VHS onto VHS tapes, with only a slight reduction in quality from normal S-VHS. The only other feature that I thought was important was head cleaning facilities. I was going to buy one with an built in auto head cleaner, but I was told that they don't do a very good job and all the best video tape recorders don't have this feature because all the dirt just gets put back onto the tape!

[SingSing]

I just bought myself a s-VHS VCR and did quite a lot of research to try and get the best one.

I though only sharp and JVC make them in consumer price range.

[oldfart13]

For one, SVHS ET is bogus. Stick to real SVHS if you're recording. Best is to get a good signal in the first place like Digital Cable or Satellite DBS (even though it's overly compressed Mpeg). Try to get a vcr with Amorphous heads. Panasonic used to make them but stopped with this year's consumer models. The quality is now closer to the cheap JVC SVHS units. My industrial Hitachi S730 (a gift from a friend who was upgrading his equipment) makes great recordings even on lowly VHS SP but I wish it had a timebase corrector like the later models. Then Macrovision wouldn't be a problem as the unit would create all new sync when playing back the tapes. Best place to ask about new units is the vcr tech group on Usenet. Most people there are techs or long time users. Oh yeah, JVC "invented" VHS after Sony rejected it as being below even the minimum standard they had. My old Beta recordings, especially the Hi-Fi recordings are still much better than my VHS SP Hi-Fi recordings. Too bad Sony's marketing savvy (or lack of) killed the format. A plus is that all my old Beta prerecords don't have any Macrovision on them so I can cap them directly to my ATI All In Wonder without getting the green screen of death that happens when I try to cap with my VHS Hi-Fi prerecords. I do know about Stinky's reg tool and macrovision eliminator but I've got it patched and it's still there. Looks like I'll have to look at a standalone Mpeg 2 encoder like the Pinnacle Bungee or ADS DVD Solution to really get good quality SVCD caps...

[Gameshow Host]

What do you mean when you say 'S-VHS ET' is bogus. Do you know anything about how much quality is reduced from normal S-VHS? I went to every electronics shop in my town and they all told me the same thing - they all said S-VHS ET is only slightly lesser quality than true S-VHS, and one guy said there was no difference at all. I got the impression there's no real difference in quality, and assumed the same information is recorded to the tape as S-VHS, only S-VHS tapes are better quality and last longer. No shops in my town sell S-VHS tapes, so I have no choice but to use S-VHS ET. Then again I don't care too much because I will rarely need to record to tape. It's just for emergencies.

What's macrovision?

[oldfart13]

If you are anywhere near a Radio Shack, they sell SVHS and even Beta tapes! Yes, I'm afraid S-VHS ET is indeed bogus. Did you try the Usenet vcr groups like I requested? Ask anyone in there. We used to try to get around the high cost of SVHS tapes years ago by drilling a hole in the case of a High Grade tape and using that in our recorder. Pic was always much worse than true SVHS tapes. SVHS ET is basically the same thing. If you want to use it for time shifting and erasing the tape after, then it's probably okay. For tapes I'd keep, I'd use VHS SP on high grade tapes or SVHS SP on SVHS tapes.

Macrovision is the stop copy process on VHS tapes and DVD discs. You can get a Sima Macrovision eliminator for VHS ($50) or DVD ($110). They are available at many electronics retailers (though Radio Shack doesn't sell one).

[Gameshow Host]

I can't go on usenet right now. I only use free servers and I can't find a free one right now. There are no Radio Shacks in my town, or any other town I know. Maybe they don't have them in my country?

I'm surprised to hear that DVD videos have copy protection. I've never tried copying a DVD video before, but I would have thought it was impossible for anyone to prevent you from copying a digital disc. Surely if your DVD drive can read all the information, then the disc can be copied quite easily.

[Mirror_Image]

What's macrovision?

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&querytime=-ZMXjB&q=%22what+is+macrovision%22

[Gameshow Host]

Ah. Now I know. What a bastard! I've never watched a DVD video via my PC to a TV screen. I always use a standalone DVD player for that. But I always assumed I could. Bastard macrovision!