Frusterated with Video 8 to DV with a EV-C100 and ADVC110

[myoung08]

Greetings,

I have an impressive stack of Video 8 tapes I'm trying to convert to DV. A while back I bought a Hi8 camcorder for doing Video 8 and Hi8 transfers with my ADVC110. That worked alright, though the camcorder I got displays an annoying blue screen when the signal is messed up. I'd rather see a garbled picture than have the camcorder just insert a blue image in the captured footage! An older Video 8 camcorder I have doesn't do the whole blue screen thing, but its heads are also messed up and I don't think it would be worth it to get it repaired just to use it as a VCR that wouldn't even have Hi8 playback capability.

Anyway, recently I decided I'd get a Sony Hi8 VCR for all these tapes I have to transfer. I settled on a EV-C100. It seemed really slick until I noticed that capturing with it and my ADVC110 was resulting in jump-cuts galore in captured footage! I've noticed that when capturing some footage, EV-C100 to ADVC110 to PC, that the preview window of the captured footage just freezes, then recovers. I think this freezing is happening when the tape has some glitches. When I look at the captured footage I see jump-cuts. The duration of the freeze is how much footage gets cut out. I'm suspecious that the EV-C100 is faulty as the Hi8 camcorder I got isn't doing this at all. I suppose I should hook the EV-C100 up to a TV and see what it displays when it hits what I think are glitches in the tape I'm trying to transfer.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Do I need to add a TBC to the mix? The tapes I'm transferring aren't in the best of shape, some being in pretty bad shape. It just irks me that I spent almost $300 on the EV-C100 and here the Hi8 camcorder I got is doing a better job and not resulting in these very annoying jump-cuts in the captured footage. I'm all ears to all suggestions! Thanks!

[myoung08]

I bought an AVT-8710 Time Base Corrector (next day shipping from B&H I was so impatient!) and that seems to have done the trick in regard to dropped frames. Though the slight loss in picture quality when content is processed by the AVT-8710 is disappointing. Guess I'll have to tinker with with the video adjustment settings. I almost want to capture tapes twice and not use the TBCed footage unless I have to due to dropped frames.

[edDV]

I bought an AVT-8710 Time Base Corrector (next day shipping from B&H I was so impatient!) and that seems to have done the trick in regard to dropped frames. Though the slight loss in picture quality when content is processed by the AVT-8710 is disappointing. Guess I'll have to tinker with with the video adjustment settings. I almost want to capture tapes twice and not use the TBCed footage unless I have to due to dropped frames.

This must be specific to your equipment (e.g. poor tracking alignment), the way these particular Video8 tapes were recorded, or maybe the pro EV C100 wasn't intended to play Video8.

I've never experienced these Video8 playback issues wih Sony Hi8 or Digital8 players.

One way to separate tape vs. player issues is to record some fresh Video 8 material (on a Video8 or Hi8 camcorder) and see if these play better. If so the problem is with the way the old tapes were recorded.

Also see if you have the same problems if the old tapes are played from the Hi8 camcorder to the ADVC-110.