What's the best video capture device these days (for VHS)?

[PuzZLeR]

I realize this thread is nearly a year old, but it seems much of the the information is still relevant, as the discussion involves handling a format (VHS) that industry has pretty much moved beyond.

In terms of VHS capture technology, nothing's been groundbreaking in almost a decade, and likely won't for another. The information here is still relevant today.

Puzzler, can you expand a bit about capturing to lossless formats with the devices mentioned? The manual for the Hauppage USB-Live2 says that it only outputs in MPEG-2 format (or with .TS extension), using the included software. My understanding has been that MPEG-2 is not lossless, so did you mean to use the device in order to capture to a different format with some software other than that which comes with the device? And if so, what software might you suggest?

I would suggest VirtualDub for capture software and HuffYUV for the lossless format which has good speed and works well with processing and editors. Both are fully compatible with the USB-Live2 and the YUY2 format.

Many will agree with me here that using bundled software that comes with capture devices, including those mentioned here, is not recommended.

And yes, MPEG-2 is not lossless, whether in a transport stream (.TS) or otherwise. It's appeal is the much smaller file size and the "straight to DvD" step - but it doesn't come without a cost to quality - there WILL be a difference in capture, even at higher bitrates. Keep in mind too - VHS is a harsh signal, and when it gets as bad as it gets with jitter, noise, random flaws, etc, this will cause havoc on compression formats like MPEG-2.

But it gets worse than that with MPEG-2. When you capture straight to MPEG-2, many of the better features of MPEG-2 are generally omitted, for speed and compatibility, and usually you are stuck with an inferior MPEG-2 encoder that comes with several capture apps.

More so, the advantage of using lossless is, not only higher quality at start and the fact that many were designed for capture, but the flexibility to work with since you will be tempted to clean that harsh VHS signal after (crosstalk, noise, chroma dancing, etc). When you work with lossless, only the results of your filter will affect the video. Every time you filter MPEG-2, you have to deal with compression artifacts each time, on top of what you do. Just this degrading alone can be enough to ruin your video after just 2-3 encodes, even if your initial capture and choice of filters were good. You will see more, and more, blockiness, loss of detail, ringing, etc., with each generation of MPEG-2. This won't happen with lossless if you know what you're doing.

You can always encode it to MPEG-2 in the end, with only one encode, with a good MPEG-2 encoder, when you're done working with lossless. But I wouldn't even recommend that for archiving, only if you need a DvD out of it.

There's really little excuse to not work with lossless today with the bigger HDD space per cost and availability currently.

(I am one of those nitpicky people who might obsess over losing quality, even if some might regard it as a negligble loss, so I am interested in exploring the options that will produce the least loss of quality or distortion from the original image. I want to do some editing on the captured material, so I want what I start with to be of the highest quality possible, at least to the extent I can afford it in terms of cost.)

As mentioned, use VirtualDub with HuffYUV with the YUY2 4:2:2 format - I can recommend this with good conscience as your best bet, or arguably at worst. Great start in quality, and for the (somewhat) taming of VHS. And the software is free and confirm it's totally compatible with the USB-Live2.

[lordsmurf]

I realize this thread is nearly a year old, but it seems much of the the information is still relevant, as the discussion involves handling a format (VHS) that industry has pretty much moved beyond.

In terms of VHS capture technology, nothing's been groundbreaking in almost a decade, and likely won't for another. .

The only thing groundbreaking has been advanced restoration methods. What was not possible 10, or even 5 years ago, now is.

For the capture itself, no. ATI All In Wonder cards were some of the best in the mid 2000s, and still are in the mid 2010s.

[liddle]

I realize this thread is nearly a year old, but it seems much of the the information is still relevant, as the discussion involves handling a format (VHS) that industry has pretty much moved beyond.

In terms of VHS capture technology, nothing's been groundbreaking in almost a decade, and likely won't for another. .

The only thing groundbreaking has been advanced restoration methods. What was not possible 10, or even 5 years ago, now is.

For the capture itself, no. ATI All In Wonder cards were some of the best in the mid 2000s, and still are in the mid 2010s.

That's a shame. I had an ATI AIW card but couldn't get it to work when I upgraded to a Windows 7 computer. At the time, the resale value didn't appear to be worth the hassle of trying to resell it, so I think I ended up tossing it.

[PuzZLeR]

I realize this thread is nearly a year old, but it seems much of the the information is still relevant, as the discussion involves handling a format (VHS) that industry has pretty much moved beyond.

In terms of VHS capture technology, nothing's been groundbreaking in almost a decade, and likely won't for another. .

The only thing groundbreaking has been advanced restoration methods. What was not possible 10, or even 5 years ago, now is.

Yes, and no. I think alot of the restoration methods were always there, just that now with advanced processors you can get the job done in minimal time, which has encouraged further development of such techniques.

I mean, it was unrealistic back then when you had to spend 40-50 hours to process a 90 minute clip just to clean some noise, or even encouraging for any devs to provide, or further work on, such software for it.

The bigger HDDs of today also help too.

For the capture itself, no. ATI All In Wonder cards were some of the best in the mid 2000s, and still are in the mid 2010s.

Arguably true - the ATI AIW cards were among the greatest for the task. Progress for capture device technology suited for VHS capture stopped around 2007-ish with the ATI USB 600. Some good products have come out since (like those mentioned here) but nothing better, or better in terms of advanced progress for the medium.

[lordsmurf]

No, there are literally things that exist now that did not in years past. New filters, new software, new hardware, new methods. It's not just a time issue. It is faster now, but that wasn't the main problem at the time.

Video capture is usually hardware locked, and OS locked. A good ATI AIW card will never work in Windows Vista-7-8-10. You must use XP.

Like the Doctor Who Time War, capturing is time-locked. You must use tools of the time.

[PuzZLeR]

No, there are literally things that exist now that did not in years past. New filters, new software, new hardware, new methods. It's not just a time issue. It is faster now, but that wasn't the main problem at the time.

Anything that you can suggest as rather revolutionary?

[liddle]

I am finding that Virtualdub and the Hauppauge USB-Live2 don't play together well.
Will post details in new thread.

[lordsmurf]

The ADVC-300 is actually worse than the ADVC-100/110.
Both are just lossy DV, and there are better ways to capture VHS video (ATI All In Wonder).