Bvtbc-10

[cold_187]

Hi all, I'm trying to convert a few tapes to digital, but I've noticed that when I start capturing I get weird flashing colours at the top of the video, also some skipping. Then I did some research to find out that I needed a TBC. I looked and found a list of "Best TBCs to Buy!", and I saw the BVTBC-10 on it. I went and bought a used one for like $25, since the others were way too expensive for me. I then went to test it out by using its color bars and noticed light noise on the video. I then tried out the s-video and saw the same noise also with "dot crawl" like artifacts all over the video. I noticed this seem to be a problem with these units. I also read that it happens when the video is converting to digital then back to analog. So I was wondering, if SDI capture would work and be worth it? Or is there any fixes for this? Thank you.

[jagabo]

Dot crawl artifacts are a result of incomplete separation of the chroma subcarrier and the luma when splitting a composite signal into luma and chroma. With VHS caps you can mostly eliminate it by downscaling the capture to half width (720 to 360), then upscaling back to full width (360 to 720). With quality sources, like DVD, that blurs the image to much. But VHS only has about 360 lines of resolution horizontally anyway, so it doesn't hurt much.

[LMotlow]

Hi all, I'm trying to convert a few tapes to digital, but I've noticed that when I start capturing I get weird flashing colours at the top of the video, also some skipping. Then I did some research to find out that I needed a TBC. I looked and found a list of "Best TBCs to Buy!", and I saw the BVTBC-10 on it. I went and bought a used one for like $25, since the others were way too expensive for me. I then went to test it out by using its color bars and noticed light noise on the video. I then tried out the s-video and saw the same noise also with "dot crawl" like artifacts all over the video. I noticed this seem to be a problem with these units. I also read that it happens when the video is converting to digital then back to analog. So I was wondering, if SDI capture would work and be worth it? Or is there any fixes for this? Thank you.

To add to jagabo's dot crawl comments:

The "TBC" you bought is overpriced at $25. It's garbage. Its also the wrong type of tbc. You need a line tbc to help stop the scanline sync distortion you see in your videos. Good VCR's with line tbc built-in are either tough to find or a whole lot more expensive than $25. Or you can use a line tbc pass-thru, discussed here: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/319420-Who-uses-a-DVD-recorder-as-a-line-TBC-and-what-do-you-use

Capturing with what hardware/software?

I also read that it happens when the video is converting to digital then back to analog

Whaaat?
You didn't read that in this forum.
Well, come to think of it...maybe you did.

[cold_187]

The "TBC" you bought is overpriced at $25. It's garbage. Its also the wrong type of tbc. You need a line tbc to help stop the scanline sync distortion you see in your videos.

Really? Hmm, well I'm on a budget for about $200 max, any recommendations beside a DVD Recorder? It would cost alot to ship to where I am. I've read good stuff about some of those DV Camcorders.

I also read that it happens when the video is converting to digital then back to analog

Can't remember where I found this info, but i don't think it was here though.

Capturing with what hardware/software?

an old Sharp VC-H960, those cheap DC60 capture card, the TBC mentioned and I use Virtualdub or PowerDirector 13

Anyway, I posted what I got from the TBC's s-video output, I may as well just dump this.

[jagabo]

The dot crawl artifacts in that cap are very minor. Since you'll likely be using some noise reduction on your VHS caps (VHS is a very noisy medium) it will disappear along with the other noise. If not, use the resize technique I described earlier.

Mpeg2Source("Capture(1).d2v", CPU2="ooooxx", Info=3) 
Spline36Resize(width/2, height)
Spline36Resize(width*2, height)
TemporalDegrain(SAD1=100, SAD2=75, sigma=4)

[cold_187]

The dot crawl artifacts in that cap are very minor. Since you'll likely be using some noise reduction on your VHS caps (VHS is a very noisy medium) it will disappear along with the other noise. If not, use the resize technique I described earlier.

Funny thing is, that capture is the Test color bars feature within the TBC. I figure that the TBC is defective or something. I would invest in something else like JVC's Professional DVD/VHS Recoder combos, or a VCR that has a built in TBC.

[cold_187]

Sorry to bump, but I just wanna say that the problem was the s-video cable + capturecard. Bought a JVC SR-MV45, DIAMOND VC500 capture card and a couple new double-shielded s-video cables. All noise and distortion was gone instantly. Coupled with the bvtbc-10 that I bought for $25, it works perfectly.