Panasonic DMR-ES15 - Macrovision Overexposure

[Sharc]

But always remember that any device in the capture chain can be responsible for clipping. The video recorder, the TBC, or even the capture card.

So true ....

[Darryl In Canada]

Thank you, ENunn, for sharing your cable info and test data. To summarize, one puts that Frankenstein cable from VCR out to ES15 in. The attenuator thingy in the cable reduces the brightness of the video coming out of the VCR, and this somehow gets the ES15 to not overdo the brightness/clipping as it nornally does. Then a regular S-Video cable goes out from ES15 to your frame TBC (if one has one) and then on to the capture card. In VDub software, one still adjusts the ProcAmp settings brightness and contrast to ensure the least amount of back or white clipping.

Question: If you record the same scene using these two workflows, which one has better brightness/contrast?

• (A) VCR--[standard svideo cable]--capture device
• (B) VCR--[svideo with attentuator cable]--ES15--capture device

[ENunn]

Thank you, ENunn, for sharing your cable info and test data. To summarize, one puts that Frankenstein cable from VCR out to ES15 in. The attenuator thingy in the cable reduces the brightness of the video coming out of the VCR, and this somehow gets the ES15 to not overdo the brightness/clipping as it nornally does. Then a regular S-Video cable goes out from ES15 to your frame TBC (if one has one) and then on to the capture card. In VDub software, one still adjusts the ProcAmp settings brightness and contrast to ensure the least amount of back or white clipping.

you're pretty much correct other than that i plug my es15 straight into my capture card, no frame tbc needed. es15 already has frame sync so there's no need for it. i change my proc amp settings in my capture card to give me a little more headroom in post but it's not required.

Question: If you record the same scene using these two workflows, which one has better brightness/contrast?

• (A) VCR--[standard svideo cable]--capture device
• (B) VCR--[svideo with attentuator cable]--ES15--capture device

vcr straight to capture device will be brighter. some tapes with the attenuator setup are gonna look a little dark, it just depends on the tape. but both of those points are moot if you're adjusting your levels in post like i do.