Horizontal Red and Green Lines (GV-USB2)

[Sharc]

Thank you, I will try the Display button on the remote for DNR. If it does nothing I'll assume my unit doesn't do DNR (which is good).

I don't have your model, but see the manual page 35 about Playback NR and Copy NR (NR=noise reduction) settings. (I would just set them to OFF.)

[Alwyn]

I looked at your guide and my model isn't there, nor is it in the thread it links to about brightness on S-Video. I assume it's still best to use S-Video and it won't introduce any extra brightness etc.

The 35V is essentially the same as the the Panasonic DVD recorders in my guide eg ES-15. The only real difference is it has the VHS player in the same box. The menus on the ES35 are basically the same as the ES-15. My guide is tailored to somebody using a standalone VCR + the ES-15 as a stabiliser.

Ultimately I'm wanting to know if using this Panasonic ES35 will give me better output than my more standard/cheaper VCR I used before (Sanyo combo DVD player model HV-DX300A using composite).

Yes it will be, because it is applying the Diga stabilisation.

One thing I am confused about in your guide: it talks about routing through the AV inputs, but why? My setup is simple, I am playing a VHS tape in my Panasonic unit and outputting through the 'priority' AV port on the back straight to a GV-USB2 capture device. Why would I need to input anything to my Panasonic? Is your guide only talking about handycam capture?

My guide is tailored to using the ES-15 between a VCR and your digitiser so yes, there is no need for you to use any AV inputs with your ES-35. I pointed you to my guide only for the menus. Sorry for the confusion. Of course, if you find a tape that will only play nicely in a different VCR, you can use your ES-35 as a stabiliser, similar to the ES-15, as I describe.

[WhiteboyUltima]

Thank you both (Alwyn and Sharc).

I eventually found the Playback DNR option - I had to go to DVD mode, then press Display to see more options. No sign of Copy DNR options, but Playback DNR was off by default. So I can now start capturing my VHS again over S-Video. I assume Diga Stabilisation is always on, as there are no options anywhere for that (but the unit does have the Diga logo on the DVD tray so I hope it's working when I play tapes and use the Priority outputs). Cheers!

[WhiteboyUltima]

Update: I have now captured my 2 VHS tapes with the Panasonic DMR-ES35V in VirtualDub2, no compression, using the S-Video connection and no DNR. I am very happy with the results! The Hanover Bars are basically gone, which was unexpected - so it looks like I don't even need to run the script to remove them. The s-video and the Diga technology cleaned things up nicely, and there's no audio desync issues.

My question now is about dropped/inserted frames. I used the same settings for both my tape captures and did them one after another without touching anything else on my PC. For the wedding video (20 mins long, most of which is just a slideshow with music), VirtualDub2 reported it dropped 0 frames and inserted only 2 frames - compare that to my last capture on the Sanyo VCR with composite connection where it inserted 107 frames. Big improvement!

However, the other video (a 40 min birthday party VHS originally recorded on a handycam) had a much worse result (see pic) compared to the last time I captured it on my basic Sanyo VCR. It dropped 1432 frames and inserted 1435 frames (so about a minute's worth of frames were inserted/dropped). My original Sanyo capture for this tape had only 242 dropped frames and 289 inserted. Note my original capture on the Sanyo had HuffyUV lossless compression (for the birthday video but not the wedding video), and the new capture on the Pana ES35V was done with no compression. I expected a better result, just like I got with the wedding video.

Does anyone have any idea why there are so many more dropped/inserted frames? And would this actually make any visible difference to the overall 40 minute video?

Should I capture again with lossless compression this time? (If anything, I thought enabling compression would cause more dropped/inserted frames since it uses more CPU power... I have a powerful Radeon 9800X3D computer and am writing to fast PCI4.0 NVME M.2 storage)


[Attachment 90117 - Click to enlarge]

[Sharc]

Much too many drops/inserts in either case. Unless your tape is in poor condition - or you captured empty gaps (i.e. noisy unused tape sections) on the tape between scenes - you should not get more than very few drops/inserts per hour, say 0 .... 4 maximum.
And yes you should capture YUV 4:2:2 using a lossless codec like huffyuv or similar (like Lagarith or UTVideo). Raw or RGB captures cause high data transfer rates which may overload your system producing dropped frames. Don't be fooled by low CPU usage only. Capture to a fast enough defragmented drive or SSD.
Yes, you should recapture your tapes. Also revisit your Vdub capture settings, or try AmarecTV instead of Vdub. You may want to follow @Alwyn's guide on this.
The effect of pairs of drop+inserts is stutter during playback, the effect of uncompensated drops is usually loss of AV sync.

[WhiteboyUltima]

Much too many drops/inserts in either case. Unless your tape is in poor condition - or you captured empty gaps (i.e. noisy unused tape sections) on the tape between scenes - you should not get more than very few drops/inserts per hour, say 0 .... 4 maximum.
And yes you should capture YUV 4:2:2 using a lossless codec like huffyuv or similar (like Lagarith or UTVideo). Raw or RGB captures cause high data transfer rates which may overload your system producing dropped frames. Don't be fooled by low CPU usage only. Capture to a fast enough defragmented drive or SSD.
Yes, you should recapture your tapes. Also revisit your Vdub capture settings, or try AmarecTV instead of Vdub. You may want to follow @Alwyn's guide on this.
The effect of pairs of drop+inserts is stutter during playback, the effect of uncompensated drops is usually loss of AV sync.

At this rate with the amount of times I've played/rewound these tapes, I am worried they will wear out if I keep trying to play them... we're talking 35 years old tapes here. Not sure how I'd rate the condition, as I have nothing to compare them to. It's possible the birthday tape has a little mould (I saw white stuff on the side of the tape through the transparent plastic while it was wound on the spool) but nothing major is obvious when watching playback.

Since my wedding tape only dropped 2 frames I am very happy with that. As for the birthday video... I will capture that with lossless HuffyUV as you say and report back! With the capture I already have though, I don't actually notice any stuttering and the sync stays great even by the end of the 40 minutes. So I'm not sure if I can really get a much better result than I already have...

[Sharc]

With the capture I already have though, I don't actually notice any stuttering .....

Hard to believe with 1432 dropped and 1436 inserted frames out of 57603 captured frames. You would have to look carefully for duplicates, causing a slight temporary stutter for each dropped frame for scenes with motion. Step through the frames where these drops/inserts happened. Don't you see any duplicates, means a frame being repeated?
You have no AV sync issue because each dropped frame got substituded (compensated) by an inserted (=duplicated) frame which keeps AV in sync, but creates a slight stutter. You may not experience it as annoying though - e.g. when the drops happened in scenes with little motion -, so you may want to live with it.

What does Vdub show when you open the captured file and select in the Menu Go -> Next drop frame ( or press Shift ^)?

[Alwyn]

It's possible the birthday tape has a little mould (I saw white stuff on the side of the tape through the transparent plastic while it was wound on the spool) but nothing major is obvious when watching playback.

I wouldn't be running that tape through your good VCR; the mould could clog up the heads, not to mention it can be nasty stuff, health-wise. Better get it cleaned or clean it yourself; a number of YT videos show how.

[WhiteboyUltima]

With the capture I already have though, I don't actually notice any stuttering .....

Hard to believe with 1432 dropped and 1436 inserted frames out of 57603 captured frames. You would have to look carefully for duplicates, causing a slight temporary stutter for each dropped frame for scenes with motion. Step through the frames where these drops/inserts happened. Don't you see any duplicates, means a frame being repeated?
You have no AV sync issue because each dropped frame got substituded (compensated) by an inserted (=duplicated) frame which keeps AV in sync, but creates a slight stutter. You may not experience it as annoying though, so you may want to live with it.

What does Vdub show when you select in the Menu Go -> Next drop frame ( or press Shift ^)?

I have just recaptured it with all the same settings but this time with HuffyUV on, with default options for it (YUV). The result shows it was compressed at 2:6:1 but I have no idea how to change that (referring to the fact you told me to do it at YUV 4:2:2). Does this setting really matter? Unsure what it does.

I also had the default settings on in Video > Capture pin... under the Compression section (see pic). Is 0.500 quality correct? That was the default. Not sure if that setting here affects the HuffyUV compression.


[Attachment 90120 - Click to enlarge]

Anyway, that aside. This time there was a LOT less dropped/inserted frames - roughly half as many as my uncompressed capture - but why? Is it just a result of using compression? There's 719 dropped and 722 inserted (see pic). For this capture though, I watched the live status the whole time and I noticed they all occurred only at ONE part of the video (between 18min and 20min).


[Attachment 90123 - Click to enlarge]

That part of the tape could be the problem then - and perhaps that's the mouldy part but it's hard to tell (see pic) - some of those marks are not on the tape but the plastic transparent part. But why are there so much less inserted/dropped frames this time? Is it all down to the HuffyUV compression?


[Attachment 90122 - Click to enlarge]

This is where it gets interesting...
At this point, I decided to open my AVI captures in VDub to step through the dropped frames for this latest capture, and my previous capture which had a lot more dropped frames. (I had no idea you could even do this; does VDub save dropped frames somewhere? How is it playing these dropped frames if they aren't stored in the video file itself... and if it saved them why didn't it just add them to the video during capture... so many questions).

Anyway, stepping through showed something really interesting. The video I just captured using HuffyUV has its 719 dropped frames all happen in ONE section of the tape: between 18min:00s and 20min:15s. BUT when I stepped through the previous capture which had no compression and 1432 dropped/1436 inserted, all of these happened at TWO completely DIFFERENT points in the video for several minutes each - neither of which were the same part of the video as my latest capture so there is no overlap.

To further verify this, I opened my oldest capture of this tape in VDub (on my previous Sanyo VCR with composite RCA, not S-Video) which had HuffyUV and just 242 dropped frames. And this time, the dropped frames were at multiple parts of the video, in totally different sections again from my 2 most recent captures.

So that leads me to think it's probably NOT mould causing this as how could the mould 'move' to totally different (and 15 mins far apart) sections of the tape on my previous capture, so just a single section roughly in the middle of those two sections in my latest capture. Also, it was great that using HuffyUV resulted in less dropped/inserted frames, but why were all those dropped/inserted frames in a completely different part of the video compared to my last capture... and different again in my first capture on the Sanyo?

To summarise, I have no idea why I'm getting dropped frames at completely different parts of the tape with each capture. Turning HuffyUV compression on did help but there's still a lot of dropped/inserted frames. Can anyone speak to this? Is Windows 11 just being demanding at different times? I'm maximising my CPU power as much as I can, closing background apps, telling VDub to use max CPU power, and not viewing the video preview during capture... not sure what else I can do. I've got Options > Performance set to the defaults (see pic below) is it ok?


[Attachment 90124 - Click to enlarge]

And are my capture timing settings ok?


[Attachment 90125 - Click to enlarge]


TBH I'm actually pretty happy to keep this latest HuffyUV capture with the 719 dropped frames, seeing as it was at a section of the video that wasn't too important and to my eye, I can't actually notice much stuttering when I play the AVI files normally or when I view the VHS on my TV - I have to really try hard to see it, to the point where I'm guessing/imagining sometimes. Maybe I'm just used to low PAL frame rates, heh.

Maybe there's some way I can splice in the footage that didn't have dropped frames from my previous capture, into the one section that did have dropped frames in my latest capture, but seeing as one was uncompressed and the other one is, I have no idea if that would work well (plus it sounds fiddly to get just right).

[Sharc]

I have just recaptured it with all the same settings but this time with HuffyUV on, with default options for it (YUV). The result shows it was compressed at 2:6:1 but I have no idea how to change that (referring to the fact you told me to do it at YUV 4:2:2).

That's ok. It's the typical compression by Huffyuv, 4:2:2, only slightly depending on the source content. Nothing to adjust.

Anyway, that aside. This time there was a LOT less dropped/inserted frames - roughly half as many as my uncompressed capture - but why?

I have explained this before: Lower data transfer speed (roughly 40% by the huffyuv compression) to the storage device which may be a bottleneck causing extra drops.

I have no idea why I'm getting dropped frames at completely different parts of the tape with each capture.

Several runs and spooling the "dirty" tape backwards and forwards may shift the mud to new positions on the tape and spread and deposit it on different parts of your VCR, so every capture will be different - but still poor.
Very bad practice of "cleaning" a tape btw., as Alwyn has pointed out before.

TBH I'm actually pretty happy to keep this latest HuffyUV capture with the 719 dropped frames,.....

Which is what really matters at the end ....

[WhiteboyUltima]

OK, I appreciate all your help so far guys thank you I am getting close. After doing more work on this (de-interlacing with QTGMC script) I've got some new issues:

1. I am sure this is not mould causing dropped frames. After googling around, mould would show very obviously on the captured images, but they are clear with no signs of degradation at all. I can only put forward that my random dropped frames are due to Windows 11 hiccups in background tasks during capture, or perhaps my capture device (GV-USB2) is also having hiccups. I'd have to test capturing more tapes to verify this. Ultimately if I can recapture my birthday video in question, it would solve the issues I'm about to explain, but it might not be possible to get a totally perfect capture so I will go on...

2. Here is what I don't understand - VDub was set to insert null (duplicate) frames to compensate for this (default capture setting), thus still giving a smooth enough 25FPS, albeit with some duplicated frames (at least that's how I assume it works). But it doesn't seem to have actually done that in the resulting AVI it captured or does it? Let me explain: When I step through the captured file (still interlaced) frame by frame in VDub I do see the duplicates, but when I step through the same AVI file with VLC Media Player, I don't. BUT I also don't notice gaps in frames in VLC either - it's quite a smooth 25fps still. Not sure how that's possible. Is it just harder to notice because it's not yet deinterlaced? Importantly, this original AVI capture is perfectly synced with the audio.

3. After I de-interlace with QTGMC script (thus doubling the frame rate to 50fps or 49.39), gaps in frames during the 2 minute section that dropped frames during capture become obvious - quite bad actually. When I step through in VLC with this, there are no duplicate frames, just obvious gaps of 1 frames several times a second. This time though, the whole video length actually shortens to reflect the lost frames, and thus goes out of sync with the audio which remains the same length as my original video capture.

So I am not sure what is going on here. My capture was a consistent 25fps with no obvious stuttering or duplicated frames, perfectly synced. All I want to do is de-interlace that and double the frame rate without it de-syncing. I've asked AI for some help as I'm new to all this, even if I force my deinterlacing output to be 50fps or 49.39, or set audio options to Direct stream or full processing, or play with frame rate source settings in VDub, it's still out of sync - usually in sync at the start of the video, then starts to drift, then fixes itself by the end.

It's like QTGMC or VDub is taking frames out during the de-interlace process - is there some setting in my script or VDub causing this? My code:

# Load file
FFMPEGSource2("G:\Video\Birthday Raw Capture (HuffyUV Pana S-Video).avi", atrack=1)

# Set top or bottom field order if you know it (TFF=Top Field First, BFF=Bottom Field First)
AssumeTFF()

# Perform the deinterlace
QTGMC( Preset="Slower", ShowSettings=false )

l also tried with LSmashSource with the same results, but this time just the video (no audio), which resulted in a shorter length file (so that's how I know the deinterlaced video is coming out shorter than the captured video was, so I'm definitely going to have an audio sync issue). How do I solve this?

Note that VLC can do a real-time deinterlace on my raw capture when playing and that way it's all synced up nicely... but that's not the best quality deinterlacer and the frame rate is still only 25fps. Perhaps I can run QTGMC but NOT double the frame rate at the same time (unsure how to do this), and then double the frame rate later in some other app like Shutter Encoder? As I understand though, doing this would discard half my fields so that's not good.

My guess is that since I am basically dealing with a VBR (variable frame rate) video, there will be some way to slightly lower the overall video frame rate out to match the audio length - which is what I think the script/VDub is actually doing (hence the 49.39fps), but because it doesn't know where the dropped frames are, that explains why the audio only goes out of sync halfway through the video and is fine at the start and the end.

If there's no way to solve it then another possibility is I take my raw capture and remove the 2 minutes with dropped frames and splice in the good footage from another capture... but that sounds very tricky to get right (down to the frame) and tbh I've never spliced video into another video before so I'm not confident. Is this worth exploring if I can't get a better capture?

[Alwyn]

Do a capture with AmarecTV. My guide here.

Another thing to try: use a different codec such as UTVideo. VH comments on UT here.

I'd be using "AVISource" in your script.

[WhiteboyUltima]

Do a capture with AmarecTV. My guide here.

Another thing to try: use a different codec such as UTVideo. VH comments on UT here.

I'd be using "AVISource" in your script.

Thanks, your guide looks pretty good. I will jump to trying AmarecTV if I continue to have no luck...


I just did a test capture of a newer, 3 hour tape. This tape has absolutely no signs of wear or mould. And yet the capture still drops many frames in bursts, totalling about 2700 dropped/inserted frames over 1.5 hours. So very unacceptable. Most of the time it is not dropping frames at all - just in bursts and these bursts occur at different times each time I capture. This leads me to believe it's something to do with my PC/software setup or even the GV-USB2. I note that the audio remains in sync like before though, which is nice though I'm not entirely sure why.

I will try a few things now: a different USB port (though still USB3.0), and a different lossless codec: UTVideo. Might also change the capture card driver setting to PAL_B (right now it's on PAL_I for the UK as these are UK tapes) but I know the default/most common is PAL_B.
I have given VirtualDub2 the max resources I can, setting it to Realtime priority in task manager and closing everything and turning off internet. I also recorded this latest test without audio preview (I already had no video preview) and instead I used the composite RCA on a TV to see where I was at (while still capturing from the S-Video port). I am writing to a super fast spare PCIE 4.0 M.2 SSD that my OS is not on. Can't do much more than that...

It's worth mentioning again that I have a very powerful modern PC that I built only this year, so I really don't think it's a CPU power issue.

[WhiteboyUltima]

When using UTVideo, what settings should I use? These are the defaults:


[Attachment 90165 - Click to enlarge]

Wouldn't I need to tick Assume interlace video? And what's is the frame divide count? Hope I selected the right one too (YUV422 BT.601 VCM).

For now, I am going off an educated guess based on the tooltips and going with the below settings - I will report back about any dropped frames.


[Attachment 90166 - Click to enlarge]


UPDATE: I re-captured the same newer 3 hour tape for about 45 mins with the new config (different USB port, PAL_B, and UTVideo codec) and it didn't really make a difference - about 1370 dropped frames within 45 mins, all within a few bursts at a time. Audio is still sycned at this stage.

Should I try a USB 2 port instead of USB 3? EDIT: I just tried USB 2 and it didn't help, I got about 1540 dropped frames for the same 45 mins of capture.

At this stage all I can think of is trying a different VCR (I have 4 of the same ES35V model), or trying AmarecTV. Heck, maybe even a different PC (Windows 10).

[Sharc]

The picture in the background of your screenshot is just plain noise. Of course any capture scenario will report dropped frames etc. when you try to capture noise.
I mentioned this before: If your tape has "empty" (unused) sections between takes and you just capture across it you will always get drop/insert issues in bursts, until the tape advances to the next real shot where the capture process re-syncs.

Upload a short snippet of your problematic captured .avi here (you can upload up to 500MB) so someone may take a look.

(Also, AmarecTV produces a useful log which is very helpful for analysis).

[WhiteboyUltima]

The picture in the background of your screenshot is just plain noise. Of course any capture scenario will report dropped frames etc. when you try to capture noise.
I mentioned this before: If your tape has "empty" (unused) sections between takes and you just capture across it you will always get drop/insert issues in bursts, until the tape advances to the next real shot where the capture process re-syncs.

Upload a short snippet of your problematic captured .avi here (you can upload up to 500MB) so someone may take a look.

(Also, AmarecTV produces a useful log which is very helpful for analysis).

I am not capturing that noise - that screenshot was with no tape in the machine while I was just playing with some settings before a capture. I always start the capture as soon as the actual footage starts. And none of my tapes have empty sections.

My main issue is that no matter what tape I capture, I am always getting these bursts (up to 2 minutes each) of dropped frames - at random parts of the video, spread out, and it's different parts each time I capture.

So I am not sure what to upload here, if anything. At this point my other 3 VCRs are broken except for my more basic composite only ones, which might drop less frames but lack S-Video. If my video heads needed cleaning, it doesn't make sense that I lose frames in such spread apart bursts. Nobody as yet seems to have any ideas what could be causing this

So I am stuck, I think all I can do now is try AmarecTV, or another PC, or splice together a full 'good' video from the 2 captures I have which have different 'good' parts each.

I might have to create a new post too, since my original Hanover bars problem is gone and now I have this new problem. Thanks for all your help so far guys

[Sharc]

So I am not sure what to upload here, if anything.

A snippet (1....2 seconds) of a motion scene which includes a transition starting good then turning into bad, for example.

At this point my other 3 VCRs are broken....

OMG .... maybe your remaining VCR is also half-dead or just worn......
I don't think the culprit is the PC or the GV-USB2, and certainly not the OS.

Good luck

[WhiteboyUltima]

So I am not sure what to upload here, if anything.

A snippet (1....2 seconds) of a motion scene which includes a transition starting good then turning into bad, for example.

At this point my other 3 VCRs are broken....

OMG .... maybe your remaining VCR is also half-dead or just worn......
I don't think the culprit is the PC or the GV-USB2, and certainly not the OS.

Good luck

Those 3 spare dead VCRs were a job lot I got for free, alongside the working one which I paid for (all of them Pana ES35V). I thought at least one spare would work... oh well. But maybe there is some issue with the working VCR I have, like bad capacitors or other components - that might explain the sudden random bursts of lost frames? Maybe I should get yet another VCR capable of S-Video that has something like Panasonic's Diga tech too (I can't afford a proper TBC).

I'll try and get those snippets you mentioned tomorrow

[Alwyn]

There's no way you should be getting that many dropped/inserted/dupe frames.

Don't be put off trying a "normal" VCR. S-Video is not that much better that it jumps out at you. I think it's main advantage is that it stops dot crawl.

You could use one of the busted ES35Vs in passthrough; that will give you stabilised S-Video Out.

Give Amarec a go. If that gives you the same result, I'd be trying your other PC. There must be something seriously wrong when capturing with your Win 11 machine.

Re UTVideo, just use the defaults.

[Sharc]

There's no way you should be getting that many dropped/inserted/dupe frames.

On this point we all agree

Edit:
@Whiteboy: Something trivial, did you check your cables, connectors, plugs for loose contacts? S-Video are a bit fragile, and SCART sockets may develop broken solder pins when mechanical stress is applied......

[WhiteboyUltima]

There's no way you should be getting that many dropped/inserted/dupe frames.

Don't be put off trying a "normal" VCR. S-Video is not that much better that it jumps out at you. I think it's main advantage is that it stops dot crawl.

You could use one of the busted ES35Vs in passthrough; that will give you stabilised S-Video Out.

The S-video really did a great job removing Hanover bars though so I'm keen to keep that. My other 3 ES35V units all have error codes and will not even play a tape

I think given the nature of the way frames are dropped in sustained bursts and then it's stable for say 20 minutes and then another 2 minute burst of lost frames happens - and the fact that it's happening with different tapes - points to something wrong with the VCR itself. Not dirt as that would produce more constant dropped frames through the whole video and visual artifacts.
I think it's more like the circuitry could be wearing out, capacitors, maybe something in the Diga stabilisation circuitry or even the comb filter circuit.

That's why I want to try a new VCR - I can try my old Sanyo over composite just to see how many dropped frames I get and if it's vastly less, that will prove something so I'll probably buy a new VCR with S-vid and stabilisation.

Pretty sure it's not Windows, it barely uses 1% or 2% CPU power when capturing. Never had any issue with this PC so far.

I checked all my cables/connectors, they ae all great condition. I'm not using SCART anywhere (no socket for that).

I'll go and capture again with my Sanyo, before I try totally different software like AmarecTV.

[Alwyn]

My other 3 ES35V units all have error codes and will not even play a tape

Nothing mechanical needs to work. All that is needed is the ability to passthrough. Composite In from your Sanyo to S-Video Out to your GV.

Anyway, try your Sanyo first. And don't be afraid of Amarec; it doesn't install so does no harm to your computer.

[jagabo]

Pretty sure it's not Windows, it barely uses 1% or 2% CPU power when capturing.

That doesn't mean a lot. Huffyuv is single threaded so it doesn't matter than you have a bunch of threads sitting idle. More of an issues though is hard drive write speeds. It doesn't matter that the outer cylinders of the drive can write at 500 MB/s if you're writing to the inner cylinders -- which may be less than 10 percent of that. And if you're using a shingled drive the drive has to go back and rewrite lots of data (invisible to you). Even with SSD devices there's lots of housekeeping that goes on invisibly. Any of those things can cause dropped frames because video capture is a real time process -- a new frame is arriving every ~33 ms. If a disk write or some CPU problem takes more than that a frame will likely be missed.

[Sharc]

@Whiteboy: You could try to record your tape to a DVD with your ES35V. If it goes haywire as well then the culprit is the tape or the ES35V. If it goes through smoothly the problem is most likely external to the ES35V. At least you would have a working digital backup (DVD) of your precious tape - even though the mpeg2 DVD recording will not be top notch quality.

[Sharc]

Any of those things can cause dropped frames because video capture is a real time process -- a new frame is arriving every ~33 ms.

He has a bit more time in New Zealand: 40ms for PAL (but the frame size is bigger)

[WhiteboyUltima]

Pretty sure it's not Windows, it barely uses 1% or 2% CPU power when capturing.

That doesn't mean a lot. Huffyuv is single threaded so it doesn't matter than you have a bunch of threads sitting idle. More of an issues though is hard drive write speeds. It doesn't matter that the outer cylinders of the drive can write at 500 MB/s if you're writing to the inner cylinders -- which may be less than 10 percent of that. And if you're using a shingled drive the drive has to go back and rewrite lots of data (invisible to you). Even with SSD devices there's lots of housekeeping that goes on invisibly. Any of those things can cause dropped frames because video capture is a real time process -- a new frame is arriving every ~33 ms. If a disk write or some CPU problem takes more than that a frame will likely be missed.

As my previous posts said, I'm writing to a brand new super fast PCIE4.0 nvme M.2 SSD, separate from my OS drive.

@Whiteboy: You could try to record your tape to a DVD with your ES35V. If it goes haywire as well then the culprit is the tape or the ES35V. If it goes through smoothly the problem is most likely external to the ES35V. At least you would have a working digital backup (DVD) of your precious tape - even though the mpeg2 DVD recording will not be top notch quality.

The DVD player does not work on any of my 4 ES35V units sadly. I do have backups of my important tapes already thankfully using my Sanyo unit, but I'm trying to get S-video + Diga stabilised captures now. I technically have that already for the tape I need, just in 2 different captures with different dropped frames in each capture, so if all else fails I can just splice the good parts together to get a result with 0 dropped frames.

But for future captures I think I am just going to get my hands on a refurbished S-video capable machine that does something like TBC that actually doesn't drop frames

Nothing mechanical needs to work. All that is needed is the ability to passthrough. Composite In from your Sanyo to S-Video Out to your GV.

Anyway, try your Sanyo first. And don't be afraid of Amarec; it doesn't install so does no harm to your computer.

Right, I didn't think of just passing it through like that to take advantage of the Diga stabilisation (if my broken units can even do that). I guess though I will lose the S-video quality that way since I'd be feeding in composite from my Sanyo. Anyway, yes I will try recapturing with just my composite Sanyo machine once I get time in the next day or 2