Audio Timing Issues and Newbie VHS Transfer

[wcndave2]

Hi there.

A couple of years ago I read up on all the transfer methods here, and started trying to transfer some of ~50 VHS tapes I have, which were mostly things recorded off the TV (not available elsewhere, eg interviews and documentaries), and some home movies.

I did a few, and then got deeper into AVISynth and QTGMC and realised that if I was going to do it well I needed to get a proper player, and not the crappy old Sanyo I got from mother in law....

2 years later, I now own a JVC HR-S7722 from https://vcrshop.com/ with TBC and can see the difference when playing.

My first step is to get good quality lossless transfer "masters" before I start any kind of processing.

First I set the player to:

B.E.S.T. : ON
PICTURE CONTROL: AUTO
O.S.D. : OFF
DIGITAL 3R: OFF
DIGITAL TBC/NR: ON

This is connected to an Elgato video capture (I see other options seem preferred by the community, however I have had good results with it previously)
Using S-Video

Then I am using VirtualDub2 2.5.1.1095
I set compression to Lagarith with default settings.
That means the result will be UYVY. I did look at converting to YUYV, but for now don't quite see any advantage.
I also see that under "Configure", it's set to RGB (default) and the only other option is YUY2, however not quite sure what that does, as the dialogue also says "no conversion required on output"....
Audio set to no compression.

I then tested this on a pre-recorded tape, and it all seems good.

So my first question, regarding simply the capture process, do the above settings seem right?
My only thought was to enable the conversion to YUYV on input, which as I understand it is just a non-destructive reordering of the bits.

I then tried a recorded from TV tape, the kind that was quickly thrown in to record something that had already started, and is a bit dodgy at the start, but gets better after a minute or so. (Also a tape that was not looked after).

There are lots of dropped frames at the start, which is understandable, however the main problem is that the audio starts quite a few seconds after the video - this can range from 5 seconds to 20 seconds.

Also, the audio will change speed quite dramatically at times, and the narrator sounds like a different gender at times!
When played on the TV, the start has some lousy quality, however it at least syncs up properly.

Is there a way to force vdub to "take it as it comes" and remove the delay?

I tried playing around with the timing settings, so this is not the initial state, but they look like this right now.


[Attachment 90390 - Click to enlarge]

Any ideas or suggestions?

Many thanks!
Dave

[lollo]

1- set PICTURE CONTROL: EDIT
2- switch from VirtualDub to AmarecTV and capture Y/C into 4:2:2 YUV, 720x576(480), lossless, interlaced

[wcndave2]

1- set PICTURE CONTROL: EDIT
2- switch from VirtualDub to AmarecTV and capture Y/C into 4:2:2 YUV, 720x576(480), lossless, interlaced

So I have seen AmarecTV mentioned before, and two things I think put me off.

One is that you have to pay for the codec?
The other is that it's no longer developed, it seems to have last been updated more than a decade ago, whereas VirtualDub2 is still in active development.

Are either of these genuine considerations?

Thanks!

[lollo]

There is no need to pay for a codec, you can use your Lagarith.

The capture engine of VirtualDub has not been updated since decades.

[wcndave2]

There is no need to pay for a codec, you can use your Lagarith.

The capture engine of VirtualDub has not been updated since decades.

Thanks for the info.

AmaRec settings have been changed to the correct values from what I can see, however I am getting an error

HRESULT=80004005 (FAILED) Unspecified error

code: pConfig ->SetFormat(pamt)

I followed some steps generated by AI:

- checked nothing else is using the Elgato
- checked the fps and resolution
- checked the privacy settings for camera
- change framerate from 999 to 25
- run as admin
- checked it's running as PAL_B

I think I had problems like this when I tried it a couple of years ago - just to see what it would do.
Any advice?

[lollo]

https://www.aaproductions.net/amarectv.htm

[wcndave2]

https://www.aaproductions.net/amarectv.htm

Although I am in Italy, I do everything in UK English, so I do have my decimal point set to . and the list set to ,

I will try to work through all the settings again. Thanks.

[davexnet]

For Vdub capture, the old version, 1.9.11 is often recommended

[wcndave2]

Okay, I got it!

I had the audio set to "Analog Audio In (Elgato Video Capture)"

instead of

Elgato Video Capture


[Attachment 90409 - Click to enlarge]

Phew - not the best error message, but happy to have got there!

[lollo]

Post a sample of your capture here once done, so we can check and eventually help you with the restoration process.

[wcndave2]

Post a sample of your capture here once done, so we can check and eventually help you with the restoration process.

Thanks, you regulars on here are super supportive, really appreciate it!

Likely to be after xmas now, I'll see when I get more time!