Modern WinDV-style app coming soon...

[medipal]

I am working on a free, modern WinDV-style app for capturing DV/HDV, etc. via Firewire to a Windows laptop/PC.

It's coming along nicely. So far these all work (from a select few decks/cams):
DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO25, DVCPRO50 (incl. 4-channel audio), HDV (incl. 4-channel audio), Digital8 (and Hi8/Video8 if run through a suitable Firewire equipped cam).
Still in the works is: MicroMV


It does scene splitting after capturing an uninterrupted native master file.

It has a ton of features but is hopefully not too cluttered, and simple enough to use.


Main goal is to preserve/archive the tapes' footage, so there's no transcoding or recompressing.


[Attachment 93611 - Click to enlarge]

[dellsam34]

Although being using Sclive, WinDV, HDVsplit, CaptureFlux without any issues, it is good to have one app for all, Keep us posted.

[medipal]

Although being using Sclive, WinDV, HDVsplit, CaptureFlux without any issues, it is good to have one app for all, Keep us posted.

Will do, cheers.

And yeah, this is NOT reinventing the wheel: those all work fine.
There's a few things I am putting in that I thought they were lacking (*), but overall this is just a new take on what those already did [mostly] perfectly well.

* Note: This one has a 1-click capture: deck/cam in VCR mode; tap 1-Click capture, and it will rewind, play, check footage for a few seconds, rewind again, then capture the whole tape (with options to choose on what to do if it detects no usable signal, and what to do at the end of capture, etc.)

Preview video on play and capture. Selectable CH1/2 or CH3/4 monitoring for 4 channel audio.
Tons more...

[dellsam34]

Any support for DVCPro HD and D-VHS?

[dvd3500]

Watching with anticipation...

[medipal]

Any support for DVCPro HD and D-VHS?

Ha!
These could work, yes. The limitation will likely be me getting my hands on test equipment.
D-VHS would be limited to non-copyrighted material.

Both formats would need a source that exposes their signal via Firewire, those exist but not easy to come by.

[aedipuss]

can you handle a tape that switches back and forth from 16 bit and 12 bit audio? they have always been a pia for me.

[dellsam34]

Both formats would need a source that exposes their signal via Firewire, those exist but not easy to come by.

I have no access to any DVCPro format but I can provide assistance with D-VHS.

Side note: VLC and CapDVHS on a Win 7 OS work great for D-VHS, Not sure about newer OSs as I don't have firewire port in those systems.

DVHSTool also works for making D-VHS recordings on Win XP only.

[medipal]

can you handle a tape that switches back and forth from 16 bit and 12 bit audio? they have always been a pia for me.

I am confident it can handle this, yes, but I need far more testing to confirm. Rudimentary tests did indeed capture the tape continuously whether it switched from 16bit to 12bit and back to 16bit again.

Going through all the various formats and potential things we could find on tapes now: DV/DVCAM/HDV, 2CH/4CH, PAL/NTSC....lots to test!

[medipal]

Both formats would need a source that exposes their signal via Firewire, those exist but not easy to come by.

I have no access to any DVCPro format but I can provide assistance with D-VHS.

Side note: VLC and CapDVHS on a Win 7 OS work great for D-VHS, Not sure about newer OSs as I don't have firewire port in those systems.

DVHSTool also works for making D-VHS recordings on Win XP only.

Thanks for this. Will keep it in mind...it might end up on the to-do list with not the highest priority for a bit, until I get my hands on some gear.
I might ask you for some testing and/or some small sample clips of D-VHS footage, if that is okay.

[dellsam34]

Any time.

[medipal]

Any time.

I now have a DVCPRO HD deck (AJ-HD1400) to test. Still nothing for D-VHS...those devices are hard to come by!!

If you can please provide a short raw D‑VHS file, that could get me started...

[dellsam34]

D-VHS has different modes, HS, LS, SD, HD, Let me do some research and get few samples ready for you, it may take few days.

As to D-Theater tapes, I don't have any, but this demo dump is as close as it gets to a real D-Theater tape, It tops 25 Mb/s bitrate total, with Dolby Digital which is what D-Theater tapes are encoded at, Though some have DTS tracks.

[dellsam34]

I tried a DV recorder I have, The Datavideo DN-200 and I was able to stream digital SD from an analog tape over firewire successfully, When I went to try a D-VHS tape my deck decided that it no longer outputs D-VHS signal over any output analog or digital, Time for bench, really hate when that happens, I hope I can get it fixed so I can help you with your app refinement.

The file transferred is basically a SD 720x480 MPEG-2 compressed, Sample attached:

General
ID                                       : 1 (0x1)
Complete name                            : D:\BIN01\B01C001.M2T
Format                                   : MPEG-TS
File size                                : 254 MiB
Duration                                 : 2 min 52 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Constant
Overall bit rate                         : 12.4 Mb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate                 : 12.4 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 29.970 FPS
Conformance errors                       : 1
 MPEG-TS                                 : Yes
  General compliance                     : Bitstream synchronisation is lost (offset 0xFE64600)

Video
ID                                       : 4096 (0x1000)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : MPEG Video
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Main@Main
Format settings                          : CustomMatrix / BVOP
Format settings, BVOP                    : Yes
Format settings, Matrix                  : Custom
Format settings, GOP                     : Variable
Format settings, picture structure       : Frame
Codec ID                                 : 2
Duration                                 : 2 min 52 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 11.4 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 11.5 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard                                 : NTSC
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Top Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 1.100
Time code of first frame                 : 00:06:51;24
Time code source                         : Group of pictures header
GOP, Open/Closed                         : Open
Stream size                              : 234 MiB (92%)

Audio
ID                                       : 4098 (0x1002)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
Format version                           : Version 1
Format profile                           : Layer 2
Codec ID                                 : 3
Duration                                 : 2 min 52 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 384 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 41.667 FPS (1152 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -161 ms
Stream size                              : 7.88 MiB (3%)

Menu
ID                                       : 110 (0x6E)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : MPEG Video / MPEG Audio
List                                     : 4096 (0x1000) (MPEG Video) / 4098 (0x1002) (MPEG Audio)
Maximum bit rate                         : 12440000

[medipal]

I tried a DV recorder I have, The Datavideo DN-200 and I was able to stream digital SD from an analog tape over firewire successfully, When I went to try a D-VHS tape my deck decided that it no longer outputs D-VHS signal over any output analog or digital, Time for bench, really hate when that happens, I hope I can get it fixed so I can help you with your app refinement.

The file transferred is basically a SD 720x480 MPEG-2 compressed, Sample attached...

Awesome, thanks!

The attached file and its codec info is very helpful, thanks. I will preliminarily add D-VHS, and if supplied via Firewire, I see no reason why this wouldn't work. Discovery, stream negotiation, transport control of the deck, and any potential copy-protection restrictions still would need to be checked/verified.

This smaller file is much better and easier to handle than the previously linked ~3.2GB file!

Was this captured directly from a deck, or encoded from an analog input? I am seeing bottom-edge artifacts, and was wondering where and when those were introduced. If captured, what was the deck you used?


------------

I managed to successfully capture DVCPRO HD from the Aj-HD1400 deck now. Not finished yet, but was able to capture AND got preview working.

And yeah, this old equipment is quite fragile: I've already had several pieces of equipment fail: they worked fine at first, but then gave up the ghost: I presume brittle connections, fragile solder pads, old capacitors, oxidized ribbon cables, etc., etc.


Thanks for your help on this.

[dellsam34]

The 3.2 GB file is a proper D-VHS D-Theater demo tape @ 25Mb/s but without the copy protection, I think JVC didn't put copy protection on these demo tapes, The reason it's big is that I don't want to take a snippet out of it in fear that it may alter the original specification of the file.

The recent file I posted is captured via firewire @ 12.4 Mb/s when an analog tape is played back (S-VHS in this case), hence the head switch at the bottom, I captured few minutes enough to fit in here, I assume the same file type is created when recording from the deck's analog SD inputs or recording made from the built in analog tuner..

I think there is only one file type left to get and that is a recording from an ATSC tuner (19Mb/s), Unfortunately my deck is not built in ATSC tuner, so we may have to ask someone who has a deck with built in tuner or connected to a ATSC tuner via firewire, I know few people that I can contact.

The three file types should cover most use cases of what a D-VHS machine can playback or record.

If I get my deck working again I may be able to supply more shorter D-VHS files.

I wouldn't worry too much about copy protection, there is a limited collection of D-Theater tapes made and it's in the hands of few collectors, Most if not all of those titles are available on Blu-ray already, I don't see anyone from those collectors waiting impatiently for an app to transfer them to files, There is absolutely no reason.

[medipal]

Ah, okay, thanks for that clarification. I was now finally in a position to download the 3.2GB file, and I see what you mean.

Is your deck a JVC HM-DH30000U or HM-DH40000U, maybe?

Which capture software did you use for the 3.2GB file? And was the file subsequently processed with FFmpeg (even just remuxed without re-encoding?)
Its service provider field says FFmpeg, with the demo’s title embedded as the service name. I’m trying to distinguish the original FireWire output from the resulting file’s packaging.

What's odd is, I looked at 2 sections and see a lot of padding (33% to 69 % of the 25 Mb/s stream are null packets, which seems to vary throughout the full clip: are those a result of capturing or is that what's really being sent over firewire, is what I am trying to figure out.

And yeah, in that case we also still need to test an ATSC recording, approx 19 Mb/s broadcast-derived HD playback somehow.

I just might have to get one of these devices, it seems!

[dellsam34]

I have the JVC HM-DH5U, The 3.2GB file is not my own, I acquired it that way, I did not process any files on my end, If it doesn't look compliant you will have to wait for my deck to get fixed, I maybe able to record it to a D-VHS tape and recapture it again for compliance.

Meanwhile we can reach out to some folks to see if they can supply short clips, I'm pretty sure few of the members here own D-VHS decks.

[medipal]

I have the JVC HM-DH5U, The 3.2GB file is not my own, I acquired it that way, I did not process any files on my end, If it doesn't look compliant you will have to wait for my deck to get fixed, I maybe able to record it to a D-VHS tape and recapture it again for compliance.

Meanwhile we can reach out to some folks to see if they can supply short clips, I'm pretty sure few of the members here own D-VHS decks.

Understood, thanks.

Yes, we need some more clips, directly from one of these decks. I should be able to get my hands on a deck in a few weeks. It will likely be one of Victor branded ones, HM-DH30000 or so.

In the meantime I will ask someone for a clip in another sub...