SIMA SED-CM users, please help

[hhamzeh]

I capture home made VHS movies (no macrovision) with Canopus ADVC-100 and not a problem (just a bit of distortion at the very bottom of the captured movie, but I think it is normal). I thought adding SIMA SED-CM might improve the quality, so I connected the Sima box between my VCR and ADVC-100 capture card. Now I still have the distortion at the pottom and in addition, aproximately the 5% at the top of the movie has become skewed (My source is not bad, so I did not notice that much difference in quality). I think more device is connected to the capturing path, more the quality suffers. Do you guys have any idea about this? Do you always use SIMA box regardless of the quality of the VHS? Thanks for your input.

[Bob W]

I always have the Sima connected when I capture. I would at least try another VCR player to see if that's the problem. I actually had a good working player however I went and bought a new JVC VCR just because it has svideo out.

[hhamzeh]

Thank you for your input. Actually I use a JVC SVHS VCR also. I do not think the problem is the VCR since with removing the Sima box, that funny skewed distortion at the top of the frames disapears.

[jar5000]

I also have the same thing going on with my Sima. I tried 2 other VCRs and nothing changed. I actualy dont mind though. I just crop off the tiny little skewed part off when I encode to MPEG2 with TMPGenc. IMHO, I think the improved quality of the signal coming out of the Sima is more important than cropping a tiny bit of the picture off. Many of my old VHS tapes won't even cap on my ADVC-100 without the Sima box being used.

[hhamzeh]

Thanks jar5000,

Have you ever made a DVD without corping the top portion? I am wondering if it would show on TV since not all the frame would appear on TV. Thanks.

[jar5000]

No I havent tried making a DVD without cropping...Its really such a small amount at the top that I don't even notice cropping off that little bit. As always....beauty is in the eye of the beholder....what you might dig, I might not dig and vice versa.

[indolikaa]

@hhamzeh

If I remember right, this is related to overscanning, which is seen on your computer but not necessarily the television. I see something similar at the top and bottom of captures that come from VHS but they are not present on the final VCD/SVCD/DVD.

Of course, I could be wrong...

[hhamzeh]

Thank you all for the inputs.