Video distortion/noise

[latouffe]

Hi All,

So finally I was able to make progress on capturing the video from my mono camcorder Sony Video 8XR.
After connecting only the Yellow (video) and white(left channel) to the Avermedia DVD EZMaker 7 I captured one tape at the moment. I used teh software provided - Powerdirector. All is fine except the size of the file (6GB) and also the terrible distortion of the video. When the camera moves there is a lot of "marble" and a green bar on the right and a moving bar on the bottom.

Picture

I was able to make the video stereo by choosing the audio track -> edit audio_>Waveeditor-> Copy left channel (ctrl+a, Ctrl+C) to the right channel and saving.

Could you please let me know how to shrink the size and how to change the format?

The framerate is 29-NTSC. Should I switch to PAL and 640x480?

Many thanks!

[jagabo]

When the camera moves there is a lot of "marble"

Marble? You mean the comb artifacts? That's normal interlaced video. Encode interlaced or deinterlace and encode progressive.

and a green bar on the right

That's very common with camcorders. You didn't see it on old CRT TVs because they didn't show you the outer ~5 percent of the frame. You can crop/mask it away. Or use more advanced filtering to blur/mirror colors at that edge of the frame.

and a moving bar on the bottom.

That's "head switching noise" and is typical of all analog consumer tape formats. Crop/mask it away.

I was able to make the video stereo by choosing the audio track -> edit audio_>Waveeditor-> Copy left channel (ctrl+a, Ctrl+C) to the right channel and saving.

You can use a Y adapter cable to route the mono audio to both the left and right inputs of the capture device.

Could you please let me know how to shrink the size and how to change the format?

After capturing, encode with whatever codec you want. MPEG 2 for DVD. h.264 for standalone media player. Etc.

The framerate is 29-NTSC. Should I switch to PAL and 640x480?

If the tape is PAL you should be capturing 720x576, 25 fps. If the tape is NTSC you should capture at 720x480, 29.97 fps.

[JVRaines]

I was able to make the video stereo by choosing the audio track -> edit audio_>Waveeditor-> Copy left channel (ctrl+a, Ctrl+C) to the right channel and saving.

That's not stereo. It's two-channel mono. Stereophony uses two channels with non-identical signals to create the illusion of a sound field.

[latouffe]

I was able to make the video stereo by choosing the audio track -> edit audio_>Waveeditor-> Copy left channel (ctrl+a, Ctrl+C) to the right channel and saving.

That's not stereo. It's two-channel mono. Stereophony uses two channels with non-identical signals to create the illusion of a sound field.

Yes I know, my bad for writing too fast.

I was able to make the video stereo by choosing the audio track -> edit audio_>Waveeditor-> Copy left channel (ctrl+a, Ctrl+C) to the right channel and saving.

You can use a Y adapter cable to route the mono audio to both the left and right inputs of the capture device.

Great thank you a mil for this tip!

Could you please let me know how to shrink the size and how to change the format?

After capturing, encode with whatever codec you want. MPEG 2 for DVD. h.264 for standalone media player. Etc.

And what codec would you recommend?

The framerate is 29-NTSC. Should I switch to PAL and 640x480?

If the tape is PAL you should be capturing 720x576, 25 fps. If the tape is NTSC you should capture at 720x480, 29.97 fps.

Thanks!

And last question. Is there any way to speed up the process? (a bit of a dumb question as I fear only a better PC will get the encoding faster). At the moment I do the capturing for 1-1.5 hours and then encoding it for 2-3 hours. So one cassette with 90 minutes of footage takes me 4 hours of prepping.

I have about 240 cassettes to capture before June. Is there a way to do it fast?

Many thanks!

[jagabo]

And what codec would you recommend?

It depends on your needs. If you're making DVDs you have only one choice, MPEG 2. If you're making Blu-ray discs you have to use h.264 or VC1. For upload to youtube or general use h.264 (AVC) with AAC audio is probably your best bet right now. Maybe h.265 (HEVC) if you only need the video to play on the most advanced devices.

Is there any way to speed up the process?

Capture can only happen in real time. But to speed up your final encoding you can use faster encoder settings (for example, there's a 100 fold difference in encoding speed between x264's ultrafast and placebo presets). If you have a recent Intel CPU you can use Quick Sync. Or NVEnc on newer Nvidia graphics cards. If your computer is fast enough you can encode while you capture.

[latouffe]

I think i get the gist. I just encoded my second video and its not bad but comparing to the original tape the quality is awful.
On the mini screen of the camera all the colors are bright, theres 60 fps and no artefacts.

On the captured video When there is movement - here a rollercoaster the video goes bonkers. On the analog camera everything is clear.

If im not mistaken its caused by the capture card right? Can you please let me know of a better one that I can buy? I dont have firewire in my mobo.

Thank you

[jagabo]

Yes, the capture device is having problems with the video sync. Motion at the time the tape was recorded probably caused minor speed variations of the flying heads and the capture device can't deal with it. I would try using an old DVD recorder as a line time base corrector. There are many threads regarding that here. Search for line TBC. Here's one where I posted some examples:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/319420-Who-uses-a-DVD-recorder-as-a-line-TBC-and-w...er#post1983288

[latouffe]

Wow great thanks! But how do you capture the video from the camera on the pc going through a DVD recorder? You just connect the RCA and power the dvdrecorder without any dvd in it?

[jagabo]

how do you capture the video from the camera on the pc going through a DVD recorder? You just connect the RCA and power the dvdrecorder without any dvd in it?

Yes. The DVD recorder has analog inputs and analog outputs. The output is time base corrected and is active any time the DVD recorder is powered up. It's best to use s-video cables both links. If your VHS deck only has composite output it's best to use composited from the VHS deck to the DVD recorder, then s-video from the DVD recorder to the capture device (if the capture device has an s-video input).

[latouffe]

Very interesting! Its quite possible that I will buy a used Panasonic DMR-ES10 to try it. And maybe a second PC in the meantime because my CPU is stressing 99% all the time and I cant do anything else on the PC than capturing or producing.

[jagabo]

You're going to have trouble with 99 percent CPU usage while capturing. You're probably dropping a lot of frames. Step through one of your captures frame by frame and watch for duplicate and/or missing frames.