Opinions - What is the best VHS to digital converter?

[Eric-jan]

Well the OP comes with a simple question, (with no further info, though....) and there's already talk about capture equipment,? no use to come up with that, without asking what the OP really want to spend or if there's already some vcr equipment, to save money and time, and to talk also about external TBC's is also a thing which comes up most of the time while these tbc's are hard to come by, and not to mention there are different types of TBC's.... this will scare off ..... while this is not needed all the time.

btw... the OP started this thread a year ago !! and was picked up for some reason....

[usually_quiet]

Well the OP comes with a simple question, (with no further info, though....) and there's already talk about capture equipment,? no use to come up with that, without asking what the OP really want to spend or if there's already some vcr equipment, to save money and time, and to talk also about external TBC's is also a thing which comes up most of the time while these tbc's are hard to come by, and not to mention there are different types of TBC's.... this will scare off ..... while this is not needed all the time.

The OP asked for capture equipment suggestions in his first post, and I provided the information he asked for. I'm not sure why you have a problem with that.

jagabo, one of the most experienced, knowledgeable and helpful members at VideoHelp, was the first to bring up a TBC in this thread, and he was not wrong to mention it. A line TBC will almost always improve the quality of VHS captures (sometimes the improvement is significant!), even using a cheap capture device.

btw... the OP started this thread a year ago !! and was picked up for some reason....

Umm... Notice that there is no old thread warning attached to this thread. ...which means that VideoHelp's owner and primary moderator decided that this thread is still fresh enough to pick up again for any reason. If you think he is being too generous and the warning should be added after one year, VideoHelp has a site feedback subforum. LOL

[Eric-jan]

Yeah, i'm maybe used to the strong rules of the DigitalFaq Forum..... To advise the use of a external TBC ? is questionable... they are hard to get, and then to judge which one you should get...
you really should get a "tuned" advise, even if that one should be available ...... for a "pro?" it is easy to say, an amateur is already happy with a rough transfer, and maybe later will go into the details when there is some routine in it all.
The details will scare most newbees away, is my guess.

[usually_quiet]

To advise the use of a external TBC ? is questionable... they are hard to get, and then to judge which one you should get...
you really should get a "tuned" advise, even if that one should be available ...... for a "pro?" it is easy to say, an amateur is already happy with a rough transfer, and maybe later will go into the details when there is some routine in it all.
The details will scare most newbees away, is my guess.

That is really funny coming from someone who spends a lot of time at DigitalFAQ. lordsmurf, the primary contributor to DigitalFaq, is the biggest supporter of TBCs that I know of. Plus, I can't recall anyone at VideoHelp recommending a professional grade line TBC to an amateur in the past several years.

If you read the thread I linked to in post #2 and my other posts in this thread, I recommended a few of the older Panasonic DVD recorders, which include a good frame synchronizer/line TBC, as a video pass-through device to correct problems the analog video signal. They are often available for less than $100 on eBay and can be resold after they are no longer needed. If someone's collection of home movies on VHS is important enough to be worth the time it takes to convert it, surely it is worth $100 extra to do a better job. The OP gave us a $200 budget to work with.

[Eric-jan]

In your quote i said external TBC .... not professional , but even a choice for a consumer TBC is also difficult, or to get, since they are discontinued, and Lordsmurf also does not advise to buy from eBay.
Lordsmurf isn't only a primary contributor, he's the main moderator/censor of the DigitalFaq Forum, and offers also video equipment for sale.
Yes, i also can recommend the Panasonic brand because the one i have, is good in my opinion, mainly because it is a combo with component connection, and is with a "TBC" that does it job to my satisfaction.
if you compare to a pro, you want the very best of VHS, but where does it stop ? as time goes by you learn more and more, and you think you can do better on the captures you have done previously, you have to put a limit to that, also because this work is not done for "some" tapes, but for lots of them, if you do this for clients, or commercially, you should make demo's for the client, and see what he accepts on quality, otherwise one can get very frustrated.

with "tuned" advise i mean, first get to know more, before just asuming things, i even experienced this with lordsmurf, talking BS to me without any primary correct info from me, that's not a correct way to deal with things, and is very confusing.

Where you say "a few of the older" can be a bit confusing, "the older" had no TBC most of the time, but "the newer" ones got better in that way, i agree.

[usually_quiet]

if you compare to a pro, you want the very best of VHS, but where does it stop ? as time goes by you learn more and more, and you think you can do better on the captures you have done previously, you have to put a limit to that, also because this work is not done for "some" tapes, but for lots of them...

The OP in this thread asked for the best capture device for his VHS captures, so it is fair to assume that he cared at least a little about quality. He received advice that should lead to doing a satisfactory job the first time around, with no need to redo.

with "tuned" advise i mean, first get to know more, before just asuming things, i even experienced this with lordsmurf, talking BS to me without any primary correct info from me, that's not a correct way to deal with things, and is very confusing.

So, if you know that having specific information is crucial to receiving a correct answer why didn't you give lordsmurf the information he needed to begin with? ...or if you didn't know what information to provide in order to get a correct answer, why not ask what information is required to get a correct answer? FYI starting out by playing 20 questions with those looking for answers to a problem frequently becomes annoying for both the person seeking help and those trying providing it.

Where you say "a few of the older" can be a bit confusing, "the older" had no TBC most of the time, but "the newer" ones got better in that way, i agree.

I specifically mentioned the Panasonic DMR-ES10, DMR ES-15, and DMR ES-20 in my advice to the OP in post #15 in this thread. I'm not sure why you would be confused about what I meant.

[Eric-jan]

[QUOTE=usually_quiet;2532055]

with "tuned" advise i mean, first get to know more, before just asuming things, i even experienced this with lordsmurf, talking BS to me without any primary correct info from me, that's not a correct way to deal with things, and is very confusing.

So, if you know that having specific information is crucial to receiving a correct answer why didn't you give lordsmurf the information he needed to begin with? ...or if you didn't know what information to provide in order to get a correct answer, why not ask what information is required to get a correct answer? FYI starting out by playing 20 questions with those looking for answers to a problem frequently becomes annoying for both the person seeking help and those trying providing it.

Lordsmurf broke into a post, like he allways does, so i wasn't asking him for advise.

[usually_quiet]

Lordsmurf broke into a post, like he allways does, so i wasn't asking him for advise.

I don't think that someone who breaks into a thread that he thinks should have been declared dead just to complain about the way other members answered questions last year has any right to complain about other people's bad/strange habits.

[Tomycooler]

Trying to decide on purchasing one soon....

I've seen some sites regarding Diamond Video Capture as the best..... but further reviews note problems with Windows 10 compatibility.

I welcome any thoughts, opinions..... Audacity Find My iPhone Origin

I'm looking to convert old VHS to my PC

thanks for any input

The capture device is the least of your problems. You need a good VHS deck and a line time base corrector to get a decent signal to start with.

[lordsmurf]

Lordsmurf broke into a post, like he allways does, so i wasn't asking him for advise.

Are you referring to post#23 in this thread? That is 100% relevant to the OP, who asked about a recommendation from that site. But TopTenReviews is just an affiliate site, and they say whatever BS you'll pay them to say. It's not reliable information, and it's well known to the web-savvy. That site was made for gullible suckers. Their goal is $$$, not to give good advice.

To advise the use of a external TBC ? is questionable... they are hard to get, and then to judge which one you should get...

Hard to acquire, maybe, at times.
Expensive, sure, to non-video persons, always were, no different that good dSLR cameras + lenses.
But still the most ideal solution for analog conversion.

However, this is also why I've spend so much time, money, and energy in acquiring, researching, and testing TBC alternatives. Most fail miserably, but I have found a few devices to date.

you really should get a "tuned" advise

Hence why people post their questions in forums, even when guides and previous posts exist. They want advice for them, their specific situation, not generic. And I try to give it as much as I can, on multiple sites.

an amateur is already happy with a rough transfer, and maybe later will go into the details when there is some routine in it all.

You don't seem to understand the issue. Many newbies do not. It's not about simply getting a "rough" capture, but a capture whatsoever. Analog video is chaos on a tape, and must be tamed. Without the taming/processing -- and yes, mostly by TBC of some sort -- it will either have dropped frames, audio skew, or outright refuse to capture. A "rough" (completely crappy) capture would be a low-end consumer VHS VCR, outputting to a weak passthrough devices (non-ES10/15), using an EZcrap card. But the price of acquiring all that mess is not much different from better devices that will give you 2x+ quality. Not just minor difference, but huge quality difference that even Joe Sixpack can see.

Lordsmurf isn't only a primary contributor, he's the main moderator/censor of the DigitalFaq Forum,

Censor? For the entire life of the site, probably less than 50 posts have been censored. And it's only because of rude comments. The main forum rule is "be nice". Most users know to mind their manners, as it's a site used by professionals and hobbyists alike. It's not Facebook, where people troll each other.

and offers also video equipment for sale.

Yes I do. I worked in the field, then health forced me to quit. So I had tons of gear sitting in storage, and have been slowly unloading it for the past 12-18 months. That won't last forever, my closets are not bottomless pits.

Yeah, i'm maybe used to the strong rules of the DigitalFaq Forum.....

It's not a rule, it's a warning. Why? Because not everybody reads forum dates closely, and do not realize the post is not new. Threads rarely get OT bumps now, new threads are made instead, and only germane new info is added to the older thread when checked. That's how it should be. All sites have different styles of post management. I've been to some places where anything over a week is outright locked. Some don't manage at all.

is good in my opinion, mainly because it is a combo with component connection, and is with a "TBC" that does it job to my satisfaction.

1. It has no TBC.
2. You've said "in my opinion" many times, as if it's a get-out-of-jail-free card. That can be a weasel phrase. You got all pissy and bent out of shape when I pointed out to you that your component capture had blended deinterlace ghosts all over the place. While that could be traced to multiple weak points in your workflow, it's most likely a byproduct of crappy interlace>progressive conversion within the Panasonic DVD recorder. You've declined all attempts to further help you trace the issue, and the response is always "good enough for me". But the issue is still there. And people do notice ghosting, even the video-uninitiated.

if you compare to a pro, you want the very best of VHS, but where does it stop ? as time goes by you learn more and more, and you think you can do better on the captures you have done previously, you have to put a limit to that, also because this work is not done for "some" tapes, but for lots of them,

To a degree, it is true. There needs to be a stopping point. I often say this, for various situations. But you also don't just accept bad quality and quit trying. "Good enough" is too often a cop-out, not an actual state of being good.

with "tuned" advise i mean, first get to know more, before just asuming things, i even experienced this with lordsmurf, talking BS to me without any primary correct info from me, that's not a correct way to deal with things, and is very confusing.

There are certain aspects of video that are 100% factual, no matter the situation. There is zero room for discussion. Nothing to "tune". It is what it is, whether you accept it or not.

The bigger issue is that your information is often so fubar that it's hard to know how to respond. You seem mostly interested in defending your purchases rather than understanding video. You get bent out of shape when told that Blackmagic has well-documented issues with SD (even stated by BM themselves), and your sole test capture has more ghosts than a Casper cartoon. Worse yet, you try to convert fellow newbies into your warped worldview of video.

So, if you know that having specific information is crucial to receiving a correct answer why didn't you give lordsmurf the information he needed to begin with? ...or if you didn't know what information to provide in order to get a correct answer, why not ask what information is required to get a correct answer? FYI starting out by playing 20 questions with those looking for answers to a problem frequently becomes annoying for both the person seeking help and those trying providing it.

Rather than admit a knowledge deficit, some people choose to play coy. I'll generally play along, but I see through that facade quite easily.

[Eric-jan]

I guess everyone favours his own capture setup, and is happy with it in his own way... you can't blame someone for that

[lordsmurf]

I guess everyone favours his own capture setup, and is happy with it in his own way... you can't blame someone for that

At some point, you should.

But always understand the limits of what it can and cannot do. If you understand that, and can accept it, as can others who will see its results, and don't hide facts from others, all is well. I am very aware of what my equipment can and cannot do, of the shortcomings, of the strengths. Arriving at this equipment was a balance, leaning what can be accepted, and what cannot. Because trying to build a perfect capture setup -- that is, a utopian perfection -- is a fool's errand. You can get close, and should try, but remember the reason you got it was to capture video.