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  1. Member
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    Hi,
    I'm trying to digitise a video, but there is some quite bad horizontal jittering, that gets worse as the amount of movement in a scene increases. This only happens when I'm capturing it though. When I hook up the VCR to my TV no such jittering occurs. The tape I'm using as a commercial PAL VHS tape (mid '80s, released by Thorn-EMI (Australia).) Could it be that these issues are caused by macrovision or something? And if so, are there any devices that could fix up the signal before it goes to my capture card?
    Thanks
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  2. Capturing Memories dellsam34's Avatar
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    Hardware used?? Software used?? Video sample??
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  3. Member
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    Oh yeah sorry. Using Hauppauge ImpactVCB-e for my capture card, and capturing with OBS in huffyuv. Here's a sample (used the credits as they best display the jitter)
    Image Attached Files
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  4. Member
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    Originally Posted by servese View Post
    capturing with OBS
    first mistake when digitizing VHS: using OBS.
    Use VirtualDub and HuffYUV for capturing, not OBS.
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  5. Member
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    I'm on linux, so virtualdub won't do. Could use mencoder though, do you reckon that's good?
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  6. Member
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    Capturing VHS on Linux is never such a good idea.
    What you definetly need (for stabilizing the picture) would be a TBC.
    As you're in PAL land you could try a Panasonic DMR as a stabilizator.
    I use it (DMR EH-52) and the picture is rock solid.
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  7. Member
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    So basically is the DMR EH-52 a DVD recorder with a built-in TBC?
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  8. Member
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    Originally Posted by servese View Post
    So basically is the DMR EH-52 a DVD recorder with a built-in TBC?
    Not only the DMR EH-52 (it also has a HDD), but also the DMR ES-10 and DMR-ES15 (both without HDD) are known for stabilizing the picture.
    But keep in mind that this is the option if you don't want to spend much money on a real TBC.
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  9. Member
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    Ohhhh.... Just checked and standalone TBCs definitely cost heaps. I've digitised a few off-air tapes and they didn't suffer from the same issue. Are TBCs mainly needed only for commercial tapes?
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  10. Member
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    Originally Posted by servese View Post
    I've digitised a few off-air tapes and they didn't suffer from the same issue. Are TBCs mainly needed only for commercial tapes?
    Not really, TBCs are always needed when the signal is not stable. And that is usually the case with VHS.
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  11. Member
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    One more thing, are there any DVD recorders with good TBCs that are common in Australia? Not necessarily a question for your of course, seeing as you're based in Germany according to your profile. Not super keen on the prospect of a shipping a DVD recorder halfway across the world, although I probably will anyway if there aren't any more convenient options.
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  12. A quick look at ebay indicates that there are a number of panasonic dvrs for sale in AU, you can look for panasonic dmr-es panasonic dmr-eh and panasonic dmr-ex, or e.g ES15, EH50, EH55. Most of them can do a great job. There are a few like the ES20, and the very late model blu-ray ones that should be avoided though.

    A Pioneer dvd-recorder can also be a decent alternative (avoid the oldest ones named DVR-x20, DVR-x10 and with four number names.)
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  13. Member
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    The Sony RDR-HX 780 seems also to be good.
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  14. Yeah Sony RDR-HX x50, RDR-GXx50, and newer (higher second number) are similar to the Pioneer ones, if they are available in AU. The older ones have completely different internals and lack the jitter correction of the newer ones.
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  15. Member
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    Well thanks for all your tips everyone, should've really gone with a DVD recorder in the first place I guess.
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  16. Member
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    Also, you mentioned earlier that it's generally not that good to capture stuff using linux. However, would this commandline, based off this guide be good for capturing video in sync?

    Code:
    ffmpeg \
        -i <(
            gst-launch-1.0 -q \
                v4l2src device="/dev/video0" do-timestamp=true norm="PAL-BG" pixel-aspect-ratio=1 \
                    ! video/x-raw, format=YUY2, framerate=25/1, width=720, height=576 \
                    ! queue max-size-buffers=0 max-size-time=0 max-size-bytes=0 \
                    ! mux. \
                alsasrc device="hw:CARD=CX23885,DEV=0" do-timestamp=true \
                    ! audio/x-raw, rate=48000, channels=2 \
                    ! queue max-size-buffers=0 max-size-time=0 max-size-bytes=0 \
                    ! mux. \
                matroskamux name=mux \
                    ! queue max-size-buffers=0 max-size-time=0 max-size-bytes=0 \
                    ! fdsink fd=1
        ) \
        -c:v huffyuv \
        -c:a pcm_s16le \
        "test.mkv"
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  17. Capturing on linux is fine if you are comfortable using the command line (don't know anything comparable to virtualdub on linux for capturing). Haven't tinkered with it much but that may work, you would have to test. Apps like OBS aren't really designed for capturing stuff like VHS and lack settings for sync and such, but if you can get the right resolution and color space, capture to a lossless codec, and don't get audio sync issues I suppose one could use that too.
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  18. Member
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    Yeah, I'm perfectly comfortable using the command line, so that's all good. I was just wondering if any other forum users have used that guide, and whether or not they got good results. Also one more thing, with that commandline all the technical details are the same as the OBS capture, apart from the colour primaries and the colourmatirx. For the OBS capture, I get "bt.709", and for the ffmpeg/gstreamer option I get "bt.601"
    How do I find out which one is correct?

    Edit: Actually the encoded copy of the credits I uploaded here has the same colour primaries as the ffmpeg capture one. Probably just some quirk with OBS. Anyway colours look the same so all good probably.
    Last edited by servese; 26th Mar 2021 at 22:02.
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  19. bt.601 is what's used for SD material, so that's the correct one, bt.709 is for HD.
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  20. Member
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    Thanks for clearing that up. OBS probably did that because it's mainly intended for live streaming HD video.
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  21. Member
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    An update. The DVD recorder finally arrived (went with the DMR-EH50) and it worked a treat! The video's rock solid and doesn't jitter a tiny bit. The video's also in sync after I switched to using ffmpeg and gstreamer instead of OBS. Thanks to everyone who helped me out with my problem!
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  22. Member
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    Thanks for the feedback, Servese. That will help someone for sure.
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