Need help from the experts

[bstaley]

My goal is to archive old VHS tapes. I am currently using a regular $79 Philips 4 Head VCR to a Canopus ADVC-100 into the computer. I would like to get the best quality possible from these old tapes and I think I should improve my gear a little. I've only got a maximum of $250-300 to spend right now. Here is what I am considering:

1.) Sell the ADVC-100 on eBay and put all my money towards the ADVC-300 which has built in TBC and other filtering.

2.) Buy a TBC such as the DataVideo TBC-1000 and insert that between my current VCR and Canopus.

3.) Buy the JVC SR-V10U which has built in TBC and is better quality than my current VCR.

My personal feeling is that I should improve my signal chain starting at the source, which would mean buying the new VCR first. I'm thinking that alone will probably be a bigger improvement going into my ADVC-100 than adding other gizmos after my current VCR has already lost a lot of video information. If I need to, I could always get the DataVideo or the ADVC-300 later as my money allows. What do you guys think?

Will I notice a difference from being able to use S-Video from the VCR as opposed to the RCA jack I am using now?

Thanks for your help.

[indolikaa]

I think the TBC-1000 will make the biggest difference, and I don't see any reason why you couldn't keep your existing Canopus unit. The ADVC-100, as you may have read from the multitude of posts on this site, is highly regarded.

Keep the Canopus. Get the TBC first, and then upgrade your VCR.

Just my 2¢

[SLK001]

My personal feeling is that I should improve my signal chain starting at the source, which would mean buying the new VCR first. I'm thinking that alone will probably be a bigger improvement going into my ADVC-100 than adding other gizmos after my current VCR has already lost a lot of video information.

This is the correct approach. If you don't capture all the available signal and quality off the original source, then nothing down the line can improve the video quality. You can blur and smooth the video so that it "looks" better, but quality lost is never regained.

[MrMungus]

I think I'd go with the VCR upgrade. Not only do you get the TBC, you get s-video connections to your computer. This might not seem significant looking at it on the computer, but, as I posted a few days ago, I noticed that video on a DVD captured via a composite video connection and played back on my DVD player/TV looks significantly "smeared" in bright spots (e.g., someone's forehead) whereas the video captured via s-video cable did not. This was with an old, old purchased rental tape that looked terrible until I capped it with TBC/s-video.

The other benefit is that with an SVHS VCR, you can record to SVHS (or SVHS EP) which also makes for better captures if you decide to do that.

[bstaley]

Thanks for responding! Hopefully I can get a few more opinions to help me make my decision by the end of this weekend. I really appreciate your time.

[SLK001]

Thanks for responding! Hopefully I can get a few more opinions to help me make my decision by the end of this weekend. I really appreciate your time.

Okay, here's another opinion: "I think that chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup is vastly superior to just plain vanilla ice cream!"

[davideck]

The quality of the VCR makes a BIG difference, and a JVC SVHS machine with TBC should provide a significant increase in picture quality. The DataVideo TBC will help if you are having audio/video skew issues or vertical instabilities, but otherwise will not provide a significant increase in picture quality. I recently purchased a JVC 7600U and the built in TBC/Noise Reduction works wonders!

[bstaley]

Well, I have the SR-V10u now and I'm having problems. Most any videotape I capture has little glitches in the audio. Almost like it's stuttering. I know it's not my computer because if I stop playing the tape and capture the signal from my cable box it works just fine. I have tried it with and without the TBC. It makes no difference. The video looks much better than my old VCR but if the audio doesn't work right then this thing is just a $300 paperweight. Has anybody else had these problems? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[OmegaSupreme]

I have a SR-V10U and it works like a champ. The problem maybe with your tape(s). If they were all recorded by the same VCR, the recording unit may have had the audio heads out of alignment. Try switching the monitor audio mode to its various settings to see if that makes any difference. Also replace the RCA patch cable, it maybe defective.

[bstaley]

I have tried everything and nothing works. I tried three different tapes, a new cable, adjusting the tracking manually and every possible setting on the VCR and it still clicks and pops. Just for the hell of it I pulled out my old $69 Sharp VCR and it sounds fine though the picture isn't quite as good. Any other ideas?

[dwight55]

"My goal is to archive old VHS tapes. I am currently using a regular $79 Philips 4 Head VCR to a Canopus ADVC-100 into the computer."

Sears sells a Sansui unit for $400 that will do exactly what you want to do. Put in the tape, . . . format a bland DVD, . . . tell it to dub, . . . you're in business. It is only 1X, and only works on DVD-R and DVD-RW formats, but it does an excellent, . . . let me emphasize, excellent job. I cannot see any appreciable degradation.

I bought mine to save all my video tapes, VHS and 8mm, and have been thoroughtly pleased. What is really nice about it is that I could probably even teach my wife to do dubbs on this and she won't even turn on my laptop.

May God bless,
Dwight