Capping VHS - Realistic frame drop expectations...

[NIIDeep]

Hello All,

I've spent three days reading over this forum alone, along with www.digitalfaq.com. I've learned alot but I still have so many questions. I'm starting out simple (or suppose to be) by capping a VHS source.

Here are the facts:

Setup

ATI AIW 9800 Pro
MMC 9.1
P4 3.06 GHz HT
1 gig of PC2700 memory (non-dual channel)
Asus P4PE
Win XP Pro SP1
SB Audigy 2
Dedicated 200Gb WD 8mb cache HD
Sony VCR (couple of years old, but barely use)

I'm trying to cap a commercial golf instruction tape (as experiement) with no Macrovision. The tape is somewhat old, 6-8 years but rarely used. I'm using ATI MMC 9.1 with ATI card with CAT 4.7 drivers. Eventually I'd like to transfer this to DVD but I'm just focussing on capping for now.

ATI settings or pretty much recommendations from LordSmurf at DigitalFAQ. I took his "movies" settings and modified the following:

-MPEG2-DVD with cropping enabled
-4-2 frame sequence with GOP closed
-VBR with target and max aroun 5 mb/s
- Motion Estimation Quality set to 100
- VidoeSoap set to light with default filter

For a trial 15 minute of capping I get about 7-9 dropped frames, which seems unusually high. I made a big assumption that my system is fairly high end so I didn't really have to minimize this and that. But I will try out more experiements pertaining to the "Dropped Frame" sticky.

However my question is whether it's realistic to expect ZERO droppped frames from a VHS source, ever? Is this possible? or is it due to the nature of the source the probability of this is near null?

I'm a perfectionist and I'd like to get 0 drop frames if possible. Currently I'm wondering whether my source could be causing the drops. The tape is fairly unused so I'm thinking is pretty new... It's not some ancient home made movie from three decades ago.

I'll be trying out some OS minimizations, unplugging DSL, disabling anti-virus, playing with some ATI settings... I'll also dry a Hi8 source for comparison.

But it would be nice to know if all my efforts to try and reach 0 frame drops would be for naught because it's impossible.

Thanks.

[Tommyknocker]

If you get a time based corrector you can get hours of VHS captured to your system with no dropped frames. I own a Sony camcorder with pass through, and it captures from my $50.00 VCR with no dropped frames either. The TBC is the way to go, and I hope to get one one day.

[housepig]

on a generic VHS, check my system specs for machine info, I average 3-4 dropped frames per hour using Huffyuv, and I get 0 dropped frames in 2.5 hours using PicVideo MJPEG codec at quality level 19.

don't know about longer than 2.5 hours, as I don't capture more than that in one block.

[FOO]

I did a lot of watching video waveforms on a scope while
capturing VHS with ATI. When the Hsync jitters too much the
ATI will drop a frame. It is the tape. I captured many whole
tapes without a single dropped frame, but some dropped lots.
The clue is that it tends to happen in the same places on the tape.

A TBC will help.

[NIIDeep]

Thank you much for all your responses. I appreciate it.

I'll carry on with some experimentation. I'm not sure if I'm ready to get a TBC yet but I'll keep that in mind.

[johns0]

I wouldnt worry about a few dropped frames if they are well spaced out,the only time you will get any picture loss is if the frame drops are grouped together.

[lordsmurf]

I've captured for 12 hours before with 0 drops.
You can accept 1 per hour or so. I'd let that slide.

This list is better maintained:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/capture/droppedframes.htm

[lantern]

NIIDeep, I have a very similar setup to your's, except that I have a TBC. I even have a Sony VCR (couple of years old and hardly used). Anyway, I find that it is heavily dependent on the tape condition. I have several home videos that have only been viewed once or twice and I still get a few dropped frames. These tapes are in perfect condition. Other than that, 99.9% of my captures have 0 dropped frames.

[dphirschler]

For me, the worst thing about dropped frames is the audio gets out of sync. I won't tolerate that. If it is on tape, then I will keep capturing it until I get that frame. If I just cannot get that frame, then I will insert a frame there just to keep it in sync.

Try playing the tape on a different VCR if you have one. Some of my VCRs can play tapes that others can have problems with.


Darryl

[NIIDeep]

Thanks for all the advice... I wasn't able to work on my "hobby" last night... but will try out some stuff this weekend.

Very grateful to all those who have chimed in.