Work-Around For Poor Hauppauge HD-PVR Comb Filter?

[dublus]

Like many others here, I was hoping to tackle the job of converting piles and piles of VHS and 8mm tapes to reasonably small digital files without sacrificing much in the way of quality compared to the originals. To do this, I purchased a Hauppauge HD-PVR (1212). Now, it has come to my attention that the comb filter and NTSC color decoder circuits of the HD-PVR are not top notch. I really only want to convert these tapes once so spending a little more on another device is okay with me.

So, the questions:

1. Is there a device that someone can recommend, that can take S-video and composite video and convert to high quality component video with which to feed the HD-PVR?

2. Is this totally stupid and, if so, what would be a better idea?

Thanks!

[dublus]

bump

[SHS]

At the time the Analog Device ADV7401 was the top line and 7403 is not all that much better
As far I can tell it dosen't have 3D Y/C comb filter (aka 3D Digital Comb Filter) it dose come with Superadaptive 2D 5-line comb filters beside that and it only work with Composite input/Analog Tuner input there for if your using S/Video input your SOL.

If try claen up your poor quality input sound like maybe about a Composite / S-Video Signal Pre-Processors.
Do have any Screenshot of the problem your seeing?.

1. Is there a device that someone can recommend, that can take S-video and composite video and convert to high quality component video with which to feed the HD-PVR?

If I under stand what your asking for here then would be Composite or S-Video to Component try look up Video Converters/Scalers

2. Is this totally stupid and, if so, what would be a better idea?

Maybe but it dose help if we had some screenshot of the problem your seeing
Keep in mind there only so much you can do with VHS and 8mm tapes
This ture in most case when come Transferring VHS and 8mm footage to a computer see here at bottom of page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_mm_video_format

[dublus]

Thanks for the reply-

It isn't a particular image problem I'm having - more that I wanted to start with the best chance at good quality so I only have to convert these tapes once and then forget it. Originally I was just going to use the HD-PVR to do the whole job but then saw someone post some data that indicated a problem with the comb filter. The HD-PVR does an awesome job capturing through its component input so that was why I thought it might be better to go (composite or S-Video) -> component -> into the HD-PVR. There must be a good S-Video to component converter that would clean up the signal.

I will start looking but in the meantime I would appreciate it if anyone has some recommendations.

[jagabo]

Get a S-VHS deck and use the s-video output.

[dublus]

That would leave me with S-Video coming into the HD-PVR. I can already do that. The problem is the HD-PVR doesn't handle that input as well as it does the component input.

Just doing a quick search has told me I need help trying to figure out a good (S-Video or composite) to component converter.

[The_Doman]

That would leave me with S-Video coming into the HD-PVR. I can already do that. The problem is the HD-PVR doesn't handle that input as well as it does the component input.

Did you already try to use the S-Video input to do some test captures?
I can't imagine using component will gain that much specially if you use a VHS source?

Personally I know the problem of a bad functioning comb filter from my older Hauppauge PVR150.
Because of that I use a S-VHS/DVDR deck just to feed the card a S-Video signal which it can handle properly.

Just doing a quick search has told me I need help trying to figure out a good (S-Video or composite) to component converter.

Ofcourse you probably can buy those (expensive?) things.
If you really need to go that way maybe you are better of picking up a used DVD-Recorder which you then can use to convert the signal to component.

I have here 2 older Panasonic DVD recorders I picked up very cheap which can do just that.
And they even have a powerfull TBC function to stabilize the (VHS) video signal you pass through. (or record directly to DVD-RAM) 8)

[jagabo]

About the only thing a 3d comb filter will give you from a VHS source is the removal of dot crawl artifacts. Dot crawl is a result of multiplexing the luma and chroma channels into a composite signal. VHS tapes record luma and chroma channels separately. It's only when the video is put into the composite cable that they are multiplexed. Using an S-VHS deck with an s-video cable will keep the luma and chroma separate so there will be no dot craw artifacts and hence no need for a 3d comb filter.

Get a S-VHS deck with a line time base correcter and maybe noise filtering and you will get far better results than a standard VHS deck with a 3d comb filter.

Using a composite to component converting device won't look any better than using composite directly. Unless the device has a 3d comb filter.

[dublus]

So maybe I'm worried for no reason? I will admit that the first hour of tape I captured look pretty good but, like I mentioned before, I only want to do this once and I would really like the result to be as good as I can reasonably get it.

I really have no experience with time base correctors and have no idea what one would cost. At this point I'm leaning toward just capturing with the HD-PVR and be happy with that.

[jagabo]

Look closely at your composite caps. Look where there are bright colors and sharp vertical edges. You may see dot crawl artifacts at those edges:

http://www.answers.com/topic/dot-crawl
http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Articles/VideoArtefacts/VideoArtefactsDotCrawl.html
http://www.freewebs.com/vgmods/arcadeworks.htm

You can remove dot crawl (and adjust a lot of other stuff like levels, color shift) with with software filtering but I assume you don't want do do that since you have an HD PVR.

Unfortunately a used S-VHS deck with line TBC and noise filters (avoid dot crawl, re-align scan lines, reduce noise) will cost you about US$300. A proc amp to adjust colors, contrast, etc. will also cost about that (you may be able to use the HD PVR's proc amp for this). And a full frame TBC (to keep your caps from losing A/V sync when the VHS tape is messed up) is another US$300 or so.

Another option is to find a used DVD recorder that has a built in line TBC. You can find these for around US$50. You can record direct to DVD, or simply use the deck as a TBC -- the composite passthrough is time base corrected. Here's an animated gif comparing video recorded with my Hauppauge PVR-250 directly from a VHS deck and using a Panasonic ES15 DVD recorder's line TBC: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic369003.html#1975151