Is this as good as I can do for a Beta capture?

[barich]

I've got a bunch of old Betamax tapes that I am going through to see what I'd like to keep. They were mostly recorded on an SL-HFR70 that bit the dust years ago, so I took a risk on an SL-HF2000 on eBay that looked to be in good physical shape, but was untested, for a good price. To my relief, it seems to work fine. I guess that this isn't considered to be one of the best Beta VCRs, but I am trying to do this somewhat cost effectively, and was also hoping that by going with the most recent possible model I'd get one that wasn't about to fail or completely worn out.

In any case, before I start capturing a bunch of stuff, I was hoping someone with some experience would take a look at some sample clips and tell me if this is reasonable quality or if I should be looking for another VCR or be capturing the video with different hardware. It's hard for me to judge since the last time I watched these was on a fuzzy '70s Zenith and not a 1080p LCD.

Both of these were captured in DV format through the A/D converter built in to my Sony DCR-TRV730 Digital8 camcorder and then encoded to h.264 using Handbrake's "standard" preset. It does have TBC and DNR, but I'm not sure if those only apply to Video8/Hi8 tapes that are played internally or if they work on the analog input as well. If I should be doing something different to provide a suitable example, please let me know.

One is from a prerecorded copy of Top Gun, in Beta II.

The other is from an OTA broadcast with what was probably not the greatest signal, recorded in Beta III, on a tape that had been recorded over a few times, on the SL-HFR70, which was probably in pretty poor shape itself at the time. This is a more representative sample of the tapes I'll be most interested in (since I own or can buy most of the prerecorded movies on DVD or Blu-ray).

Any opinions?

[edDV]

The Top gun clip appears to be deinterlaced, not inverse telecined so exhibits jerky progressive playback.Also capture black level is way off.



There is no real point to capturing a low res version of a film thet is available in DVD and Blu-ray.

[edDV]

The commercials are more interesting time capsules. Again the capture levels are off and the video has been deinterlaced. I'd capture these interlace MPeg2. The DV capture would have been interlace lower field first.

Black is at 0 IRE instead of 7.5 IRE*. White level is low by about 20%. The left H shift is probably a capture device issue**.



Corrected luma levels.




*

Both of these were captured in DV format through the A/D converter built in to my Sony DCR-TRV730 Digital8 camcorder

Many Sony DV camcorders cap black to 0 IRE (Japan NTSC) instead of 7.5 IRE (N American NTSC). This needs correction in post.

** The DV camcorder is capping 720 pixels wide while 4:3 analog works out to ~704. This explains the right side black stripe.

[barich]

I'm not planning on capturing any of the prerecorded movies unless they're not available in a modern format and I particularly care about them. The Top Gun clip was intended as a "best case" scenario (faster tape speed, prerecorded, not worn out, not recorded by a failing VCR) for what I can get out of the VCR/capture device.

I forgot to mention that I had Handbrake deinterlace both clips. I should have left them interlaced since I meant for them to be raw samples of what I was getting. Sorry about that.

Thanks for the note about the black/white/luma levels and the camcorder. Would I be better off purchasing a different capture device? I was just using this because I already have it.

Would you say from these that the VCR is in good shape?

[edDV]

The prerecorded movie has white levels typical for movies (a bit low on white). The black upshift was dure to the DV camcorder issue. Both can be corrected.

The commercial clip appears to have been recorded with ~20% low gain. This was either a VCR calibration issue or a gain issue with the TV composite out. This too can be fixed but at a signal to noise cost as white level is raised.

Measurements and corrections should be done in the DV format before encoding. As said above, I'd go for interlace lower field first MPeg2 DVD encoding after correction..

[edDV]

I found a clip on your Top Gun file where peak white was higher. It appears the low whites were intentional. The high blacks still need to be fixed.



Fixed



PS: The above shows that the player is outputting correct levels. The Sony DV camcorder is recording 7.5 IRE to digital 32 instead of 16 so needs correction. The commercials were recorded at ~20% low gain levels.

[NJRoadfan]

There is nothing wrong with the SL-HF2000 in terms of playback. It can handle all of the different Betamax speeds and varieties including the rare 6.0Mhz "Super High Band" B-I speed tapes the SL-HF2100 produced. The exception is that it can't record tapes in that format, which is irrelevant at this point. Its also the last model produced, so your chance at getting one with low usage is very good. The only downside is that it doesn't have S-Video output like the SL-HF2100, but the 2100 was the ONLY Betamax (besides the rare ED Betas) to have S-Video connections.

[2Bdecided]

The playback is fine. The levels are slightly wrong (but can be fixed), the deinterlacing is unwanted, and there seems to be some strange cropping too. Stick with 704x480 or 720x480 for DVD.

[jagabo]

Chroma needs to be shifted left.