Honestech Vidbox Green or piNK blank screen

[nat_urally]

Complete newbie to all of this and I'm having problems. yesterday i bought an honestech vidbox for mac. so that i can transfer old VHS-C tapes off a very old JVC GR M3E camcorder. the videos are not the best quality but using the s-video (it has 9 pins in a circular fashion??) to RCA cables (one white one yellow (so no stereo sound) it plays through my TV fine - albeit too fast and chipmunky! (i hope to slow it down once on the computer)
When i connected up my brand new box yesterday using the same cable the only thing that "plays" is a completely blank green screen - and it records it too as if it believes thats whats on the camera.

Do i need a different cable? am i doing something entirely wrong that I'm not aware of? any help would be greatly appreciated. i realise theres a chance the box may be faulty but i'd hate to exchange it and find i still have the same problem!

Thanks in advance for any help you can throw my way. running out of ideas!

Natalie

[jagabo]

Most capture devices are not tolerant of out of spec signals, hence the green/pink screen. You need to figure out why the player is playing at the wrong speed (SP vs. EP? PAL vs. NTSC?) and fix that. Until you do that there's no hope of capturing the video.

[nat_urally]

Most capture devices are not tolerant of out of spec signals, hence the green/pink screen. You need to figure out why the player is playing at the wrong speed (SP vs. EP? PAL vs. NTSC?) and fix that.

Hi Jagabo, thanks for replying! sorry, when you say "out of spec signals" what do you mean? (honestly...when i say newbie..i mean NEWBIE haha) sorry if its a stupid question.
when i play the video back, at the top right hand corner on the camera screen it says "SP"..on the camera the only two options are SP or LP...it seems everything is recorded in SP. (i don't know if its worth noting that the video camera these tapes were recorded on is not the one I'm using just now)

[nat_urally]

Actually, i re - read and get what you mean now! i've messed around and recorded on the camera in LP and SP...if i record in SP it plays too fast and the capture device won't detect it. If i record in LP it picks it up fine! So i think it was all recorded in LP but the camera is playing it in SP..which is why the capture device won't pick it up.

Is there a work round to this? Or a device that would pick it up? glad i at least know why now..just need to find a solution!

[jagabo]

i think it was all recorded in LP but the camera is playing it in SP..which is why the capture device won't pick it up.

Yes, and that's why it's "too fast and chipmunky."

Is there a work round to this?

I don't know if there's a way to force your player to slow down. Someone who's more familiar with VHS-C might know a trick. You may have to find another player.

Or a device that would pick it up?

I'm not aware of any device that could handle this. Even if you found something that would record the signal it would probably be missing frames and otherwise messed up. Slowing it down would leave you with a lot of defects.

[nat_urally]

i think it was all recorded in LP but the camera is playing it in SP..which is why the capture device won't pick it up.

Yes, and that's why it's "too fast and chipmunky."

Is there a work round to this?

I don't know if there's a way to force your player to slow down. Someone who's more familiar with VHS-C might know a trick. You may have to find another player.

Or a device that would pick it up?

I'm not aware of any device that could handle this. Even if you found something that would record the signal it would probably be missing frames and otherwise messed up. Slowing it down would leave you with a lot of defects.

Thanks for that. i think you may be right that i need to find a different player. i was trying to avoid that because they seem to have spiked in price!