Capturing VERY old VHS tapes with iffy signals

[bakonfreek]

Here's what I have:

-A lot of tapes from a friend dating between 1989-1996 (less than precise VCR to VCR editing in the late '80s to mid '90s left chunks of blank tape on these).
-A Panasonic AG-HVX200 (it has a problem on one of the tapes where it drops signal even when the player is still putting out a clean picture and doesn't regain picture until after the pertinent part has passed).
-An Aiptek camera with a video input (this camera will, unlike the Panasonic and my Roxio VHS to DVD kit, even record blank tape, but it does not capture raw interlaced frames).
-A Roxio VHS to DVD conversion kit (which, like the Panasonic camcorder, drops the picture at the first sign of static--even if only for a frame).

I would like very much to get these captured without having to send them in because I do not lave a whole lot of money. The places around here charge around $25 per hour of videotape and at 40+ hours of tape, that's not happening (I didn't even pay that much for the HVX back when I used to have consistent paychecks). I know that the Aiptek seems like the best option, but it (badly) deinterlaces the picture, the picture in general doesn't look as good as what the Panasonic gives me (when it works that is), and the Aiptek comes from an era where the largest SD cards that existed were 2GB. I mean, if I could convert 30p to 60p and then interlace it, I would do that, but the conversion filter from the compression.ru site causes too many artifacts for my liking.

Basically, what is the best and cheapest option for me here?

Thanks in advance.

[bakonfreek]

Demo. Watch for the color/lighting/frame rate change. That's when the Panasonic started recording.

[Skiller]

Basically, what is the best and cheapest option for me here?

Forget about the Aiptek and Roxio. The Panasonic AG-HVX200 is the only piece of your current equipment you should bother with.
But you will need to buy another – but thankfully cheap – piece of hardware to get great results with it: you need an older Panasonic DVD/HDD Recorder such as the DMR-ES15 or DMR-ES10 (any ES, EH or EX model will work). Not for recording, but it will act as a stabilizer (TBC) between VCR and capture device. This will make it possible for your AG-HVX200 to record nicely without spazzing out. Plus it will greatly improve picture quality by straightening all those jiggly vertical lines.

No offence but your current results are just dreadful (it almost looks like a web clip from 2000), you would get so much better results with the workflow I just described.

[jagabo]

And don't ever use Cinepack.

[bakonfreek]

your current results are just dreadful (it almost looks like a web clip from 2000)

Yeah, I used a rather shitty codec.

Found the ES15 for fairly cheap.

[bakonfreek]

On a hunch I decided to get a different model DVD recorder and it seems to be working much better (as good as the VCR with HDMI out). Thankful that I tried that because it's probably going to save me a few hundred dollars when I decide to do some Hi8, Betamax, and U-Matic captures.

[poncho524]

Dangit! i just ran into this problem too... where bad VHS would cause my capture to just stop recording off of composite. I was going to look into some kind of converter that could maintain a valid output to capture if/when the composite throws garbage. Does anyone know if Composite-to-HDMI converters maintain a valid output while input gets shaky?

I dont have another vcr or anything to proxy my source through to handle video sync issues....