Need advice on Panasonic FS100 quality (SVHS)

[Topsy]

Hello there,

I've not posted before but it seems there are many experts here. I thought I would take the plunge and ask for some informed opinions!

I have many hours of home videos I want to archive into a digital format (eventually H264). I have managed to acquire a relatively cheap Panasonic FS100 SVHS machine and I'm now in the process of testing it.

My current setup consists of a DV Camcorder connected to the PC, with SVHS from the Panasonic. I have recorded some test footage and the quality doesn't seem that great - especially for SVHS. Would someone have time to take a look at it?

http://youtu.be/sKtg336rl0g

The first 5 seconds is the original DV source, then it switches to the SVHS result. The colors are clearly flickering a lot and overall the image is very soft.

How does this look to you guys? Is this typical for SVHS? The tape itself wasn't new but I invested in some good quality SVHS cables. Could this be worn heads or perhaps another problem?

Also, what is your opinion on using this method to capture (SVHS to DV to PC). Previously I tried with a standard VHS machine (F70) and an old Blackmagic USB h264 encoder and the results were not as good as this setup - despite the apparent issues with the SVHS machine in this test. I know DV is quite heavily compressed (4:1:1 etc) but I don't plan to edit the videos - just make good quality h264.

Perhaps I need to find a better machine? Panasonic FS200? Will the TBC make that much difference?

Any thoughts most welcome!

t

[Skiller]

As far as a YouTube video allows for it, this looks like about what's to be expected from a used tape and a S-VHS recording.
Remember, S-VHS is identical to VHS except for the much better luma frequency response, which means the horizontal luma resolution is greatly improved, but everything else is not.

When using a new tape and after recording for a few minutes the streaking in the colorbar area should become a rare occurance.

A TBC does not correct anything like that, so no, there would be no improvement.

[JVRaines]

Outside of streaking in the cyan, green, magenta, and red bars, looks like a pretty good SVHS conversion. DV is not "quite heavily compressed" — SVHS doesn't have much more color resolution than 4:1:1 captures, although the difference is visible to the practiced eye. I think your disappointment is more related to the inescapable fact that SD analog video, particularly from consumer tape formats, just doesn't look crisp on our high-resolution displays.

Have you tried adjusting the tracking manually on your Panasonic?

[Topsy]

Yeah, I've tried adjusting the tracking but anything away from the default just makes the picture worse. So I just leave it on automatic.

Another thing I noticed: when a line is transitioning from solid white to another color the line seems to "continue", albeit darker. This is particularly noticeable on the green/pink solid stripes of color on the left hand side. Would you say this is normal? This isn't "overshoot" I've heard about on failing/dirty heads?

[Skiller]

Another thing I noticed: when a line is transitioning from solid white to another color the line seems to "continue", albeit darker. This is particularly noticeable on the green/pink solid stripes of color on the left hand side.

This is normal and it happens because the horizontal chroma resolution is way lower than the horizontal luma resolution. In VHS and S-VHS the chroma res is really low (like around 80 columns), so chroma bleeding is quite obvious with a test pattern like this.

[Brad]

SVHS doesn't have much more color resolution than 4:1:1 captures, although the difference is visible to the practiced eye.

The chroma resolution of all consumer analog tape formats is much less than 4:1:1.

[JVRaines]

D'oh! you are quite right. That was a dumb goof. But whether it's the compression or the static sampling boundaries, DV color has a duller look to me compared to 4:2:2 sampling.

[Topsy]

Thanks for your comments chaps - I appreciate it.