New member - been trying to transfer vhs to PC

[MEATY]

Hi All

Hope you are well. I've just created an account as I have been transferring home vids from VHS to my pc for a few months with some success but also problems which I dont understand too! Hopefully going forward I will create a thread or too and will appreciate any help I may, or may not, get.

I'd also be interested in any reputable professional vhs-to-pc services in UK, if any exist these days that is.

Thanks

Meaty

[lordsmurf]

What problems?

Most issues are from using bad/cheap/wrong hardware.
- no TBC
- crappy VCR
- cheap capture card, HD card, or gamer card

[MEATY]

Hi and thanks for your reply!

I have:

Panasonic DMR-ES30V VHS player
Dazzle DVC HD version (the latest one)
PC is 3.5ghz, 8gb ram and Win 10

I'm only interested in capturing around 20 or so VHS home video's for now, not recorded stuff or movies etc.

The settings don't seem able to be changed on the Dazzle so they are being captured into mpeg files, which might not be the best? But they playback on pc's and the modern TV's that I have plugged USB sticks in, so I have settled on that without any complaints.

I have managed about 12 VHS tapes so far (I dont have many left now!) and i am happy with these results so far.

I have found that the VHS tapes need to be played and rewound a fair few times to get the best results or there are defects in the capture eg the 'distortion' at the extreme top of the screen (not sure what its called sorry)

The issue that is bugging me at present is a tape that i have from the mid 80's plays back fine, but on capture has alot of 'blinking' - probably not the correct term but its pretty good description...the capture 'blinks' at random. I have tried about 10 times now but the blinking prevails. I have captured other tapes in the meantime with success but have come back to this one only to find the blinking remains. It makes me wonder if I should give this tape to a pro to do.

Does anyone know what this is or how to overcome it?

Thanks

Meaty

[johnmeyer]

I have found that the VHS tapes need to be played and rewound a fair few times to get the best results or there are defects in the capture eg the 'distortion' at the extreme top of the screen (not sure what its called sorry)

What you describe sounds like "flagging" where the top of the screen bends to the left. This can be caused by tracking, but can also be caused by time base errors (i.e., not enough signal to flawlessly recreate the timing of when each scan line should start). So, one thing to try is to play with the manual tracking control. If that doesn't fix it, then you need to consider trying to get a working Time Base Corrector (TBC). Unfortunately, they are expensive, hard to get, and even harder to get one that is working. So, you may be stuck.

The issue that is bugging me at present is a tape that i have from the mid 80's plays back fine, but on capture has alot of 'blinking' - probably not the correct term but its pretty good description...the capture 'blinks' at random.

Blinking does not sound like something happening on your tape or VCR. To check whether this is so, don't use your capture hardware but instead play the tape directly to a TV set. Do you still see this blinking? If yes, then I am stumped. If no (i.e., it looks fine on your TV set) then you have a problem with your capture hardware.