bigbadben update on Diamond VC500

[bigbadben]

Hi all,

I got my Diamond VC500 today from the USA. I installed the latest version of virtualdub2 and used Huffyuv to record some sample video and then converted it into x264 while in the program seeing it was unplayable with VLC and WMP without converting it into x264. I am happy with the results. It looks pretty good. Compared to my EZcap it's way, way better.

I have about 15 VHS tapes each about 2 hours long. I have 536GB free on my laptop HDD and I have a 1TB empty external HDD. 40 seconds with Huffyuv used 540mb. The x264 sample took only 17.7MB. Will all the VHS tapes in Huffyuv fit on my laptop HDD or should I record directly onto the external HDD?

In the virtualdub2 settings I have RGB and 8 bit depth selected, will selecting any other option than RGB, the prediction method and say 14 bit depth improve the quality? In the virtualdub2 settings for the video filter I have selected 720 x 480 and I chose PAL_B. I live in Australia. Will selecting a higher resolution capture in a higher resolution and how do I find out the resolution of the source VHS tape? Does choosing a video filter affect the quality?

Is a Huffyuv .avi file supposed to be unplayable with regular media players? The virtualdub2 I installed came with Huffyuv and I installed another Huffyuv codec by copying it to my SysWOW64 folder and right clicking the .ini and installing, maybe it used this codec resulting in the .avi being unplayable? How can I find out which codecs are installed in Windows 7 x64?

How do the other formats like the FFMPEG/x265 lossless compare to Huffyuv in terms of quality? I know Huffyuv is an exact copy of the original bit for bit, is that the same with FFMPEG/x265? Say I want to fit all of these videos onto a 32GB or 64GB usb drive which compression method should I use to cause the least degradation in quality?

My old laptop which I am recording on has old hardware an i7 Q720, 8GB of RAM, 560GB HDD and an ATI HD5650 and is running Windows 7 Pro X64.

[usually_quiet]

Huffyuv is strictly a 32-bit codec. Do you have a 32-bit version of your media players installed in order to use it?

HuffYUV is preferred to x264 and x265 for capture. Because it uses light compression, it does not tax your system during capture, and because it is lossless HuffYUV is also a decent choice if the video needs to be processed to remove various artifacts or to correct the color. HuffYUV is high-quality because it is lossless but is only playable using a Windows PC. You can always convert from HuffYUV to x264 or x265 after editing and other processing is completed.

[bigbadben]

I will install 32-bit VLC and see if it works.

How powerful of a CPU do I need to record in Lagarith real-time without dropped frames or out of sync audio? Is my i7 Q720 sufficient?

[usually_quiet]

I will install 32-bit VLC and see if it works.

How powerful of a CPU do I need to record in Lagarith real-time without dropped frames or out of sync audio? Is my i7 Q720 sufficient?

I probably used a 32-bit version of Media Player Classic Home Cinema back in the day to play HuffYUV. I forgot some important details. VLC can only use its own codecs. It can't use system-installed codecs. VLC has its own codec for HuffYUV but it is incompatible with encodes produced by the latest version of HuffYUV. I think WMP is restricted to codecs provided by Microsoft.

I think your processor can handle Lagarith if you want to experiment with another lossless codec but VLC and WMP probably won't play that either.

[Alwyn]

VLC Player plays Lagarith AVIs (latest version 1.3.27) with no problems.

I capture to Lagarith with VDub. I have an i5 750 (2011 version!) with 12gb of RAM and have never had a dropped frame.

[Alwyn]

Lagarith AVI is 31gb per hour.

There's a significant bend on the vertical edges of those frames.

Did they run into reach other or did one pike out?

[bigbadben]

Lagarith AVI is 31gb per hour.

There's a significant bend on the vertical edges of those frames.

Did they run into reach other or did one pike out?

Do you know how I can fix that and the glitchy audio? Will a Panasonic DVD Recorder DVR-ES15 or PIONEER DVR 230 help if I pass through through the signal from the VCR into the recorder to my Diamond capture card?

[Alwyn]

"Will"...

Good question! I have an ES-15 for passthrough and it certainly steadies and straightens wobbly vertical edges. I'll go out on a limb and say it probably would fix that. It also does improve the picture somewhat. There are some videos of it in action on Youtube, and also here:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/11020-how-fix-green.html

I can't advise on the Pioneer. Where are you, East coast or West?

[bigbadben]

I recorded in Lagarith and played it in VLC and I found that there is no audio issues anymore but the lines on the bottom and the thick black line on the right side remains. So the whole time the problem with the audio was due to converting it in x264. I will buy the ES-15 and in two weeks when it arrives I will connect it to my VCR and I'll see if it fixes the video issues.

I am on the East coast. I heard on this forum that a similar Pioneer DVR that was made in 2005 was good but I am unsure about the Pioneer DVR 230 it is also made in 2005, but I don't know about the signal quality for VHS. Maybe someone with this Panasonic DVR 230 can comment here on their experience.

[Alwyn]

The lines across the bottom are always there with VHS. Hopefully the bends on the sides will be corrected by the ES-15.

If you were on the west coast you could have borrowed my ES-15 to try it. 👍

[bigbadben]

Turns out the seller made a mistake the picture says DMR-ES15 but the ad says DVR-ES15. Hopefully it will be worth it. According to market price they cost around $65 used. The ES15 is worse than the ES10

[Alwyn]

Yes, no such thing as a DVR-ES15 AFAIK.

$65 is a good price for Oz for a 15. I bought mine for $150 + $40 postage.

The ES15 is worse than the ES10
You mean "not as good"...