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  1. Member
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    I'm capturing 20-year-old VHS C tapes via a old Go Video dual deck VCR using EZCap (the real one not the China variants). I setup VDub2 to capture YUV2 at 720 x 480. NTSC 27.97 fps, Couple questions as I haven't captured anything analog in ages. My rudimentary knowledge of capture basically is that I can do it but, no longer remember how I used to do it.

    I realize I need to deinterlace, what is the best way to deinterlace in VDub2 i.e. Top field remove bottom field, bob etc?

    Do I want to downsize to 640 x 480?

    What filters do you recommend? I've got 8 pixels of noise at the bottom which is easy enough to crop out 720 x 476, Do I want to use temporal smoother and a sharpen filter? What is the workflow for this? I'm not looking for absolute perfection, the original raw captures actually don't look too bad. As in anything it could be better before post processing.

    Thank you in advance
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  2. Capturing Memories dellsam34's Avatar
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    - Vdub2 is not recommended for capturing per a lot of members here, There is an old version that works better.

    - De-interlace using QTGMC if you are comfortable with script software, top field or bottom field depends on the original video.

    - Don't crop unless you are resizing to a higher resolution 1440x1080 at least, otherwise you get line flicker artifacts when you crop and resize in low resolution setting. I personally only crop for youtube, Analog video aspect ratio by standard is 704:480 for NTSC so when you crop all around make sure you are close to that ratio (+/-4 pixels is okay), I personally prefer Lanczos.

    Here is my workflow after capturing:
    Code:
    AviSource("C:\Users\PC_name\Desktop\myvideo.avi")
    QTGMC(Preset="Faster")
    Crop(8, 2, -12, -6) #These crop numbers change from video to another, this is at 700x478#
    LanczosResize(1440, 1080)
    I use AvsPmod since it shows every action I do in a video frame, after I'm satisfied with the results I hit the arrow to export to vdub2 for processing, In vdub2 I save as HuffYUV, it processes everything in one go.

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    Last edited by dellsam34; 12th Dec 2021 at 15:57.
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  3. Member
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    Just a follow up, my initial capture via virtualdub2 was horrible, I found that I had it set to capture at 29.97 which would seem ok but, in reality was really inserting frames like crazy. After playing with all the possible settings and a good recapture this is the result. No more comets, no more random frames showing up. I've uploaded a compressed mkv x264/aac just to keep the file size from polluting videohelp's servers. Comments are welcome, this is what came out. Thank you to everyone who responded to me.

    https://files.videohelp.com/u/84671/test%20video.mkv
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  4. If you want specific advice on filters to use you should upload your huffyuv cap, not a poorly deinterlaced, over compressed h.264 video. But at least this cap isn't full of dropped/dup'd frames like those in your other posts.

    And before you upload a lossless file, make sure you turn off all the sharpening and noise reduction filters in the VCR and capture device.
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  6. Something went wrong with that huffyuv file - it's been deinterlaced and is 25p content
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  7. aBigMeanie aedipuss's Avatar
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    aspect ratio looked off also. too tall and skinny. could just be the incorrect pal 720x576 sizing.
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    Man I can't get it right, back to the drawing board...
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    Virtualdub2 doesn't appear to save capture settings, I've got to go in and set everything up manually for each capture. Let's try this one

    https://files.videohelp.com/u/84671/test%20video%20huffyuv%20test%20capture%202.avi
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  10. That still looks like it's been poorly deinterlaced, losing half the vertical resolution and half the motion.
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  11. Member
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    Here is what mediainfo reports:

    Video
    ID : 0
    Format : HuffYUV
    Format version : Version 2
    Codec ID : HFYU
    Duration : 16 s 16 ms
    Bit rate : 54.6 Mb/s
    Width : 720 pixels
    Height : 480 pixels
    Display aspect ratio : 3:2
    Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
    Standard : NTSC
    Color space : YUV
    Chroma subsampling : 4:2:2
    Bit depth : 8 bits
    Scan type : Interlaced
    Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 5.271
    Stream size : 104 MiB (97%)
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  12. At best Mediainfo tell you how it's encoded, not what the content of the frames is. The frames are not interlaced.
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    Is it possible my cheap VCR is playing progressive? I'm not using any filters Virtualdub2, this is a composite connection.

    I've purchased an S-VHS deck and should have it end of this week.
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  14. Originally Posted by sum_guy View Post
    Is it possible my cheap VCR is playing progressive?
    No. Was this video shot on a camcorder? That's almost always interalced. If this was made from a film source it could be progressive. Though it doesn't look like a film transfer.

    Originally Posted by sum_guy View Post
    I'm not using any filters Virtualdub2, this is a composite connection.
    Make sure the capture driver isn't set to deinterlace. Maybe the capture device always deinterlaces? That shouldn't be the case with the genuine EZCap.
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  15. Member
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    It's camcorder footage from a JVC Video Camera GR-AX841U VHC-C. It's a genuine EZCap, not a chinese knock off, for test purposes I tried another dongle Clearclick capture and it's delivering the same progressive capture. The VCR is a cheap Sanyo DVW-7100A and I noticed on the front of it, "Cinema Progressive", It's a VCR/DVD playback deck, and it was cheap so I guess I'm getting cheap results. I purchased a JVC S-VHS deck on eBay yesterday. I'm wondering what Sanyo means by "Cinema Progressive"?
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  16. Originally Posted by sum_guy View Post
    The VCR is a cheap Sanyo DVW-7100A and I noticed on the front of it, "Cinema Progressive"... I'm wondering what Sanyo means by "Cinema Progressive"?
    So it is the VCR. I've never seen that before. Presumably it means it deinterlaces the video -- exactly what we're seeing. Is there no way to turn off the progressive feature?

    Originally Posted by sum_guy View Post
    I purchased a JVC S-VHS deck on eBay yesterday.
    If it's in decent shape you should get much better results. Though some s-vhs decks don't do well with the slower tape speeds like SLP.
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    That's my conclusion too, it's the VCR, I found a manual for it online however, I see no way to turn off progressive. I went through the menu with the remote but, no luck even finding a setting for it.

    I'm hoping the JVC deck will yield better results, we shall see.

    Thank you for your input!
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  18. Capturing Memories dellsam34's Avatar
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    It could be de-interlacing for DVD only, Does the machine have a shared output for VCR and DVD?
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    It has separate outputs for VCR and DVD. I can't for the life of me figure out why the captures are deinterlaced. I'm at a loss.
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  20. Capturing Memories dellsam34's Avatar
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    If it has a separate output for VCR then it is not de-interlacing, To find out for sure capture with vdub and output as lossless, upload a few seconds sample here. Also you were told that vdub2 is not good for capturing, use vdub.
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  21. Cinema progressive means it can output progressive scan from the DVD side, and that will only work from the component outputs. It was a common feature on DVD players at the time. Progressive out from the VCR side of a VCR combo is only really something you could get from one that features a DVD-recorder, and then still only from component or HDMI outputs, it's not something that's supported over composite video.

    It has to be either the capture app or capture card doing it, though the proper EZcaps shouldn't do it normally as noted so not sure why.
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    It took me a while to get Virtualdub 1.10.4 to capture audio and video but, it worked, this one really looks interlaced with a lot combing effect. Vdub reports 0 dropped frames for the capture. I'm concerned about degrading the tape further. Here's the latest sample:

    https://files.videohelp.com/u/84671/test%20vdub%201.10.4%20sample.avi
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  23. That's much better in terms of interlacing. The segments that are properly captured look like one would expect from consumer video tape and VHS deck. But it is missing many frames, regardless of what VirtualDub reports. And there are other problems where the frames jump up and down, flag at the top, partial frames, etc.

    One thing that might be causing some of those problems: Disable audio playback in VirtualDub while capturing (turn off Audio -> Enable Audio Playback). That very often causes dropped frames.

    Do you have your s-vhs deck yet? It's line time base corrector may fix many of those other problems.

    To avoid degrading the tape, use another tape for testing.
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    I'm getting my S-VHS deck tomorrow. I'm pretty convinced without even trying that S will improve things, I will certainly take your advice and not worry about audio playback. And good idea on using another tape for testing. So far, this tape seems to be good but, no point in pushing it any further.
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  25. Note that setting only disables playback of the audio, not capture of the audio. So your caps will still have audio.
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  26. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by jagabo View Post
    That's much better in terms of interlacing. The segments that are properly captured look like one would expect from consumer video tape and VHS deck. But it is missing many frames, regardless of what VirtualDub reports.
    There's some stupid advice online to disable the top two checkboxes in the timing settings. What happen is the drop/inserts are simply made silent. The frame counter under the preview window will show 0 regardless. So people can drop 100s of frames, and not know it, due to disabling counters.
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    I made sure I didn't play around with the timing settings, I looked at them and thought it might be well to leave them alone. I received my new to me JVC S-VHS deck this morning and will try it out tonight.
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  28. Originally Posted by sum_guy View Post
    I made sure I didn't play around with the timing settings, I looked at them and thought it might be well to leave them alone.
    You may need to modify those settings for your particular capture device.

    If you have a rock solid composite/s-video source you should use that to get VirtualDub configured for your capture device first. A DVD player (playing a non-Macrovision disc) or camcorder are good choices. Once you have that working without problems you can start dealing with video tapes. That lets you isolate problems with the capture device and computer from problems with the VCR and tape.
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  29. Member
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    ok, got the new VCR tonight, it had been in the cold so I let it warm up in the house for 4 hours before attempting play anything. I took the cover off and verified nothing was physically broken inside, I did not attempt to clean it with anything. I put a commercial VHS movie in it and it worked, that is to say it appeared to play it properly. I then did a test capture of it via S-VHS out cable, I still have some random distorted frames. Then I did a few capture tests. JVC S3600U VCR, EZCap 116 with 64 bit driver. I didn't play with timing or filters, just as raw and stock, bare bones as I could, 29.97 fps, 720x480 NTSC, I left the Virtualdub setting for "VCR input" unchecked (maybe that's wrong?). I took about 6 sample captures with a different tape. Here is the result.

    https://files.videohelp.com/u/84671/Virtualdub%201.10.4%20capture%206.avi
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  30. The capture format looks basically ok (lossless interlaced TFF, 4:2:2).
    From what I see from your link your capture is however problematic as to (in descending priority):
    1) dropped frames. Sometimes a few in a row which is difficult to fix. Requires a re-capture.
    2) Levels: clipped whites and some clipped blacks, out of gamut. Can be adjusted with ProcAmp settings, or probably mitigated with post processing
    3) Flagging (horizontal wiggling, best seen on the top of the picture). Can be fixed with a TBC or DVD recorder in passthrough. May also help with 1).
    Last edited by Sharc; 20th Jan 2022 at 05:00. Reason: Crushed blacks removed
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