Dazzle on Windows 10 and Windows 11 Tutorial

[lordsmurf]

I'm not a videophile. Those people are nuts.

I just want my video conversions to not look worse than the source tapes. But the Dazzle is a POS that can't do that simple request. Sadly, many cards cannot, as most are just cheap Chinese garbage USB cards.

The most damning problems are bright exposure (blown highlights), among many others.

If you want to accept bad quality, fine, Dazzle does it in spades.

[Larsenv]

I'm not a videophile. Those people are nuts.

I just want my video conversions to not look worse than the source tapes. But the Dazzle is a POS that can't do that simple request. Sadly, many cards cannot, as most are just cheap Chinese garbage USB cards.

The most damning problems are bright exposure (blown highlights), among many others.

If you want to accept bad quality, fine, Dazzle does it in spades.

When I've shown tapes to my friends I digitized with my Dazzle, they have rated them around 8 or 9 / 10. While I understand the Dazzle isn't the best capture device, it produces better results than I've found with other people's captures to compare it to. It's just when I've read posts you have wrote, you have set a high bar with your standards. I understand you have much experience with VHS capturing. I've also tried a Hauppauge HDPVR and I've got worse results from it, but I want to know what capture device around the price range that you recommend to people without any time base corrector or other addons. Here's a capture I did with my Dazzle, feel free to critique it http://vimeo.com/899972941/

[Sharc]

..... you recommend to people without any time base corrector or other addons. Here's a capture I did with my Dazzle, feel free to critique it http://vimeo.com/899972941/

Well, you get what you get, and if you are happy with it, it's just fine.
Not knowing the quality of the original tape, and with some doubts what has been damaged by the dazzle/capture process, the vimeo upload and/or your editing, here just some observations:
- low details (plastic skins, low texture visibility, maybe over-denoised?)
- smeared colors, best seen at edges
- halos
- deinterlacing and compression artifacts
Still better than loosing the tapes though

[Alwyn]

Not knowing the quality of the original tape

Precisely. It is impossible to say "that is a bad capture" without a comparison with that tape. You can make absolute assessments, but any implication that the Dazzle is rubbish based on one video is just wrong.

Apart from being oversaturated, it doesn't look bad to me. The vertical edges on the metronome are as straight as a die, the definition on that green swinging thingee is great.

I'm not a videophile.

Of course you are. Nothing wrong with that though, provided people realise it and don't unwittingly fall for the multi-thousand $$$$ setup you recommend when all they want is a half-decent transfer.

The most damning problems are bright exposure (blown highlights)

Surely you are not suggesting "no levels adjustments" for capture?

[Sharc]

The most damning problems are bright exposure (blown highlights), among many others.

And these problems aggravate when the levels get expanded (often unintentionally "under the hood") by import filters and/or filters doing an YUV->RGB conversion, driving the brights (and darks) even more into the clipping. Unrecoverable damage.

[Alwyn]

And these problems aggravate when the levels get expanded

But only if they're not set correctly at capture, surely.

[Sharc]

And these problems aggravate when the levels get expanded

But only if they're not set correctly at capture, surely.

Not only. Out-of-gamut RGB can result from YUV being nicely within the luma 16...235 and chroma 16...240 range. Remember the RGB block in the YUV cube. Many posts about this.

Edit: Demo added.
Left: the original capture
Center: YUV Histogram. All YUV components are perfectly within their allowed range.
Right: Out-of-gamut RGB marked cyan. They exist even without expanding the range. Would be much worse if the range gets expanded (as some filters do).

You will still see "nice red" on the source picture, but they are actually slightly off and with missing "red" details in the out-of-gamut area. One may still accept it, as fixing can be a PITA, and simple fixes may look worse even for the healthy part of the picture ......

[Larsenv]

I think the quality might've been affected by compressing the video and uploading it to Vimeo. However, yeah, I feel with analog capture devices like VHS there's not really a point where a capture with it is gonna be perfect. I agree that the Dazzle is a inexpensive way to capture VHS tapes rather than the setup lordsmurf uses which would cost much more

[ProJiJi]

You folks will have to excuse my interjection here, please. This thread is educationally entertaining, which is very rare to find in the quality of both that we can read here. Just wish to thank all participants. Please don't stop. Well, at least make it to the one-year anniversary.

[Alwyn]

Edit: Demo added.
Left: the original capture
Center: YUV Histogram. All YUV components are perfectly within their allowed range.
Right: Out-of-gamut RGB marked cyan. They exist even without expanding the range. Would be much worse if the range gets expanded (as some filters do).

I'm sure you are correct but let's stick to the OP's video. Anybody can "prove" anything with the "right" video.

Is Larsenv's video "bad" because of the Dazzle 100 (the subject of the topic) or not?

[Sharc]

I'm sure you are correct but let's stick to the OP's video. Anybody can "prove" anything with the "right" video.
Is Larsenv's video "bad" because of the Dazzle 100 (the subject of the topic) or not?

Well, I gave my comments in post#33 and pointed out that the noted deficiencies can't be isolated or traced back to the capture device (the dazzle in this case).

You are right, my post was not directly linked to that Vimeo clip (although some other dazzle captures referenced and published before are shocking in this respect). Sorry for my excursion. It was thought as a bit more elaborate reply to your comment in post#36 - instead of just saying "nope" or "wrong" . Rest assured it is certainly not just "anybody proofing anything" with the "right" video: You might be surprised to find that issue - stronger or weaker - being almost omnipresent in "home" video captures/productions. The question is whether one is aware of it or not.

[lollo]

However, yeah, I feel with analog capture devices like VHS there's not really a point where a capture with it is gonna be perfect.

False, the goal is to extract the signal as it is on tape, without adding any degradation.

I agree that the Dazzle is a inexpensive way to capture VHS tapes rather than the setup lordsmurf uses which would cost much more

The only expensive element in LS workflow is the external TBC, which can be avoided if the tapes are in good conditions.
So, once more, the suggested flow is a high-end S-VHS player with TBC and Y/C output and one of the recommended capture cards (Hauppauge USB-Live 2, IOData GV-USB, ATI USB 600, Pinnacle 710 USB, few others).
Addition of external elementes only if needed because the conditionsof the tape (which is the key element for a nice capture).
There is nothing here that would cost much more as you wrote.