ION VCR 2 PC USB vs DVHS SUPER VIDEO.

[Litaiff]

Hello everyone. I bought this ION VCR 2 PC USB to test VHS captures, and I found it disappointing. My JVC HM-DH30000U is still the best for capturing in my opnion.

Here are the frame tests.

[Attachment 87183 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 87184 - Click to enlarge]

Both captures taken at maximum quality


Any suggestions on how to best use it?

[Barrythecrab]

Moldy tapes or an anchor.

[Litaiff]

There is a large rust stain on the cylinder head of the ION VCR. Could this somehow affect the image generated?

[Brad]

The Ion VCR2PC is a crappy mono VCR internally connected to the circuit board from a composite-to-USB capture stick. I'm surprised it doesn't look even worse. I guess you chose a fairly stable tape for this demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQGTtrR045g

[aramkolt]

The Ion VCR2PC is a crappy mono VCR internally connected to the circuit board from a composite-to-USB capture stick. I'm surprised it doesn't look even worse. I guess you chose a fairly stable tape for this demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQGTtrR045g

Bit off topic, but did you ever get VHS_Decode working better than you did 3 years ago in this capture comparison?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcCrV7TBH2Q

[Litaiff]

So, After testing some tapes on this ION USB device, I see that I'm only going to find it useful for converting some of those VHSC tapes that are really bad, with EP recordings. At least it stabilizes the video but doesn't correct errors. The engineers didn't do a good job, it was supposed to faithfully capture a VHS because it's a digital device, but it leave a lot to be desired.

Also, its own capture program is not very good, if I capture it through MPC(media player classic) with xvid codecs in AVI it generates a little more definition, but a file 3 times larger.

[Litaiff]

The Ion VCR2PC is a crappy mono VCR internally connected to the circuit board from a composite-to-USB capture stick. I'm surprised it doesn't look even worse. I guess you chose a fairly stable tape for this demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQGTtrR045g

He tried to say that there might be an Svideo output on this device and that the connections for Svideo are still on the board? My English is almost good, but I understood that.

[The 14th Doctor]

Well not at all since it is basically the cheapest 2-Head Mono VCR known to man combined with the cheapest capture card circuit board. What's funny is apparently the board has the required sections for both S-Video output and stereo, so while making a modification to add those in is possible.. saying it isn't worth it would be an understatement.

I'm with Brad here, shocked it somehow isn't even more crap.

[Brad]

The Ion VCR2PC is a crappy mono VCR internally connected to the circuit board from a composite-to-USB capture stick. I'm surprised it doesn't look even worse. I guess you chose a fairly stable tape for this demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQGTtrR045g

He tried to say that there might be an Svideo output on this device and that the connections for Svideo are still on the board? My English is almost good, but I understood that.

The "S-Video" and "stereo" stuff is all referring to the USB capture board inside of the unit, not the VCR side. Meaning that if someone really wanted to, they could take out that USB capture board and wire it up to a good VCR instead. But there's no reason to outside of curiosity. The USB capture side is not some amazing device; it's on the level of a plain USB capture stick. I believe ION also used to sell this USB capture stick as a separate product.





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OFF-TOPIC:

Bit off topic, but did you ever get VHS_Decode working better than you did 3 years ago in this capture comparison?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcCrV7TBH2Q

That tape was specifically chosen as a challenging sample for the developers to work from (edge case). It's full of awful time-base errors throughout, which only the best hardware can reasonably TBC. The below comparison that I uploaded around the same time shows a more typical result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4cuM5MrXK4