vhs to avi capture problem

[bilkido]

Hi to all I am trying to capture a movie from vhs using virtualdub and wintv go which I will later convert to svcd.When the capture starts everything is fine until about 30 mins into the movie when a load of horizontal lines appear which looks like a scrambling effect.It lasts for about 10-15 secs at a time then dissapears for about another 15 mins .But during these "episodes" the dropped frames jumps to over 1000.What is happining?Is there a way I can correct this?Thanks all for any help.

[Poplar]

You have a bad tape or bad VCR. Sometimes rewind the tape and play it again, everything will be fine. If it's still bad, you have to skip this segment of the tape.

[bilkido]

Hi again I don't think its a tape problem as I have tried differant tapes and it happens on each one.Also the vcr I use plays fine when its not attached to my computer.

[dezine]

Chances are you have a bad VDR. When I say bad I mean it's not a great quality VCR.
Cheap VCR's will have problems keeping a constant signal leaving your VCR player to the computer.
Cheap VCR's and worn average quality tapes are usually the problem of most AV/DV VHS captures. Good players, good quality tape and good cables (SVHS recommended) are a must for good VHS captures.
I had a similar problem with an inexpensive NEW Toshiba VCR I picked up to capture VHS footage to my system. I constantly had video problems ranging from poor color, soft video (blurry edges), to motion tracking that caused streaking across the screen.
Even with my more expensive VDR hooked up to it I noticed lines in video as well.
The video will look fine on your TV screen but won't be good for Computer capture.

I decided to drop the money for a Professional SVHS Mini DV player from JVC. The player has a built in TBC (Time Base Corrector) that helps keep the video stream together and color corrects teh images as well. My results after capturing video from this deack was perfect, crisp lines, perfect audio sync and correct picture color.
This might be too excesive for your needs as the player runs about $1,200, but worth it for me as I do alot of VHS captures to edit on my system and burn to DVD.

You might want to look into TBC units as they would probably correct the problem. Possibly rent some players or a TBC unit to try some captures that way before you buy.
Either way I would suggest at least stepping up and dropping teh money for a good quality SVHS player as this is probably your problem.

Best of luck,
Dezine (Michael)