Capture from VHS problem

[dalek7]

Anyone who can help out with details on this one is cool in my book;

I'm using an ATI AIW card and monster cables (RCA) to capture video from my VHS player. Most everything goes pretty well, except certain tapes. A tape that plays and looks fine on the VHS2TV player will, in these problem cases, play horribly on my VHS2ATI/PC hookup during play/capture. What looks like bad tracking lines will form across the top of the picture, scrambling the whole screen at times and making it wholly unwatchable. Essentially it looks like the tape has gone to crap and is un-trackable. Course, if you again play it on another VCR on a TV, it's fine.

Switching VCRs has not helped. Obviously in these cases it IS the tape, its simply the problem of being unable to capture it properly for whatever reason.

The VHS player in question does not have S-Video output, but if it did, would that make a difference?

Thanks, and hope for some cool replys.

[pacoreguenga]

Your vcr and tapes are fine.
Your pronlem is called Macrovision, and it is a content protection system embedded on the video signal.
Try using a Macrovision removal device. You can find them at eBay for as low as $10 bucks.

[dalek7]

Actually, I've already removed Macrovision and have been able to capture some things without any problem since then. It appears to be more a case of an old or multi-generational videotape.

For whatever reason, and my question is 'what IS that reason and how can I get around it by adjustment or otherwise', the ATI AIW warps the image on some video tapes that are sub-par but usually watchable.

Thanks!

[hain23x]

a couple of us are having this problem too! we are talking about it in the thread I have posted

click here

I think I'm pretty sure it is NOT a macrovision problem because I disabled Macrovision and can NOW record movies that have Macrovision(Star Wars for example)

some people think it's a timebase correction problem.

[jarvizo]

The best way around this is to use the vcr that the tape was recorded on
(this can be a pain if you've gone through a few machines over the years!)
To keep this from happening , I use only the SP speed to record anything I plan on capturing later. The slower speeds tend to look & capture worse on other vcr's.
Some higher end players have circuitry that stabilizes the picture & cleans the image up. This may help. You may also try those "Editing kits" that amplify the signal when dubbing tapes.

[snowmoon]

I remeber that ATI cards sometimes mistake poor signal for macrovision! From my memory a TBC would fix the problem, but they cost $$ ( they are worth it ).

[dalek7]

Seems to be more the latter. What's a TBC and where can I find one?

[Anonymous65]

TBC, Time Base Corrector, puts the video into digital memory, and is read at a very precise and steady pace. The video from a VCR has a lot of wow and flutter because the video tape and video heads are not moving at a perfect speed. A TBC corrects these problems, and inserts new horizontal, vertical and color sync signals. In the process, it also strips off the interfering Macrovision signals found in the vertical interval, which is replaced by the TBC.

The cheapest consumer internal TBC is the TBC100 ($250) and external the TBC1000 ($300) from Datavideo. You can also find some huge old monster TBC's on eBay for less. (but remember it needs to have composite video input)

[hain23x]

Can't one of the resident computer gurus here come up with a patch like they did for the macrovision removal thinggy??????

8)

[dalek7]

I like that idea, especially as so many of us (see other thread
http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=316733#316733) seem to be having this problem with bad test results on possible solutions and absolutely NO help from ATI. The Macrovision patch works great at least...
Maybe if we all write a petition ATI they might notice its a real problem and actually put some effort into solving this for us...
Thanks everyone so far for all of the input...

[dalek7]

Someone at the other thread posted the below message as a possible SOLUTION, so read and click!

The Solution.....!!!!!

I have had the same problems on a Ati all in wonder Radeon and also Allinwonder Radeon 8500DV .

I tried Playing the tapes in different vcr`s and also got the same problem using laserdisk, but also got ` bright flashing`

the problem is the chipset on your motherboard.
Download and run: Via 4in1 drivers
from:

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2

This cured my problem after 6 months of tearing my hair out!!

Ati technical support is pants, but a telephone call to Hercules.com, who now support this card knew about the problem, and had the solution in minutes!.

[txpharoah]

Bad VCRs can put out bad signals that capture cards don't like. The ATI does tend to see more of the signal than some cards from my reseach (and hence looks "worse" because it sees more). Anybody capturing VHS should consider investing in a timebase corrector (TBC) to clarify the signal. You are, afterall, I hope, trying to make perfect DVDs, not just so-so DVDs.

The Datavideo TBC-1000 unit is about $200 and an excellent addition to any video hobbiest's toy collection. Also consider a JVC HRS9800U SVHS VCR (about $450) for its various digital audio and video filters to even further correct output before it even leaves the VCR. Money yes, but wasn't your computer also expensive? I didn't just say "dollars make the difference" because it sounded cool.

[Quigonsean]

I just got that VCR open box at Circut City for 76bucks. Its great, in the menu features I have filters for Smothing, Sharpening, it has Image Stabilization for fixing the problem of Videoi noise on tapes made on other vcr's. On HiFi or SAP Tapes I can send various Audio signals From HiFi only to Linear Stereo to Regular plus Left HiFionly to Both. It has more options in the menu and on the remote then both my DVD P;layers put together. I ain't capped with it yet but I will by the end of the week I'm finishing up ESB first.
BTW what about the possibility that the lines your seeing are interlacing since its only on the pc which is deinterlaced, have you tried capping then running a deinterlace filter on it in Tmpegenc or cce or whatnot?

Sean