VHS capture quality question ?

[Don2050]

Hi all,

I am trying to capture older VHS tapes that are dubs from someone who taped a cartoon off TV. I am uncertain as to the exact age, but my guess is at least 4-5 years.

The problem I am having is that when I capture these tapes I get a kind of horizontal picture wobble. It also happens when the VCR is hooked up direct to the TV but not nearly as bad. I thought it was an interlace problem but after hooking the VCR direct to the TV and seeing the problem, although lessened, I am thinking it is a synch problem with the tape itself ??? I do not have much experience with VHS (I am to young to have really remebered and played around with any VHS recordings, most of my teen years and later were spent watching DVD's)

I read that you can get a TBC that may or may not correct your problem, what I was wondering is does anyone have any digital solutions to correct this issue ? My target format is DVD to watch on my TV.

I am capturing to Huffyuv with PCM audio avi and I get the wobble in the avi file too, does anyone know of a way to correct the problem with capture software ?

I did use TMPGenc 'remove noise' filter turned up some and it seemed to lessen the problem. But did not clear it up. Also, another question I have is would a different(better) VCR make a difference, I went and bought a Toshiba 4-head hi-fi stereo one just for this and I am getting this picture wobble. Would an S-VHS w/ Svideo help, even though I know it will still only be VHS quality.

Thanks

[Gazorgan]

It sounds like a problem with signal levels being too low. I'm guessing you are using TV-out of the VCR to TV-in of the capture card. You would get better results with composite or S-video.

Try a different VCR, this will tell you if it's the VCR or your capture card. Also try a commercial (Short Play) tape, this may tell you if it's the tapes themselves.

One more thing! Almost forgot, it can be a gound loop. VCR's are 2-prong chords and computers are 3. That means your computer is grounded to your house AC lines. Try plugging the VCR and computer into the same outlet strip. Try flipping the VCR plug 180 degrees. You can try grounding your VCR by connecting a copper wire of at least 16 guage fron the outside of the F-Connector to the center screw holding you ac outlet faceplate on.

[lpn1160]

I had a similar problem once, I changed my caps res from 352x480 to 480x480 and the prob disappeared. Goin for dvd you should go as high a res as you can. worth a try
Good-luck

[Don2050]

Hello,

I just wanted to report that my problem, I found after a little more testing, was the dubbed tapes themselves. I borrowed a commercial VHS movie from my friend and it captured fine without the wobble, on the same setup as I tried to capture the dubbed tapes from.

Thank you Gazorgan,(btw, I was using composite, with an svideo adapter to my TV Card in[Leadtek Winfast 2000])

for the response, I wish it were one of those things you'd mentioned, at least it could then have been fixed, but alas the 'remove noise' filter in TMPGenc will have to do.

This makes me realize the quality I have become accustom to with DVD's and also makes me hope digital recording takes over analog and no one ever recordes to tape anymore