Hello all,
I've been lurking around for a few weeks on here for a VHS capture project and I'm totally impressed by the amount of information I've learned just reading old posts (thanks for that!). Until now I've found about every piece of advice I needed concerning resolution, different codecs, dropped frames, etc. I tested 3 different VCRs, a handful of codecs and resolutions, and I finally settled for Huffyuv, 640x480, 16/48 PCM. I plan on archiving the original lossless files away, and maybe doing a little editing/filtering for MP4 or DVD for watching/convenience, but the main thing important to me is that the master files are done right, at the best quality I can achieve with what I already have. Everything seems to go well, but I got a few questions that I first should have asked from the start and I can't seem to find anything on the net, so pardon me if it's been explained before.
I use an USB adapter for my captures. I know it's not the best method for quality, but someone lent this to me and I didn't want to spend much on this for now, so decided to try it. I must say I'm pretty surprised with the results, and I even settled for the cheapest VCR I have in my possession, the last one I thought I'd use, out of the 3 VCRs I tested. I had access to an older Samsung, a Toshiba and my cheapo(?) Sylvania. Most likely all from the late 90s/early 2000s. The Samsung produced an image similar to the Sylvania, and the Toshiba produced a sharper image, as I expected and liked best at first, but quickly noticed it made my captures look too sharp, almost like it was a second gen tape. The colors were also too dull, and the sound had an annoying buzz almost as loud as the audio content itself. The only good thing about this one is that it tracks the tapes better, but my tapes are all fairly clean, recorded circa 2005-2006 off TV. I think the reason my captures look best with the Sylvania is that this is the VCR that the tapes were recorded on. The only drawback: it recorded in mono only in the left channel and I never noticed until now. I know I could just record directly in mono but I'd rather edit the files and make adjustments myself in Audacity. It's just annoying not to have a stereo recording when it was originally broadcast in stereo.
1 - I'm two VHS tapes into my quest, and I'd like to do some A/B comparisons between the original tapes played back on the VCR I'm using for the captures, and the AVIs I'm importing. I have a PS3 gaming console that I'd put the digital file in, and I would plug both the VCR and the console in the same TV, switching between channels to get from the image output by the PS3 and by the VCR. The PS3 accepts quite a few formats, including AVI, MP4, MPEG, etc, but obviously it won't accept my Huffyuv files. I don't want to convert to lossy for the comparison, and so that's why I tried to remux the Huffyuv files into an MP4 container using Avidemux, MP4tools, MeGUI, and countless other tools, but they all produced different errors. All applications will import and recognize the file, but none wants to export it. I figured it might be a color space thing, tried to convert my original 4:2:2 files into 4:2:0 ones (knowing there might be a loss), but to no avail. I'd just like to remux the video and audio streams into a format that the PS3 will recognize, without messing with the colorspace or anything. I'm no expert in the video field so please tell me, is it just not feasible or I'm missing something?
2- I read quite a lot of posts about devices that use hardware MPEG2 compression, and it seems like it's more related to capture cards, but I know a few USB adapters advertise MPEG/DivX/etc. and never found out if MINE did that. It's not written on the box. It says I can export to AVI/DivX/WMV, but it might be using their software after the capture, and I don't use it because it's crap. It doesn't tell if the actual capture is done in MPEG. How can you tell? I mean, the device works perfectly with VirtualDub after installing the drivers, it captures my Huffyuv files perfectly, everything is recognized, when I play the files in VLC it detects the right info about it (Huff YUV Video HFYU, 640x480, 29.97fps, Planar 4:2:2 YUV). But how do I know if I'm losslessly capturing a MPEG2 stream? I don't want that. Not that I see any obvious compression artifacts or anything, but VHS tapes aren't really great to start with, so it's hard to tell, MPEG2 can look smooth at high bitrates. I read in other posts that some users have gone as far as disassembling devices to get to the chip to get around its limitations and to know what was going on inside. Any knowledeable folks on here about this device?
Not that relevant for THIS post, but anyway:
Pentium D 2.8GHz (early gen dual-core), 1GB DDR2 RAM, stripped down Windows XP SP3 running on less than 100MB RAM, USB Capture device (seems to be a clone of EzCap, but not a 10$ clone, more like 60$). It's EXACTLY like this (http://www.globalcoast.ca/store/images/USB2-EZCAP.JPG) but has no name on it, and it's made from a french company called "MicroApp" (http://www.microapp.com/logiciel_sauvez_vos_cassettes_video_10651.html)
Sorry, I know it's a long post, but I wanted to include as many details as possible, maybe some experts will come out and tell me to try something else with my other VCRs, if the Toshiba is better or anything. I can post samples. I'm here to learn and do things right. Thanks!
I've been lurking around for a few weeks on here for a VHS capture project and I'm totally impressed by the amount of information I've learned just reading old posts (thanks for that!). Until now I've found about every piece of advice I needed concerning resolution, different codecs, dropped frames, etc. I tested 3 different VCRs, a handful of codecs and resolutions, and I finally settled for Huffyuv, 640x480, 16/48 PCM. I plan on archiving the original lossless files away, and maybe doing a little editing/filtering for MP4 or DVD for watching/convenience, but the main thing important to me is that the master files are done right, at the best quality I can achieve with what I already have. Everything seems to go well, but I got a few questions that I first should have asked from the start and I can't seem to find anything on the net, so pardon me if it's been explained before.
I use an USB adapter for my captures. I know it's not the best method for quality, but someone lent this to me and I didn't want to spend much on this for now, so decided to try it. I must say I'm pretty surprised with the results, and I even settled for the cheapest VCR I have in my possession, the last one I thought I'd use, out of the 3 VCRs I tested. I had access to an older Samsung, a Toshiba and my cheapo(?) Sylvania. Most likely all from the late 90s/early 2000s. The Samsung produced an image similar to the Sylvania, and the Toshiba produced a sharper image, as I expected and liked best at first, but quickly noticed it made my captures look too sharp, almost like it was a second gen tape. The colors were also too dull, and the sound had an annoying buzz almost as loud as the audio content itself. The only good thing about this one is that it tracks the tapes better, but my tapes are all fairly clean, recorded circa 2005-2006 off TV. I think the reason my captures look best with the Sylvania is that this is the VCR that the tapes were recorded on. The only drawback: it recorded in mono only in the left channel and I never noticed until now. I know I could just record directly in mono but I'd rather edit the files and make adjustments myself in Audacity. It's just annoying not to have a stereo recording when it was originally broadcast in stereo.
1 - I'm two VHS tapes into my quest, and I'd like to do some A/B comparisons between the original tapes played back on the VCR I'm using for the captures, and the AVIs I'm importing. I have a PS3 gaming console that I'd put the digital file in, and I would plug both the VCR and the console in the same TV, switching between channels to get from the image output by the PS3 and by the VCR. The PS3 accepts quite a few formats, including AVI, MP4, MPEG, etc, but obviously it won't accept my Huffyuv files. I don't want to convert to lossy for the comparison, and so that's why I tried to remux the Huffyuv files into an MP4 container using Avidemux, MP4tools, MeGUI, and countless other tools, but they all produced different errors. All applications will import and recognize the file, but none wants to export it. I figured it might be a color space thing, tried to convert my original 4:2:2 files into 4:2:0 ones (knowing there might be a loss), but to no avail. I'd just like to remux the video and audio streams into a format that the PS3 will recognize, without messing with the colorspace or anything. I'm no expert in the video field so please tell me, is it just not feasible or I'm missing something?
2- I read quite a lot of posts about devices that use hardware MPEG2 compression, and it seems like it's more related to capture cards, but I know a few USB adapters advertise MPEG/DivX/etc. and never found out if MINE did that. It's not written on the box. It says I can export to AVI/DivX/WMV, but it might be using their software after the capture, and I don't use it because it's crap. It doesn't tell if the actual capture is done in MPEG. How can you tell? I mean, the device works perfectly with VirtualDub after installing the drivers, it captures my Huffyuv files perfectly, everything is recognized, when I play the files in VLC it detects the right info about it (Huff YUV Video HFYU, 640x480, 29.97fps, Planar 4:2:2 YUV). But how do I know if I'm losslessly capturing a MPEG2 stream? I don't want that. Not that I see any obvious compression artifacts or anything, but VHS tapes aren't really great to start with, so it's hard to tell, MPEG2 can look smooth at high bitrates. I read in other posts that some users have gone as far as disassembling devices to get to the chip to get around its limitations and to know what was going on inside. Any knowledeable folks on here about this device?
Not that relevant for THIS post, but anyway:
Pentium D 2.8GHz (early gen dual-core), 1GB DDR2 RAM, stripped down Windows XP SP3 running on less than 100MB RAM, USB Capture device (seems to be a clone of EzCap, but not a 10$ clone, more like 60$). It's EXACTLY like this (http://www.globalcoast.ca/store/images/USB2-EZCAP.JPG) but has no name on it, and it's made from a french company called "MicroApp" (http://www.microapp.com/logiciel_sauvez_vos_cassettes_video_10651.html)
Sorry, I know it's a long post, but I wanted to include as many details as possible, maybe some experts will come out and tell me to try something else with my other VCRs, if the Toshiba is better or anything. I can post samples. I'm here to learn and do things right. Thanks!