Experienced VHS viewers requested - Can you have a look at this capture plz
 

Hi,

I recently posted a thread where I was trying to see if my setup was acceptable before I start backing up VHS tapes. I'm not familiar enough with analog to know what's an error, and what's just normal VHS noise. I did create a previous thread on this, but I used a recording that I created. I believe the majority of the issues with that came from the recording itself, and the playback is actually fine. (Previous thread here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...te-encode.html)

To test this, I purchased an unopened season of Friends on VHS from eBay and have used that to make a recording. Seems very noisy I have to say! Is this as the recordings are so old?

I think the rating card is probably the easiest to see any errors on? I can upload other samples if anyone wants.

I really appreciate any feedback from the more experienced VHS junkies on here :)

Files:
PG ratings card - full uncompressed capture - Here: https://send.firefox.com/download/94...YppAJM6RrmgVBQ

Wild Wild West trailer + PG rating card at the end - Final output through my complete setup, including encoding and filtering - Here: https://send.firefox.com/download/e4...JS1KOz3RQeSTRw

EDIT: Just a note, I might need to turn up the denoising a tad, 260mb for such a short video after encoding is madness...

Eww, the Wild Wild West trailer looks shifted to green. But the PG rating card isn't, so that's the tape's fault, not yours.

You should flag the correct Sample Aspect Ratio when encoding, specifically --sar 12:11 .

Yeah, I noticed the green tint too, but I think the capture setup is working fine though? That's the main thing I want to get from this, that I can start converting my old tapes! I was afraid the VCR was crap.

Hopefully someone else can chime in and give an opinion. I know the quality isn't great, but I think it's as good as can be expected from VHS capture? I feel the colour is very dull...

Regarding the aspect ratio, I didn't actually notice that was off. Should I be selecting one of the options on the bottom left here in Hybrid (Specifically MP4 PAL 4:3 12/11):
https://i.ibb.co/mv4t0Zm/image.png

I haven't selected any.

Can't edit that last post as it's too late, but playing with this, I think I need to force the *input* type to 12:11 (otherwise it wants to resize). This seems to give the correct media info aspect ratio on the output file.

I've also upped my noise reduction (vague denoiser to a threshold of 5, was 2) and x264 quantitizer (from 14 to 18) and got the bit rate down to a more manageable 5000kbp/s. Basically halved the file size :)

Quality can vary quite a bit from tape-to-tape, even major studio releases. Since you're PAL I can't offer any direct comparisons, but the user jjdd has posted a bunch of PAL VHS samples using many different workflows, so you can get an idea of what to expect and possibly buy the same release to compare. I think his may all be Netherlands releases though...

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...x-mxo2-le.html
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post64261

You can always increase the Saturation proc amp control of the capture card.

Is there a way of doing this without having to just trust my eyes?

Is there a way of doing this without having to just trust my eyes?

A vectorscope and waveform monitor on the proc amp output. However, if proc amp adjustment done in the capture card you can use software to see the results in the captured file.

In any case it is good to have a calibrated monitor for viewing video streams. It helps keep the eyes honest.