Transferring with a SVHS camcorder?
 

I've read a bunch of threads since the last 24 hours to make up my mind on how to transfer my old VHS videos with the best quality. I took note of the best SVHS video player from JVC to PANASONIC. I know now that they are pretty hard to find and quite expensive too. Here is my question. Is it possible to get a decent transfer from an old SVHS Panasonic or JVC camcorder. They seem easier to find and they also are less expensive to buy.

Next question. Will I automatically get a better quality by transferring my VHS cassettes with a SVHS video player?

Thanks

Greg

Even if you chop your VHS tapes into small pieces to fit into VHS-C cassettes which is a lot of work, camcorders tracking is worst compared to a dedicated VCR, I believe you will be just wasting your time and harming your tapes by slicing them up.

Yes playing back VHS tapes with a S-VHS VCR yields better quality than a regular VHS VCR because S-VHS machines output the native Y/C signal recorded on tape but VHS VCR's take those two signals Y and C and combine them together to make a composite signal which results in a slight degradation of picture quality.

SVHS machines, which can play both VHS and SVHS, tend to be better overall than lower-scale players, and they usually have s-video outputs. Note that "SVHS" and "S-video" are two different things. SVHS is a tape format, s-video is a type of signal transmission. S-video is found on tape players, DVD machines, and older cable boxes. S-video is analog and cannot carry high definition digital signals, but it can handle 16:9 and 4:3 in analog video and DVD.

The list of recommended players are units equipped with line-level tbc's. Please note: you cannot get good captures without a line tbc and, usually, an external frame-level tbc is also needed. You bare wasting your time without a line tbc. You can get the two levels of tbc using a legacy Panasonic DMR-ES10 or DMR-ES15 recorder. Use the units as pass-thru tbc's, meaning that you connect your tape source to the DVR's input and connect your capture device to the machine's output, but without recording on the DV-R. In other words you are passing the signal thru the recorder's tbc circuits. Most recorders can't be used as pass-thru, and most others that can are not very capable at all.

Generally speaking, upper-scale Panasonics with Dynamorphous heads will give much better playback than other brands. especially with extended play tapes. JVC and its clones are poor choices for extended play VHS and lesser choices for VHS in general. Higher-end Panasonics in good shape are also hard to find, but units made between 1996 and 1998 are your best bets (PV-S**** series, PV_46** and PV-86*** VHS and SVHS players are decent). Anything made after 1998 is junk.

Because lesser players have no noise reduction, expect to do some heavy duty cleanup after capture. ,But that's true even for semi-pro units with built-in DNR (which many people turn off because dnr can cause other problems, like ghosting and motion smear.). Today's Avusynth and VirtualDub filters are far more sophisticated than the primitive cleanup circuits in VCRs.

Latreche 34, I was talking about the old S-VHS camcorder and not the VHS-C. Back in the days I was using a VHS Toshiba camcorder if I remember. So I was just wandering if it could have been a good idea to get one of these old S-VHS cam as a player instead of buying a more expensive S-VHS player. Thanks for the answer!

I'll defer to the experts here for a full answer, but if your S-VHS camcorder is anything like the full-size GE camcorder which our family used for many years...it could not handle EP or SLP mode at all. And a lot of consumer home videio, especially recorded Over The Air shows, is recorded in an extended play format.

Even with a full size cassette camcorder I still think it's not a good idea to capture using a VHS camcorder.

Do not use a crappy old camcorder (even the "pro" models) for transferring tapes.

Get a quality suggested VCR: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...ing-guide.html

Otherwise significant quality will be lost, and the conversions will look terrible. (Or "good enough" as some folks like to tell themselves, in an attempt to ignore major glaring quality defects.)

Many camcorders enjoy eating tapes. "<Nom-nom>, memories good! (And now gone!)"

Lordsmurf has made his opinion of eCrap well known...and, yes, it is a crapshoot. So, at the risk of incurring his ire, I'll just drop this little gem out here for your consideration:

Mitsubishi HS-HD2000U DVHS VCR

I have no connection whatsoever with this listing; I just checked Google to see if one was currently available. And it is a crapshoot...you don't know if it belonged to a smoker, if it will need heads replaced or cleaned, or if there are any other issues which the seller may be sweeping under the rug. But I will say that such a machine in good working condition is one of the best for this task which you will find out there, and it is on this site's recommended list. If I didn't already have two I might be tempted to pull the trigger myself...

Yep, not a D-VHS fan at all. Those decks almost always track non-SP VHS quite badly (sometimes even SP), and always get a B+ at best on my tracking grading scale (average B-, many C grades, few F). This has little to do with wear of decks, but in how they're made. These decks were attuned to D-VHS tapes, not VHS or S-VHS (both of which are essentially the same for playback, unlike D-VHS).

You managed to find a good D-VHS deck for playing VHS tapes, and that does happen, but it's not the norm.

On the class scale, not yet released, D-VHS decks are 3rd Class units (may work, but major concerns or issues).