Hi8 picture is either blinking or black & white?

[ther89]

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to digitalize the old Digital 8mm tapes. Equipment I am using:
Sony HandyCam CCD-TR411E PAL --> RCA Cables --> EasyCAP --> USB

I managed to capture the input video and sound, but I cannot find the proper setup for the proper video quality.
Since I am living in Central Europe, Hungary, I would assume I need to pick some of the PAL settings from the dropdown.

I have chosen PAL_D first, the image and the colors are fine, but sometimes (not always) the top of the image is blinking/flickering. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjddNFGks-A

I have tried PAL_N, there everything is fine, except the colors are lost. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvY2wtKckwo

I know that EasyCAP is not providing the best quality, but I would assume that with the right settings you can have something that has colours and not blinking.

Can someone elighten me about what is wrong with this, and what should be the correct settings?
Thanks in advance!

[keaton]

I live in NTSC land, so cannot say anything on that.

Verify that you don't see the issues when viewing the output of the camcorder connected to a television, to get more confidence that it is not the source material or the player.

Searching this forum on Easycap or Easycrap (yes, and tell search results you did want to search on easycrap, not easycap), you'll see a lot of people having various woes with this device. This indicates that despite the marketing cleverness, it is not in fact so easy to make a quality analog video capture device these days. I would not be surprised if the capture device is causing the issues you see. If you care about this video, and I'm sure you do, it is highly advised to get a decent if not excellent capture device. Plenty of chat on the forums about what the good/great ones are.

[ther89]

Thanks for the response! Yes, the picture is perfect if I put directly on TV, and I am aware that this is crap, I just wanted to make sure that it is not some setting I am missing, before ordering a proper one.

-- merged --

Hello,

Just as a heads up, I have ordered another device, the captured video quality seems to be good with this one. So it was EasyC(r)ap

[latreche34]

You are not alone, many people go for the cheapest thing they can find and come back complaining, I've long warned people about Chinese companies because my buddy is a product importer from China and he tells me all kind of stories about their business practices, They're goal is to deceive you with a fake product just to get a buck out of your pocket. they have no desire to care if the product they sold you would accomplish what you want, not what so ever.

[lordsmurf]

You've wasted money, and 2 months time, on a "cheap" card. But in hindsight, was it cheap? Nope!

"Easycrap" is a deserved nickname for Easycap (aka EZcap) cards. It's cheap Chinese junk -- often sadly rebadged by brands like Roxio and sold for $$ or $$$.

The ATI 600 USB (or clones) or what you want, for USB. There are also a few other excellent USB cards The exact card you get is heavily dependent on OS. XP and Win7 are best, 8/10 and Mac (10.14 max) are workable with issues, Linux and macOS 10.15 are not.

If you simply insist on being a cheapskate, a Dazzle is less-crappy than an Easycap.

VCR/camera also matters. Did you verify the image is fine directly from camera to TV?

[Eric-Jan]

The ATI 600 USB does also PAL ? when i Google i see no mention of PAL is this because of the analog build in tuner ?
Only Amazon or eBay still have some on sale, for very variated prices, the chipset(s) used in the ATI 600 USB are not used in any other devices ? maybe on PCI cards ?

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric-Jan

The ATI 600 USB does also PAL ? when i Google i see no mention of PAL is this because of the analog build in tuner ?
Only Amazon or eBay still have some on sale, for very variated prices, the chipset(s) used in the ATI 600 USB are not used in any other devices ? maybe on PCI cards ?

ATI 600 USB captures PAL.

The coax tuner is NTSC/ATSC only, but it's obsolete anyway, never used, not in many years now.

I have some available, from time to time, in the marketplace forum.

What you'll see on eBay/Amazon is very often missing the essential cables for capture, and it can be difficult/nuisance to acquire those. Price are very varied, sometimes stupidly so.

What I find most hilarious, and ridiculous, is all the idiots trying to sell the worthless remotes for $15 each. Ah, eBay.

There are some "clones" (same/near chipset), but those are actually harder to find than the ATIs.

We live in a disposable society (throw stuff away, good or not), and these are currently 11- to 13-year-old devices. My point here is that the cards are not as plentiful as they once were, because people largely chose to throw them in the trash (or recycle), rather than resell (or otherwise pass along to others). And all the new cards sold in stores and online are overwhelming complete crap. It should not be this way, and new tech should be better than previous generations. But it's not. So it what it is.

These chips are exclusively in USB cards, not PCI or PCIe.

[Eric-Jan]

Thank you for your reply, it's indeed a sad story finding a good capture device that's available for everybody,
even then, a stable video signal is needed, A TBC is also something that's not easily available.
I'm happy with my setup, but it also needs special dated hardware, just like on a windows pc, otherwise you have no setup at all.