USB Live 2 and Virtualdub or AmarecTV settings question

[tbird97]

I have perused the forums and learned so much from all of you.

I’m about to start capturing some vhs tapes (I live in the US, and they are NTSC).
I have a Hauppauge USB Live 2 capture card.
A few years ago, I tried a video preservation using that capture card and Virtualdub. I never could get a capture where the audio had synced with the video. I finally switched to AmarecTV and was able to capture just fine.

As I begin this new project, I’ve read Lord Smurf’s guide to Virtualdub and I’m going to give it another whack. I have also just procured a Panasonic ES15 for a passthru device while capturing. I hope that also alleviates my previous Virtualdub sync issue.


If that does not work, I will capture again using the USB Live 2 and AmarecTV to create an .avi file. I have both Huffyuv codec and I just did a test run with Lagarith codec with good results. When I capture with AmarecTV, I’m not using any filters, no deinterlacing, nothing.

So now I have my captured .avi file from AmarecTV and I need to edit it. I can do that in Virtualdub. What settings do I want to apply? I’ve read Lord Smurf’s guide (as mentioned above). In my test run, I was able to cut a segment of the captured video which I wanted. I would kind of like to crop or mask the video noise from the bottom of the capture. I don’t want to resize or change anything, just looking to eliminate that head switching nose as much as possible and preserve the most from the vhs capture.
After I cut out the segment I wanted in Virtualdub, I used Handbrake to convert it to a nice little .mkv file which my blu-ray player can play or I can watch on my computer.

Just looking for any guidance for the Virtualdub settings as it was elusive to me once before and I’m about to do a batch of vhs tapes. Thank you all very much!

[lollo2]

In VirtualDub:

Video ~> Filters ~> Add... ~> null transform

then Cropping, move to a suitable frame and set Y2 to remove the video noise from the bottom of the capture

take note of Y2 value

Create then an avisynth script with:

AviSource("your file")
crop(0, 0, -0, -Y2)
addborders(0, 0, 0, Y2)

[tbird97]

Thank you.

I gave vdub another try last night, using Lord Smurf's guide as I understood it as a reference.
I got a message "Unable to start video capture."
Not sure what that's about. It's been several years since I used it, but I recall being able to do a capture, it was just that the audio was not synced. I don't think it likes my Hauppauge USB Live 2 capture card. Will recheck the settings and try once more before I go back to AmarecTV which has worked consistently for me.

[lollo2]

I experienced the same synch problem with my Hauppauge USB Live 2 and VirtualDub, and I moved to AmarecTV as well ;-)

[tbird97]

Looking through the forums, I see other posts. I don't want to duplicate them.
It looks as it perhaps I may need to select CX23100 video and/or audio capture rather than USB Live 2 (or however it was listed on my computer). I'll try experimenting with those changes or combination of those and the USB Live 2 as device options.