Problems Capturing VHS with HVR-2250 and VirtualDub
 

Hi,

I'm trying to convert my parents VHS home movie collection to a portable hard drive and DVDs for the future and I've come across a few problems, but for now I want to focus on my main problem:

The captured video is "jumpy" bouncing around from side to side, with intermittent blue screens (I'm guessing inserted or dropped frames). The audio playback is also broken cutting in and out very frequently. There's also horizontal bar mismatch across the screen (looks like some sort of interlacing problem)

Here is some info on my testing and setup.
1. I've installed virtualdub and huffyuv64 from this site. In virtual dub I can not access the format, source, or display options under video. I also can't select huffyuv as a compression codec (however in the windows uninstall programs, huffyuv shows up as being an installed program which I can uninstall).
2. I have a Panasonic 4 head Hi-Fi Stereo Omnivision VHS player connected via coax to a hauppauge HVR-2250 card. The card has hardware mpeg encoders, but other forums report it capable of avi capture in virtual dub with no problems.
3. I've installed the latest drivers for the HVR-2250 and my nvidia video card.
4. I have tested video capture with the Dazzle DVC 150 from pinnacle. Using this device the capture is great, the only problem is a image quality reduction (boxy when zoomed to fit the full screen etc.). This leads me to believe the problem is not with the VHS player.

I've already spent 20 hours or so on this and am about ready to give up. Does anyone with more experience have any ideas for me?

Thanks,
Tyler

This generally points to the VCR and/or the signal (by extension). A good VCR is needed to send a stable image. Nect in line, you need a TBC or frame sync of some kind, in order to send a stable signal to the digital device.

Analog video is unstable and messy. Post-1980 TV sets were designed with this in mind, and would accept crappy signals and somewhat play them decently. A digital capture device, however, requires a perfect signal -- it won't simply overlook errors like a TV did. It can't, in order to lock onto the video and digitize it and store as a digital version.

Read these related posts and articles:

• VHS tearing from VCR (mostly just the 2nd post, to understand the issue)
• What is a TBC? Time Base Correction for Videotapes
• Dropped Frames & Audio Sync Errors
• Basic Playback Hardware (to Convert Tape to Digital)
• VCR Buying Guide (S-VHS, D-VHS, Professional) for best video capturing

This is likely related to dropped frames.

I'd have to see a sample. Not sure I understand your description. From pure educated guessing, it could be tearing, capture card distortion (hardware/driver error), or another byproduct of dropped frames.

Well, remember that you don't actually "install" VirtualDub as much as you unzip it to a proper location. What version of Windows are you using? And based on that, did you unzip/unRAR it to the suggested proper folder on your system?

I'd also ask what "format, source, or display options" are supposed to be, as there are no such named options under the Video menu (i.e., File, Edit, View, Go, Video, etc etc)

This is a well-known extremely crappy VCR, which tends to give out bad signals. The blue screens you're seeing are being output by this VCR. This VCR spits out blue screen constantly, even on slightly damaged tapes. It works well on SP mode commercial tapes -- but that's really about it. It chokes horribly on most homemade tapes. (You'll note this is mentioned in the Playback Hardware Suggestions guide.)

Correct. This is a modern "PVR" card designed to record TV shows -- it's not really a capture card by the classical sense. It wasn't really made with VHS tapes, etc, in mind for its intended use. AVI capturing on hardware cards varies widely, with quite a few variables at play.

As you've noticed, this is another "not very good" item. (I've seen worse, but I've seen quite a few that are better, too.)

Another VCR and adding an AVT-8710 TBC will likely solve your issues.