How to fix rainbow effect on home movies?
 

Hi guys,

I recently purchased a Dazzle DVC100 so that I could capture ~40 old home movies to a digital format. Using Open Broadcaster Software, and I was able to capture from a new-ish Sony Handycam without too much trouble. However, I am getting crazy rainbow colors while trying to capture from a Panasonic Palmcorder PV-IQ404. After several minutes of capture, the video turns black and white. If I close OBS and reopen it - color returns for several more minutes. The same happens with Amarec and VLC.

I assume that this is related to the Dazzle, since the camera plays back fine on my TV. My research on these forums leads me to believe that my problems might be related to VHS-C (and Macrovision, though these are home movies; they shouldn't be copy-protected, right?) Some fixes seem to be purchasing a high quality VHS player and/or a TBC.

Really though, I'm just not very concerned about quality. I want to fix these color issues, but I am trying to keep from spending hundreds of dollars if I can help it. Do any of you have any suggestions/recommendations for somebody on a budget?

I'm wondering if it may be worth my time to just purchase a different capture card, and see how that works for me. However, I've seen some comments that indicate that VHS-C will NEVER work over USB because of limited bandwidth. Would a PCI-based capture card work better?

I'm really at a loss here. I'm trying not to bankrupt myself figuring out what hardware I need. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Ryan

How many VHS-C tape are there? What is your budget in time and money? It might be best to just send the VHS-C tapes to a video digitizing/transfer service rather than acquire the gear and climb the learning curve needed to do it at home. (Unless you want to do it as a hobby.) For example, COSTCO web site says they will transfer to 2 tapes (2 hour max) to DVD for $20.

Overall VHS-C quality should pretty much the same as VHS (allowing for variations in recording and playback gear), and USB is only a means of connecting a capture device to a PC. The original USB 1 would have been bandwidth limited for capture; USB 2 would depend on what else is going on in the PC while capturing.

It cost real money to add Macrovision; extremely unlikely to find it on any home recordings, especially VHS-C. It is usually associated with commercial authored material where the content owner is attempting to protect his property from copying. In any cast the issue you describe is not characteristic of Macrovision.

TV sets are much more forgiving of out-of-spec video signals than capture cards/devices. It could be the Dazzle, or the camcorder you are using, or the tapes, of some of each. The solution could entail getting some mix of a time base corrector, VHS-C adapter, and working VHS VCR that likes your VHS-C recordings. This assumes that the Dazzle basically works given your apparent success with the Sony.

As you have read here, the preferred capture systems are built on legacy PC gear, and Dazzle gear is not favored.

Rainbow issues are usually crosstalk issues, meaning composited connections were used. Whether or not this is embedded on the tapes, or simply a matter of using Y/C separation (s-video) depends on how it tests in proper gear.

I'd need to first see a test clip, to see what you mean by "rainbow".

Dazzle is known to make lower-quality items. Very few Dazzle products were decent, and none of them are sold new anymore.

Macrovision is an artificial video errors. Actual errors can trip up MV detection. So it's possible. For remove all such errors, an external full-frame TBC must be used (average cost $400).

As stated, what's your budget? Where are you? You may have better luck simply paying a service to handle this. Note that we offer such services.

Just a thought. Was the Panasonic PV-!Q404 produced during the era of bad electrolytic capacitors?