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  #1  
08-05-2019, 04:53 PM
beachcomber beachcomber is offline
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A few weeks ago I started watching some of our family's old VHS tapes using a JVC SR101US that I bought from lordsmurf (thanks, lordsmurf). I had not played any of these tapes in years; watching them brought back many memories. It also piqued my interest in capturing: by digitizing my VHS tapes, I can prevent the loss of irreplaceable/priceless footage and make clips accessible to relatives.

From my researches here on this forum, I concluded that a Windows XP system would be the best environment to capture in. I dusted off an old HP Pavilion desktop from 2003 that was going unused, ordered a new IDE/PATA 250 GB HDD for $16 and 2 GB of additional RAM for $13 for the two unused memory slots, and successfully installed Windows XP SP3 on it. So far, so good. I then went looking for a video card.

On eBay I found an ATI All In Wonder 9600XT for sale. I was skeptical that it was really brand new, never used as the seller claimed -- how many unused ATI AIWs can there be? -- but I decided to take the risk as the seller was only asking for a little more than $100 and accepting returns. To my satisfaction, the card was as advertised. All the dongles were in the box, plus all the discs (including the one with the drivers and setup wizard) were there, and the other accessories, like the FM antenna, all sealed in plastic.

The card installed fine and after some configuration, I was able to launch ATI Multimedia Center 8.8 and watch footage on the computer from tapes being played on the JVC. (I am using S-Video as my video connector.)

Next I went looking for a dedicated sound card to avoid clock/sync issues. I found a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, again on eBay, and added that to the system. The Santa Cruz did not come with any drivers, but fortunately the manual and drivers are available on this forum, so I was able to get that working too.

A sample VirtualDub capture is attached. I did not crop out what I understand is "head switching" noise at the bottom. I used the suggested settings from sanyln's guide to make the capture. (The tape is an old promotional video from the Alaska Visitors Association, funded by a grant from Exxon -- I believe as compensation for the horrific Valdez oil spill.)

Aside from adding an external TBC (like the kind lordsmurf sometimes has for sale) to my workflow, is there anything else I ought to be doing to improve the quality of my captures?


Attached Files
File Type: avi AUG19-Beachcomber-Sample-Clip-Alaska.avi (87.87 MB, 8 downloads)
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  #2  
08-05-2019, 06:17 PM
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lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
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The AIW 9600 for $100 complete was fair price.

Standard workflow =
S-VHS VCR with line TBC (JVC best for 1st deck)
> external frame TBC
> good capture card that captured interlaced, either lossless or MPEG hardware/hybrid

All connections via s-video.

External TBC you already know is missing.
Optional items are another VCR, either Panasonic or different JVC lineage.
Proc amp.
Detailer.
Audio mixer.
ES10 for anti-tearing.

There's really not a lot of gear in a workflow, just that the right gear is being used.

I'm on the wrong system to look at clips, but I can give it a preview tomorrow.

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  #3  
08-06-2019, 02:55 AM
beachcomber beachcomber is offline
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Appreciate the suggestions and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the sample clip. I'm new to capturing so feedback is valuable.

With respect to getting another deck: My relatives gave me a VCR last week that they no longer want or have any use for. It's a dual deck VCR made by GoVideo. I had never heard of GoVideo before I saw this VCR and hadn't come across it in my research. But apparently it's well regarded by some.

I found a picture of the same unit I have on Anarchivism.org.

Quote:
The name may not be something off the shelf of your local electronics store, but don't let that throw you. These decks are well built and often have interesting features that will want you to take advantage of them even if you are not using them to rip movies. Some earlier models will circumvent copy protection in tape-to-tape copies, while later models (forced by law to obey copy protection) contain editing features like flying erase heads, direct tape copy, automatically editing out commercials, slow motion, audio/video dubbing, quasi S-VHS playback, and manual tracking.
Do you agree with this opinion, LS?
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  #4  
08-06-2019, 09:09 AM
VideoTechMan VideoTechMan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beachcomber View Post
Appreciate the suggestions and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the sample clip. I'm new to capturing so feedback is valuable.

With respect to getting another deck: My relatives gave me a VCR last week that they no longer want or have any use for. It's a dual deck VCR made by GoVideo. I had never heard of GoVideo before I saw this VCR and hadn't come across it in my research. But apparently it's well regarded by some.

I found a picture of the same unit I have on Anarchivism.org.



Do you agree with this opinion, LS?
I'm not LS, but I do remember the GoVideo brand of dual deck VCR's they made at one time. And, like a dual cassette deck, its not a good choice for transfers. It may be fine for checking out tapes and seeing which ones to work on without wearing out your primary playback unit, but the GoVideo is just one of those "more prosumer type VCR's" that fall short. Plus its a VHS only deck with features that aren't needed which makes them useless for any real transfer work.

A serious true SVHS deck with line TBC would be the better choice.
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  #5  
08-06-2019, 12:45 PM
sanlyn sanlyn is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beachcomber View Post
On eBay I found an ATI All In Wonder 9600XT for sale. I was skeptical that it was really brand new, never used as the seller claimed -- how many unused ATI AIWs can there be? -- but I decided to take the risk as the seller was only asking for a little more than $100 and accepting returns. To my satisfaction, the card was as advertised. All the dongles were in the box, plus all the discs (including the one with the drivers and setup wizard) were there, and the other accessories, like the FM antenna, all sealed in plastic.
That was a lucky buy. The 9600XT is among the best VHS capture cards ever. I've had mine since 2004.


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Originally Posted by beachcomber View Post
A sample VirtualDub capture is attached.
A pretty nice capture overall. A couple of glicthes (aren't there always?"): (a) The title characters exceeds RGB 0-255. (b) Further work might prove confusing because the scenery itself is progressive but the titles are interlaced. If you deinterlace for web posting you'll get a duplicate of every frame, but the titles will fade-in/fade-out one frame at a time..
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  #6  
08-06-2019, 06:11 PM
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lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
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GoVideo (styled as "Go.Video") decks are probably the worst VCRs ever made. These crappy machines were probably single-handedly responsible for the low-quality VHS dubs making cartoon/TV collecting circles in the late 90s. I never saw a GoVideo-made tape that didn't add significant timing errors on playback, and thus to the dubs. Timing wasn't the only error, but significant color/chroma issues as well, including tint changes and bleeding.

Whoever designed that deck should be hit in the face with a shovel.

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  #7  
08-07-2019, 03:49 AM
beachcomber beachcomber is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
GoVideo (styled as "Go.Video") decks are probably the worst VCRs ever made. These crappy machines were probably single-handedly responsible for the low-quality VHS dubs making cartoon/TV collecting circles in the late 90s. I never saw a GoVideo-made tape that didn't add significant timing errors on playback, and thus to the dubs. Timing wasn't the only error, but significant color/chroma issues as well, including tint changes and bleeding.

Whoever designed that deck should be hit in the face with a shovel.
I had a feeling you would offer a negative assessment. S-Video out is not an option on the GoVideo deck. There's only composite out. I can't imagine that I'll be using this for any capturing whatsoever, but perhaps it can be hooked up to my television, assuming it can handle playback without problems. That way I don't have to keep moving the JVC around and I can switch between playback of two different tapes by just pressing a button.

My previous VCR was a Magnavox (Funai?) VR9062AT02. It really doesn't work anymore. Might be because the heads need to be cleaned, I'm not sure.

Which VCR would you say is worse, LS: the GoVideo dual deck or the Magnavox?
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  #8  
08-07-2019, 07:50 AM
hodgey hodgey is offline
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Magnavox was a branch of philips. I would think it's more likely a JVC/Philips made deck rather than Funai, considering it's from the late 80s, not late 2000s.
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08-07-2019, 06:44 PM
beachcomber beachcomber is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hodgey View Post
Magnavox was a branch of philips. I would think it's more likely a JVC/Philips made deck rather than Funai, considering it's from the late 80s, not late 2000s.
It still is a subsidiary of Philips. But my understanding is Funai has been making Magnavox-branded gear for some time. Not sure when that arrangement started. In 2008, Funai assumed responsibility for making TVs with the Philips name. They had already been making Magnavox branded VCRs before that.

Funai's Wikipedia article states:

Quote:
By 1997, Funai became the first manufacturer to sell a new VHS VCR below $100 for the North American Market, while the Philips Magnavox brand they produced for was the best-seller.
Philips and Funai inked a deal last year to extend their arrangement.

Perhaps LS knows more of the history?
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08-07-2019, 07:43 PM
hodgey hodgey is offline
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Ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole. Looks like Panasonic actually made VCRs for Magnavox in the late 80s, so maybe that's what it is.

As for Funai, judging what I can gather from scattered sites, it seems they made decent decks in the early days, but they then started to make their own cheap mechanisms in china.

EDIT: Listed here as having a panasonic mech.

Last edited by hodgey; 08-07-2019 at 08:04 PM.
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  #11  
08-07-2019, 08:41 PM
ChunkDaMan ChunkDaMan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beachcomber View Post
On eBay I found an ATI All In Wonder 9600XT for sale. I was skeptical that it was really brand new, never used as the seller claimed -- how many unused ATI AIWs can there be? -- but I decided to take the risk as the seller was only asking for a little more than $100 and accepting returns. To my satisfaction, the card was as advertised. All the dongles were in the box, plus all the discs (including the one with the drivers and setup wizard) were there, and the other accessories, like the FM antenna, all sealed in plastic.
Wait a second... Sorry to change the subject here but I'm sure I've seen that exact 9600XT sealed on there days ago (unless you bought it from a different seller). I was close to buying it since it's an 8x AGP and my mobo supports it, but I couldn't make a deal with the seller for $100 + free shipping. IMO it was a bit pricy for me after I bought a 9800 pro w/ cables for $70 but didn't have the darn power adapter so I was SOL. Luckily I was able to score a 9000 pro sealed for another $70 on eBay, works like a champ. Not needing anything heavy on my machine, just something to get the capping job done (thanks to this: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post13441). Though I'm glad you were able to score the 9600XT, hope it all goes well for you!

Last edited by ChunkDaMan; 08-07-2019 at 09:07 PM.
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  #12  
08-07-2019, 08:53 PM
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lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
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I really don't understand the AIW 9600/9600XT love.

These are essentially the same AGP cards for video capture:
- $50 shipped: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53...P/312048121250
- $35 shipped: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53...P/312048121250

Buy a purple dongle for $10, and you're done.
No special cables needed, DVI in right on the card.

Add a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, needed audio cables (AUX or RCA>mini), and done again.

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  #13  
08-08-2019, 08:18 PM
beachcomber beachcomber is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hodgey View Post
Ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole. Looks like Panasonic actually made VCRs for Magnavox in the late 80s, so maybe that's what it is.

As for Funai, judging what I can gather from scattered sites, it seems they made decent decks in the early days, but they then started to make their own cheap mechanisms in china.

EDIT: Listed here as having a panasonic mech.
Excellent research! Thanks for chasing this down. This VCR could have been made before the Funai era. I think it dates back to the early nineties.

I looked on the back again. The Panasonic name isn't there, but of course if they were contracted by Philips to only use their brand, it wouldn't be there. The deck was manufactured in Japan.
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