TBC-3000, should I use the proc amp?
 

Hello,

I've got a good TBC-3000 that's in perfect working condition. However, something I didn't spend to much time on, was using the proc amp on the TBC-3000 during the captures.

My question: Should I recapture my videos, and actively monitor the video and adjust the proc amp to avoid the histogram in virtualdub going into "red" to much? Usually, I believe the contrast and color button on the TBC-3000 made the biggest differences, when I adjusted on the fly.

I recall reading at some point - You want the histogram to come near the red areas areas but not to extend into them.

I just captured a bunch of Hi8. If you are not planning on adjusting the levels in post, maybe shade during capture. But honestly, if you set the levels for the worst case scenario, just leave it and adjust in post. Also, any NTSC recorded source should crush at 0 and clip at 100 IRE on a waveform monitor. That equates to 0-235 on the histogram. So the black level should be set to 16 - 235 in Virtualdub.

My captures were done without proc amp. The Virtualdub levels were adjusted to brightness 4 & contrast -22. All my video was original footage that I recorded with single chip and 3 chip Sony Hi8 cameras. The two cameras only varied slightly from each other. You need to find a clip with black shadow detail and white or overexposed bright areas.

Record a few short test clips, import them to an editing program and view the results on the histogram and waveform monitor.
Steve

Probably not necessary unless your caps have overly crushed blacks, clipped whites, or look flat and overexposed because you set your levels without cropping out the overscan regions. Can you upload a sample? Like WarbirdVideos said, it's best just to set levels for worst-case scenario. What I do is crop the overscan regions, then watch my video for several minutes tweaking the capture levels based on what VD's histogram tells me, then uncrop the overscan and capture. It's alright if the blacks go into the red a bit, but not the whites.

If the whole video has color casts, off-contrast, etc -- yes, recapture is a good idea.

On-the-fly correction never works well. It's hard to do that. More realistic is capturing segments. Adjusting, capturing next segment.

Always monitor the video, at least every 5 minutes. Never unattended captures.

Unless color values change wildly, a single setting is generally more ideal.

Just remember that the best color correction starts in hardware, ends in software. Software is not magic, and must have a good base video level to start with. Sometimes segment capturing is unavoidable.