VHS capture setup advice in Switzerland?

[massimo]

Hello,

I am trying to capture my parents VHS collection (family movies) on VHS and VHS-C. I know I'm at least 15 years late for that party... !

I bought an Elgato capture USB dongle, and used it with 3 entry level VCR (don't have the model names, they all broke one after the other)... and the result seemed acceptable on my computer, but if I play the video on some other device (ie : RapsberryPi with recent Kodi version) the sound is completely out of sync !
I re-ripped some VHS using a Panasonic-EH55 as a pass-through, and this seems to correct the problem with the sound.

By reading the threads on this forum for the last couple of months, I realised my setup wasn't ideal.
Eventually, my goal is to get rid of the tapes and the VCRs, but I want to make sure I have a good (or at least decent quality) before throwing anything away.

I live in Switzerland and finding second hand gear is not always easy. This is what I have access to right now :
- VCR : JVC HR-J770
- DVD recorder (as cheap TBC pass-through) : Panasonic DMR-EH55 and Panasonic DMR-E500H
- Capture device : Elgato video capture USB dongle (https://www.elgato.com/en/video-capture)

I could also have access to those :
- VCR : JVC HR-S9700EU (it's on sale on an auction website, I only have 2 days to decide ! The price is affordable)
- Capture device (from a friend, I haven't seen it yet) : "a USB dongle from a few years ago which worked with a software called Magix for capturing the video in 720p mpg", it is most likely a GRABSTER AV 250 MX (https://www.terratec.de/details.php?...STER+AV+250+MX)

I request your kind help to help me with the following questions :

Should I buy the JVC HR-S9700EU ? It's a S-VHS VCR and has a built-in TBC, which sounds like a good device (the only good one I have seen around here).

If I do buy the JVC HR-S9700EU and use the built-it TBC, would the Panasonic DVD recorder pass-through still be necessary or would it be redundant ?

Finding an external TBC in Switzerland is impossible, and it's still unclear for me if an external TBC "cares" about NTSC/PAL : could I buy a TBC in the USA and use it with my PAL setup ? Would that be necessary on top of JVC HR-S9700EU's TBC ?

As per the capture device, I don't know if the elgato is good enough and if the captured video will be improved by using a better source (better VCR...). Did anyone had (better) experience with the Grabster. I'm of course open to other suggestions, but I'm not on a unlimited budget (since this is a one-time job, I don't want to spend too much).

I'm looking forward to reading your answers and I thank you very much in advance for your help and your advice !

Cheers,

Massimo

[Eric-Jan]

Looks like you have enough options ! I would say, try all of them, yes, it's hit or mis, depending on the combination of them,
An advice is nice, but only, if you can get hold of that right setup, and quality of your OS and pc setup.
Capturing is not an exact science, and it also depends on the standard of quality you have in mind, a lot of people will advice you a top quality standard, which they think is a must, if you want to capture VHS, with a good video editor you will able to setup a good video format for resolution, aspect ratio, and audio codec, so it will play good on any device, some playback devices, or media player just have limited features, some hardware players just can't play some audio codecs, or resolutions, VLC is a player that has codecs build-in/installed, so you should do some research in that.
Like now, i have a NUC (mini PC) for playing video, this NUC has already the H.265 codec build-in, and will not put that much of a load on the CPU.
With capturing, i found a good recorder combo which plays VHS also over component video output, and i capture with a Intensity Shuttle, via Thunderbold onto my MacBook Pro, which works fine for me, but that's because of that combination of it,
an other vcr in this setup will totally not work, because the Intensity Shuttle needs a clean video signal.

btw. consider also, depending on the capture device, if you want to capture straight into MP4 or MP2, this you can do if you don't plan to do anything in post, like editing or adding effects.
Capturing uncompressed will put more strain on your PC hardware/software, and is also a cause for dropped frames.