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  #1  
06-10-2020, 12:12 AM
bentley bentley is offline
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I tried my very first VHS capture on my new equipment tonight (hooray!), and would love some feedback and critiques.

(My workflow is a JVC SR-MV40 VHS -> TVOneTask 1T-TBC -> Pinnacle 710-USB.)

I've attached three 10-second clips of 1998 commercials. All were in a row on the same cassette, originally taped off TV at EP speed.

To me, these clips look dull, with dark or faded colors -- especially the commercial for the X-Files movie.

I have an old (1985!) CRT TV hooked up to the VCR as a preview monitor, with the Color, Tint, Black Level and Picture dials all right at 50%, and these commercials all looked much brighter and more colorful on the old TV.

Could someone with a more experienced eye please look at these captures, see if they agree, and let me know what I should be doing differently?

Thanks!


Attached Files
File Type: avi XFiles-sample.avi (67.47 MB, 35 downloads)
File Type: avi Wendys-sample.avi (80.05 MB, 12 downloads)
File Type: avi ATT-sample.avi (71.54 MB, 12 downloads)
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  #2  
06-10-2020, 02:18 AM
latreche34 latreche34 is offline
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The source channels were noisy to begin with, They were recorded with low quality VCR and the capture VCR is as low as the original one that recorded them, A S-VHS VCR with S-Video out and line TBC would make minor improvement but for better quality tapes is a must.
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  #3  
06-10-2020, 07:22 AM
bentley bentley is offline
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The capture VCR *is* an S-VHS unit, I *am* using the S-Video out, and it *does* have a line TBC...

The attachments still show as "0 downloads." Did you look at them?
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  #4  
06-10-2020, 07:40 AM
Hushpower Hushpower is offline
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Bentley, the counters aren't working properly. I downloaded your files but it didn't register.
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  #5  
06-10-2020, 09:25 AM
sanlyn sanlyn is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bentley View Post
I tried my very first VHS capture on my new equipment tonight (hooray!), and would love some feedback and critiques.

(My workflow is a JVC SR-MV40 VHS -> TVOneTask 1T-TBC -> Pinnacle 710-USB.)

I've attached three 10-second clips of 1998 commercials. All were in a row on the same cassette, originally taped off TV at EP speed.

To me, these clips look dull, with dark or faded colors -- especially the commercial for the X-Files movie.

I have an old (1985!) CRT TV hooked up to the VCR as a preview monitor, with the Color, Tint, Black Level and Picture dials all right at 50%, and these commercials all looked much brighter and more colorful on the old TV.

Could someone with a more experienced eye please look at these captures, see if they agree, and let me know what I should be doing differently?

Thanks!
Your captures have illegal, low black levels, which means darker colors and suppressed contrast (you do know that brightness handles darks and contrast handles brights?). You aren't setting or measuring incoming signal levels properly during capture. From your remarks about viewing It looks as if your uncalibrated monitor is too bright. I wouldn't worry too much about XFiles -- that's a fair description of the way it always looked.

That "50%" figure makes no sense whatsoever. That's not calibration, it's just wild guessing.

For setting levels check post #3 and post #4 in http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...-settings.html and other content in that thread.

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/6...-monitor-25803

Last edited by sanlyn; 06-10-2020 at 09:49 AM.
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  #6  
06-10-2020, 02:34 PM
bentley bentley is offline
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Hushpower, thanks for letting me know about the broken counters.

Sanlyn -- thank you for the link! That looks like a nice detailed write-up; I'll go through it step by step tonight when I have more time.

I'm not in any way claiming that my ancient 1985 TV is calibrated correctly. Just that, with all of its old dials set at their exact midpoint, I'm getting a very different, and much more colorful, picture than the capture or the VDub preview window.

But since you've confirmed that my captures have "low black levels" -- I guess that's to be expected!

I will read more, learn the software options, tweak settings and keep trying.
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  #7  
06-13-2020, 11:50 PM
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lordsmurf lordsmurf is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hushpower View Post
Bentley, the counters aren't working properly. I downloaded your files but it didn't register.
The counters do work, but are not instant. The cron for it is somewhere between daily and weekly. The activity is logged instantly, but it gets reflected at the cron update.

You had me worried there, thought something was broken.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bentley View Post
To me, these clips look dull, with dark or faded colors -- especially the commercial for the X-Files movie.
Color is fine.
Dark is the issue. But I'd be apt to blame the recordings, or the cable broadcasting. Cable, right? Not satellite?

These commercials are awesome. I'd enjoy copies of those. I'm pretty sure the black guy/driver in the BK commercial is a TV actor now. And a good one. Seeing actors in their "early days" of TV commercials is always neat.

Quote:
I have an old (1985!) CRT TV hooked up to the VCR as a preview monitor, with the Color, Tint, Black Level and Picture dials all right at 50%, and these commercials all looked much brighter and
Doesn't matter. Different baseline values. You cannot compare. I doubt BOTH the TV and the monitor are calibrated. Is either calibrated?

Quote:
more colorful on the old TV.
"more colorful" is never a good thing. Accuracy matters, not pumping up the chroma to ridiculous levels.

Quote:
what I should be doing differently?
Ideally: Use a proc amp.

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  #8  
06-15-2020, 04:03 PM
bentley bentley is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
Color is fine. Dark is the issue. But I'd be apt to blame the recordings, or the cable broadcasting. Cable, right? Not satellite?
No idea, sorry, I didn't record this tape myself.

Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
I doubt BOTH the TV and the monitor are calibrated. Is either calibrated?
The TV definitely isn't. As for the laptop -- you sold it to me; you tell me!

Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
Ideally: Use a proc amp.
You sold me every inch of this equipment and this is the first time you've mentioned needing a proc amp...

The TBC has some rudimentary proc amp controls built in, and sanlyn's thread explains how to adjust the capture levels. Between the two, I'm hoping I'll be okay.
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  #9  
06-15-2020, 08:50 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bentley View Post
As for the laptop -- you sold it to me; you tell me!
Definitely calibrated.

Quote:
You sold me every inch of this equipment and this is the first time you've mentioned needing a proc amp...
The TBC has some rudimentary proc amp controls built in, and sanlyn's thread explains how to adjust the capture levels. Between the two, I'm hoping I'll be okay.
Need? Not at all.
And that exact Cypress has some decent basic proc amp controls, and may suffice for mere upping the brightness, or reducing contrast, to avoid darkness.

After the initial analog-domain color correction, more can be done in software as needed.

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