Chipmunk audio transferring VHS to digital via VirtualDub?
 

Hi there. This is my first time posting to the forum. I upload stuff to the Internet Archive such as old software, vinyls, and VHS tapes before I stopped the latter for a bit. My transfers at the time were garbage, and I've been meaning to get back at it lately by doing things correctly for the most part this time around.

I've followed Notelu's Ultimate VHS Capture Guide, the only differences in terms of software being using VirtualDub2 rather than VirtualDub AIO, as well as using the Lagarith codec instead of UT Video T2 YUV422 BT.601 VCM.

I've tried recording two tapes now, both times the video itelf seemed fine, but issues in audio arose with the audio lagging behind the video in the first recording, and a "helium" effect in the latter where the voices become obnoxiously high pitched at seemingly random points before returning to normal.

Would this be a hardware sided issue, or a software sided one? I don't have the best equipment for this task since it's mostly a "get it up sooner than later and worry about the top-notch details later" situation. I am using a Sanyo VWM-900 VCR, no TBC, and a Hauppauge USB Live 2 capture card via Composite connection.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Forum recommends using Virtualdub 1.9.11, download is here http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide....html#post9485. The guide for Virtualdub capture is here http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...-settings.html This doesn't prevent you from using Virtualdub2 for post processing, if you wish.

Without a frame TBC to help prevent loss of sync between audio and video, you're likely to experience this once you've been through enough tapes. Didn't take long in your case to have tapes with timing issues that cause your audio issues. Even with a frame TBC, Virtualdub settings are very likely necessary to resynchronize audio and video. With a frame TBC, they would be used less often due to the help of the frame TBC keeping video timing consistent through dropouts.

Regarding the helium sound, it sounds like something is trying to recover your audio/video sync after drifting apart and some type of correction method is shifting your audio too quickly and thus noticeably effecting the frequency. Correct Virtualdub settings would not cause this to happen when it is re-synchronizing audio to the video. What your correct Virtualdub settings are comes from trial and error, but the Virtualdub guide will help educate so you can knowledgeably find what's best for your setup.

Best wishes.

I followed through with the tutorial, and have applied the listed settings there. While I did see the options that were likely causing me the sync issues (Enabling audio playback, starting the capture in compatibility mode), I now can't start capturing video period. I've followed through and swapped from Lagarith to Huffyuv, but when applying YUY2 instead ofthe default UYVY in Capture Pin, the preview dissapeared, and the program basically crashed and won't allow me to enable captures.

Give AmarecTV a try.

If your tapes are not in excellent conditions you may need a frame TBC as Keaton suggested.

Re-read the first post of the guide. I just updated it.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...-settings.html

Thanks a bunch for the help with this, I read the post mentioned and applied the new settings, but I'm still having the issue where the video doesn't show in the preview box, and I get the "Unable to Start Video Capture" error. I'm a bit confused since swapping from YUY2 back to UYVY doesn't seem to fix the issue, even though hitting Apply in Capture Pin was what seemingly started it. Would it be best if I made a new thread for this problem?

Try uninstalling and re-installing vdub or give AmarecTV a try.

Sorry you're having such trouble. I've never used this device myself, so I can only volunteer more general advice and suggest a forum search and see what you can find. A forum search on virtualdub hauppauge brings up multiple threads. I see in more than one thread reports of success with Virtualdub and this capture device. One user said they were able to capture successfully in Overlay mode. Here's a couple examples I found that may help. http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...-usb-live.html http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...pauge-usb.html

For my ATI card, I can only see video and capture in the Preview mode and with Histogram enabled. I vaguely recall that some capture devices only work in either Overlay or Preview. Sometimes there's more than one capture device in the Device menu to choose from, even though there's only one physical capture device. This is just an example of how sometimes cards are quirky with Virtualdub until you find your magic combo of settings. So all I can say is try Overlay mode. If still no video, try enabling the Histogram. Histogram is a good thing anyway to see whether your video levels are being clipped in the shadows or highlights.