Video8 very noisy capture ?
 

Hi everyone !

I am new to video capture and I started a capture project of a lot of family tapes.

I'm not looking for a perfect picture quality but I have some troubles with many tapes.

There are some horizontal blinking lines of green or purple color on the capture, mainly on top.
It occurs on some parts of the tape. Sometimes the quality can be very good. Other times the entire tape is so noisy that it is not watchable.

The blinking lines don't appear through the camcorder viewfinder (black&white only).

My hardware is composed of a Sony TR-425E PAL camcorder and a Hauppauge USB-Live2 capture device.

Do you think that the tapes are corrupted and I cannot get a better quality ?
Is there some ways to improve the capture with another devices ?

I have attached an extract of my raw capture through VirtualDub.

Thanks

The defect is on the tape.
You need a lineTBC (banding on the frame).

Attachment 14808

The easiest way to find out if the noise is on the tape or generated in the RF preamp during playback is to pause the tape while previewing the footage in the software, If the noise freezes it is the tape, if noise continue to sizzle then it's the camcorder.

From the preview and looking at the drop out sections where the zebra pattern is also faded off I'm certain that this is tape related not camcorder. Possible causes if it is tape related is that the recording camcorder is faulty due to loose ribbon cables, broken ground straps, loose or cracked components.

Nah pretty sure it's the capture card that is at fault here. That's how these capture cards react if PAL video is a bit unstable.

The solutions have been covered a lot here, look for a fancier Sony hi8 camcorder that includes TBC/DNR, and/or get a panasonic or newer Sony/Pioneer dvd recorder to pass the video through as those will help stabilize the video.

Well, one way to find out is to do the pause test.

Because of the wobbly right edge, I'm siding with Hodgey.

Thw wobbly edge is line timing error, it has nothing to do with the capture card.

Probably correct. But even if the problem is the instability and not an "error" baked in the tape, the effect is the same. And there are no consumer cards able to perform a good capture without a lineTBC correction.

Indeed ;) The problem here is the lack of lineTBC before anything else.

To the OP: upgrading camcorder or adding a passthrough, capture the Y/C signal, not composite. Comb filter of Hauppauge USB-Live 2 is poor.

I tried to do the pause test but the picture is not good at all, lot of grey horizontal lines (even in the viewfinder).

Going to find a better camcorder as advised, with integrated TBC and S-Video output.

I read that D8 cam are able to play old Video8 tapes and do the digital conversion.
Is it a good option to bypass the Hauppauge (poor) capture device ?

No, it will be an Analog to DV conversion. BTW Hauppauge USB-Live 2 is an excellent device, not poor. Only its comb filter (i.e. capturing from composite) is mediocre. It must be fed by a player with lineTBC, or a specific DVD-R in passtrough mode, with S-Video output, but this is the rule for any workflow

@pbgnt
NTSC DV-AVI format is allegedly inferior to analogue captures.

Also, to utilise the Firewire/DV conversion, you'll need a Firewire/IEEE1394 port in your computer.

Be sure the D8 camcorder you consider can play Video8/Hi8 recordings. The basic models may be missing some essential features for Video8/Hi8 capture.

Also, D8 camcorders usually can output DV via Firewire (aka IEEE1394 and iLink). But DV is a compressed video signal which is not optimal for restoration work. (The main problem is lossy compression which can be especially hurt by noise in the image such as video shot with poor light.)