VirtualDub settings for capture with my setup?

[zorkiii]

Hi all, I have a project to capture 50 or so VHS tapes and have a few questions.

I currently have the following setup:

JVC HR-S9911U VCR (Digital TBC=ON, Video calibration=ON, Picture Control=EDIT, R3=OFF, Stabilizer=OFF)
AV Tooboxl CTB-530TR TBC
ATI TV Wonder 600 USB 2.0
NI Komplete Audio 6 Interface
Windows 7 Pro
VirtualDub 1.9.11

I've got everything connected and using S-Video into the TBC and out to the ATI 600 USB. I've followed sanlyn's guide at this link to setup my vdub the same: https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vid...-settings.html

All my tapes are NTSC and have vdub set to 29.97 NTSC_M YUY2 720x480

I'm using Huffyuv v2.1.1 patch v0.2.2

My captures are looking good for the most part, except for having some audio sync issues, and issues with tapes where recordings start/stop with some pauses inbetween (and also just having some poor quality tapes). I had to change some settings a bit to get my audio to sync on certain tapes, here is what is currently set in my 'Timings' screen:

timings_settings.PNG

Checking the above screenshot are there any issues to be concerned with on those settings?

Also wondering about the following two screens:

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video_levels.PNG

For the above two screens, I believe those are what was there as default, I don't recall messing with them in any way. Anyone have experience with those two screens, and from the settings in my screenshots should those be fine enough for capture?

I will eventually have more questions concerning post restore/filter/quality that I will post later in the proper forum after I do my initial captures.

Hoping to get some input on my hardware and settings above before I go through the process to capture everything. On a side note, I tried AmaRecTv and it seemed to work really well also and had no audio sync issues. Would anyone care to offer input on if VirtualDub and AmaRecTV are apples to apples? I couldn't seem to find a similar capture guide for AmaRecTV like sanyln's.

Thanks in advance for any input.

[beachcomber]

You commented that some of the source material is poor quality tapes. Are they videos of family life, or something else homemade? Flawed tapes made by cheap camcorders and VCRs can be challenging to transfer even with a good TBC. Do you experience audio sync issues consistently across tapes when working in VirtualDub, or just some tapes?

[lollo2]

Quote:

I tried AmaRecTv and it seemed to work really well also and had no audio sync issues.

Good!

Quote:

Would anyone care to offer input on if VirtualDub and AmaRecTV are apples to apples?

The (good) capture software are transparent in term of the quality of the audio and video streams; they rely on the hardware circuitery of the capture cards, and pack the audio and (compressed) video packets in a container, the avi file. The second operation is where they differ and behaves differently.

Here the Graphs internally used by the 3 most popular capture applications, using a Hauppauge USB-Live 2 as example:

VirtualDub 1.10.4
REMOTE !FilterGraph 00D5C3C0 pid 00002af0.jpg

AmarecTV 310

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VirtualVCR 2.6.9
REMOTE !FilterGraph 06DD1BB0 pid 00000fdc.jpg

You can easily create yourself a "Capture Software" for your card using GraphStudioNext. Here 2 different approaches I use sometimes, with the Hauppauge USB-Live 2 as example. The last filter in the chain is "File writer" in charge of creating the file containing the capture.

capture only

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capture and display video (no audio)
REMOTE !FilterGraph 02f7e990 pid 0000250c.jpg

The problem is that you should be able to handle dropped frames (if any), to keep audio and video synch, which is not implemented in the Graph, except some configuration parameter in "AVI Mux" filter about interleaving audio and video.

Quote:

I couldn't seem to find a similar capture guide for AmaRecTV like sanyln's.

FleshWOund just published one https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vid...b-inserts.html

[zorkiii]

Quote:

Originally Posted by beachcomber

You commented that some of the source material is poor quality tapes. Are they videos of family life, or something else homemade? Flawed tapes made by cheap camcorders and VCRs can be challenging to transfer even with a good TBC. Do you experience audio sync issues consistently across tapes when working in VirtualDub, or just some tapes?

Hi beachcomber, the tapes are a mix of semi-pro public access camera recordings of live events from the mid 90's to early 2000's on SVHS duped down to VHS, and some lower quality VHS camcorder recordings as well. The audio sync issues are not happening with all tapes (thankfully), but seem to occur with tapes that were 2nd or more gen dupes where a compilation was being made from other SVHS sources down to standard VHS. I no longer have access to the SVHS sources unfortunately.

@lollo2 thank you for that input, it is greatly appreciated. When you mention 'The second operation is where they differ and behaves differently', just to check for clarification do you mean AmarecTV in your screenshot flow examples as being the second operation? Or are you referring to the capture device as the second block in the flow? I tried looking up some of the terms in the second screenshot for AmarecTV (mpBFCapture, mpBFCustom, mpBFRender) but wasn't having much luck finding info.

From the screenshots I think I am gathering that the examples are showing VirtualDub being the good capture software and more transparent, is this what you were illustrating? Apologies if I am following wrong and appreciate any additional input or even personal opinions. Thank you.

[lollo2]

Quote:

When you mention 'The second operation is where they differ and behaves differently'...

I meant that you can use indifferently VirtualDub or AmarecTV, whatever it works better for you. I prefer the second because with it I never had the problems of audio/video asynch that I experienced with VirtualDub.

[zorkiii]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lollo2

I meant that you can use indifferently VirtualDub or AmarecTV, whatever it works better for you. I prefer the second because with it I never had the problems of audio/video asynch that I experienced with VirtualDub.

Thank you for your input, I appreciate it. I will continue capturing my tapes and hope it ends up being smooth sailing!