VHS capturing glitches, sound out of sync?

[Pomaze_Bog]

Hello everyone!
I'm into vhs capturing for a while, trying to figure it out and do it myself. The tapes are 20-30 yrs old, family videos. Some are PAL, and some are SECAM.
I am pretty low on budget. Also, I live in southeastern Europe (non-EU) and here it is very hard to find the equipment.

My equipment is as follows:
– Philips dvp3350p
– Panasonic dmr es10
– Elgato Video Capture (i know it is considered not really great, but why is that so?)
– Win10. I also use linux ubuntu, but on other computers, that are slower than the one that runs on win10

At first I didn't have dmr es10 but I managed to find and buy it.

My tapes are not in very good condition, so i have many glitches on some of them. But, I noticed that when i connect my vcr on one hand directly to tv and on other hand to capture card and computer, there are way more glitches shown on computer than on tv. With dmr es10 it got better, but nevertheless there are still some glitches that are not beeing seen on tv.
Also when recording in Virtualdub (either 1 or 2) I always have trouble with time sync no metter what setings I use. When recording in Amarec this problem is solved, but I have n impression that the picture is somehow overall slightly worse.

I would appreciate any piece of advice from you, guys.

-- merged --

One more issue. When recording in AmarecTV there is no time glitch. Also, pcu usage is at 2-5% all the time. But, disk usage is at almost 100% all the time so ocasionally it skips a few seconds in recording. There are two disks, a hdd and an ssd, but whether i record to one or another it is always the same. I use UTVideo codec as sugested in this tutorial: https://youtu.be/sn_TDa9zY1c

[lordsmurf]

Do not use Ut Video for capture. it has too much overhead. Use Huffyuv (best), or Lagairth (next best).

That Youtube video is bad advice, and has been discussed before. His settings are crap.

Elgato hardware is awful, both for usage/stability and image quality/clarity. It's not some slight % or preference, but literal night-and-day difference. It's cheap crap.

Most tapes are in better condition than people realize. The quality issues are completely due to junk VCRs, lack of TBC, and cheap junk capture cards. Not the tape itself. The data on the tape is often fine. You just have to extract it properly.

Linux has zero capture software. It's all PVR stuff that doesn't work at all for videotape capture.

Win10 is a problem OS for capturing. Capturing is a 2000s task, and you're trying to use 2020s software/OS. It's a problem. Microsoft doesn't care about analog video capture from decades ago, so the OS isn't cooperative. You need an OS of that era, either WinXP or Win7.

Unlike VirtualDub, which was specifically created for the purpose of capturing videotapes or PVR'ing/timeshifting analog cable/antenna TV, AmaRecTV was created for analog "live capturing" (cameras, webcams) and video games. It's very similar to OBS in this way. The different is that OBS is/was digital screen recording, with no direct driver connection to the capture card (and recording from a display layer, which has consequences), whereas AmaRecTV direct driver connects to analog hardware. It essentially makes transport streams, which has consequences to video length/frame integrity, for the purpose of maintaining sync/stability. It's not magical software compared to VirtualDub, and it simply hides errors (though you'll eventually notice).

VirtualDub is about the timing settings, audio preview (disable), etc. Rarely are the defaults accurate.

[Pomaze_Bog]

The Great Master Lordsmurf answered my question, hallelujah!
Thanks, man, I really apreciate that!
Now, I woul gladly buy some of your pinnacle cards, but the problem is that my country border customs are absolutely unpredictable, so the customs duty plus overseas shipping can be much more expensive than your price for it.
My dmr-es10 state is as new, so i assume it's ok
My Philips dvp3350v heads were cleaned by a trustfull guy right before he gave it to me.
So I assume the only hardware issue in my case (besides the OS) is the card, am I right?

Also, can you give me some link or maybe an advice about timing settings in VirualDub

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pomaze_Bog

The Great Master Lordsmurf answered my question, hallelujah!
Thanks, man, I really apreciate that!

Quote:

Now, I woul gladly buy some of your pinnacle cards, but the problem is that my country border customs are absolutely unpredictable, so the customs duty plus overseas shipping can be much more expensive than your price for it.

I have something else that may bypass this problem. I'll PM you.

Quote:

My Philips dvp3350v

Those cheap Funai combo units are a problem. Even non-Funai can be. The internals are all routed composite, regardless of whatever output you connect to. There's no proper TBC or sync inside, and it can bake in errors.

A small error in the VCR output can snowball in the ES10/15 (which is also not perfect), into the cheap capture card. Errors tend to build, it's often not simple issues. Cumulative.

Quote:

heads were cleaned by a trustfull guy right before he gave it to me.

I would still proper clean myself. But I don't see it as being the issue here. Just good practice.

Quote:

Also, can you give me some link or maybe an advice about timing settings in VirualDub

No. It works the other way. Screencap you settings, attach here. No need to waste typing on settings already set.