VHS tapes flash yellow color every second?
 

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to exporting VHS to digital, and I wish I would have found this site before I had started, but I've already invested into some equipment that might not be the best for what I'm doing [converting VHS and mini8 tapes to digital], but it's working for what I need.

My setup is:
Toshiba DVR620KU - Found on eBay - It’s a VHS/DVD player/recorder.

Samsung SCL700 - also found on eBay - mini8 camcorder with s-video out.

Retrotink 2X-Pro - The inputs are component, s-video, and plain yellow rca along with stereo input that outputs to HDMI.

EVGA XR1 Pro - A capture device with HDMI to USB-C. This one is a bit overkill for this project, but could come in handy for other things.

I'm also using OBS, which reading from other posts is a bad thing. For my purpose of just getting the video of the tape, it works for me. Point me in the right direction for an article on what I should be using and I'll check that out. I'm also on a Mac, but I have access to Linux too. I've also got access to Windows, but not as easily.

Attached is a snippet of the output from recording output from a 25+ year old tape.

Every half second, the output flashes yellow. I'm not sure if this is the tape or my setup. I've played newer tapes [by about 10 years] and this problem doesn't occur.

Any ideas if this is the tape or my setup?


If this is the tape, and the yellow flashing is a result of the age, it doesn't seem like there is any way around this? Is there software that might help with "normalizing" the flashing to make it less obvious?

HDMI, OBS, component, composite are all bad things for SD analog video on a video tape.

I'm sensing that, but what might it mean with the flashing yellow? Is the tape too old? Something else?

I do have a s-video cable on order to see if that might help with things, but it won't be in until next week.

I'm guessing fluorescent flicker, but it's hard to tell with all the things your capture chain is doing to the video.

oK, I'm going to try hooking the VCR directly up to a TV and playing the tape in question to see if the problem still exists.

I only have HD TVs to connect to with either component or HDMI.

I don't think this VCR I'm using will work with HDMI out for VHS playback, but component and RCA should work.

Would that be a good enough test to determine if the tape is the issue? I don't have anything else with even a s-video input to test against.

I hooked up the VCR to a LG 55" HD TV via component, and I'm still seeing a little bit of the yellow tint coming and going but it isn't very obvious. It all actually looks pretty good.

Link to the video I recorded from playing on the VCR from my a Google Drive link since the recording I did is way larger than 99MB:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16pL...usp=drive_link

I just uploaded this file, so it might still be processing.

It would seem that my intermediary devices for converting and capturing are being a bit too sensitive to the output from the tape? I was recommended to get these devices, but now I'm second guessing their viability for the medium I'm trying to capture.

I'll look around the forums some more to see what more I can find, but any advice or links to what might work best on a budget would be greatly appreciated!

To add: RetorTINK is made for video games, not tapes.

From what I can see, wrong tools are to blame here.
- wrong capture device
- wrong connection types
- wrong software

A mess.

It needs to be properly capturing analog.
- quality capture card made for consumer analog sources
- proper s-video (or composite) connection
- using VirtualDub

Thanks for the response, again, I wish I would have gone here first before taking advice from others and buying a lot of equipment that won't work well for this transfer.

Since Virtualdub only runs on Windows, I do have another PC system that I could repurpose to be a Windows system since all of my other systems are Linux or Mac.

My VCR seems to work for this project, but looking at the capture cards link in your response, the Pinnacle USB looks to be the most reasonable. Is there any other information that can be provided on this device? A quick google search turned up many different results as well as the dazzle model which doesn't seem like it will work well [or at all]. I'd like to know a little more before making any other purchases.

Yeah, that's a problem. Not just video, but in general.
A person:
- knows nothing
- then learns a tiny bit (aka, enough to be dangerous)
- then think themself an instant expert, and start doling out horrible advice
Those people are often easy to spot, but sadly you have to know enough about the topic yourself to spot the frauds.

Ah well, live and learn, you're on the correct path now. :congrats:

An OS is just an ecosystem to run tools, and Windows is the one that has the tools we need for capturing. Mac is great, I have a pair, just not for video capture. Pitiful, pathetic, for video capture. Linux is my favorite daily driver (Mint, Xubuntu), but same situation, no quality capture options.

What is the model of VCR?
Is it that "Toshiba" unit? Realize it's not a Toshiba, but a rebadged Funai, some of the worst junk made in the final years of VCR production.

Dazzle is junk.

I purposely don't mention model numbers at times, because it's misleading. What always ends up happening is the person runs to eBay/Amazon like a puppy chasing a car, and buys the wrong item. I get blamed for their hasty buying habit, and their lack of reading further. Pinnacle has specific cards, but unfortunately Pinnacle (and Hauppauge) like to recycle model numbers. The "card" is too often not the same card being discussed.

But before we discuss that card, again OS matters. What Windows OS will you be using for capture?

PAL or NTSC? Assuming NTSC here, just want to verify.

Again, these are just tools. Sometimes the best card (best tool) is determined by your sources. That's the sort of detailed advice you won't get from random people in random places.

Oh, and I forget to mention earlier .... welcome! :)

Thanks, the VCR is a Toshiba DVR620KU. I originally got it because it had both component and s-video out. The playback I did on my LG TV looked pretty decent.

The system I’m thinking of doing this with is a pretty beefy Intel NUC with a 8 core Xeon and 64GB of RAM and a few terabytes of disk space.

I’m afraid I’m going to have to run 64-bit Windows 10 on this. I’ve read in other posts that it isn’t ideal, but that’s all I have access to.

Also test other tapes, don't judge by one tape only, Are other tapes exhibit the same behavior or just this tape?

Noting some tapes are just better at hiding errors ... and then you see them. Very often, certain tapes are really good at exposing weakness of a workflow. Makes issues more obvious, but then you notice it elsewhere.