NTSC capture B&W on HR-S7611EU?
 

Hello :).

I'm located in Scandinavia.

My capture chain:
HR-S7611EU --> TBC-1000 --> ATI 9600 --> VirtualDub.

I have great success with my PAL capturing and the build in TBC on the VHS and the frame TBC on the TBC-1000 work wonders. However, when I pop in one of my NTSC tapes from the US they come through in VirtualDub as black and white.

In VHS menu Colour System is set at PAL/NTSC with the alternative being MESECAM. In VirtualDub my Video - Capture filter is set at NTSC_M with the alternative NTSC option called NTSC_M_J. Then I of course have all this PAL options and something called PAL_60.

What am I not getting here? I think the VHS supports PAL and NTSC playback, and I believe the TBC-1000 can handle both signals. I also thought the ATI 9600 could capture both PAL and NTSC. Is it the VHS or the capture card I need to replace for NTSC capture - or both?


Thx,
Chanuka

Welcome. :)

Nice gear! You should get excellent PAL captures (assuming all gear is functioning properly).

PAL VCRs do not play NTSC tapes. NTSC is "psuedo played" with a non-standard format the is essentially "NTSC-50". TBCs and capture cards (almost) never understand this non-format. DataVideo does not, most capture cards do not.

You need an NTSC VCR. Some people try to argue this, avoid this, but you'll spend time and money for inferior results. Does not work.

You also have to be very careful with which NTSC VCRs that you import (just as I must be careful with the PAL VCRs that I import), because transatlantic shipping damage is common on many models. This must be carefully planned, not random bought. But you seem to be a planner, given your current PAL gear.

Thanks a lot lordsmurf :). That's also what I was kinda expecting but it's nice to get a final verdict on it. I guess I have to try and locate an NTSC model now.

Thanks for the kind words about my setup. I have put quite some time in to acquiring the different pieces and I could not believe my luck, when I recently found a tbc-1000 with only one owner who had taken great care of it.

You could give it a try by removing the TBC-1000 from the chain for that particular tape and set your capture program to one of the those non official VHS standards such as PAL60, NTSC 4.43 or the likes.

Sorry for waking this older thread, by I managed to fix it with a Pioneer DVR-545HX in the chain. I know this is a somewhat hacky way of getting NTSC from PAL60, but for my case where I am in Scandinavia and the budget is not for getting a native NTSC VHS shipped, this works wonders.

For anyone finding this thread in the future, you need to set 'Input Line System' to 525 System and under 'Video In/Out' set 'NTSC on PAL TV' to 'Off'. This way the DVR can receive the PAL-60 signal from the VHS and output NTSC.

I have a follow up question myself regarding the current capture chain, but I will create a new thread as it does not directly relate to this.

So the 545HX is in the chain for NTSC/PAL, not as some sort of TBC attempt? If so, that makes sense in the other thread.

What you've done here is pretty ugly quality-wise, the 1990s PAL/NTSC method. But it works. This isn't how you want to archive the video, but it will at least get a quick "watch copy" so you can see tape contents.