Why does my capture suddenly auto-adjust?

[tomrog]

In capturing video, then trimming it down to chunks of raw video, I've noticed a shift between the first frame of video and the rest of the video. From the second frame on through the last, it's as if some sort of auto-adjust is activated. Sometimes it may not be such a bad thing, but sometimes I wonder if I might like it better if the whole video appeared like the first frame.

Could it be something I've got set wrong (or maybe right) in virtual dub? Could it be a weird quirk of DVC Pro tape I'm dubbing? (I gave up trying to get firewire to work and have just been doing analog dubs with the SVHS output)

Here's an example of the first two frames of a video taken on the beach. It's like it auto-balanced the brightness and contrast, at least. I'm not sure if it's an improvement or not.

[lordsmurf]

It looks like AGC effects at recording start. That would be related to the capture card, the playback camera, and anything in between (TBCs, etc).

What does the hardware workflow chain look like?

[latreche34]

Transferring raw digital would avoid all this headache, Is there a particular reason why you couldn't transfer DVC Pro?

Edit: I think I remember the thread about DVC Pro, but man you're going to capture 2500 tapes over analog, How's the progress so far?

[tomrog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

It looks like AGC effects at recording start. That would be related to the capture card, the playback camera, and anything in between (TBCs, etc).

What does the hardware workflow chain look like?

It's at work, so I don't have it directly in front of me at the moment, but I can probably remember most of it:

Most of what is used is spare or old bits I replaced from my personal video capture done at home. Probably none of it is "ideal", but it was just what I had on hand.

> Playback is from a Panasonic AJ D230H DVC Pro portable deck, using the SVHS and RCA audio outputs
> Upscaling/HDMI conversion is done with a Yitrex AV Svideo to HDMI Converter Upscaler
> Capture device is...uh, some sort of relatively cheap, no-name HDMI to USB capture card from Amazon (not great, no doubt)
> Capture software is VirtualDub, though I'm not sure which flavor off the top of my head. I know I have to choose "Capture" under "File", rather than having Capture be an option along the top menu, if that helps. Settings were taken from a YouTuber who took HIS settings from THIS site, actually.
> PC is an old HP Z820, I want to say 32GB RAM, with (I believe) an HP AMD RX460 2GB GDDR5 Video Graphic Card, running Windows 10 from a 240(?)GB SSD

Quote:

Originally Posted by latreche34

Transferring raw digital would avoid all this headache, Is there a particular reason why you couldn't transfer DVC Pro?

Edit: I think I remember the thread about DVC Pro, but man you're going to capture 2500 tapes over analog, How's the progress so far?

I did manage to get engineering to spring for a 4-Ports 1394A PCIE FireWire 400 Expansion Card, but never managed to get it to work. I can't remember what all I tried; I want to say downloading old legacy drivers or something that someone recommended, but no luck. Maybe I'm not using the right software to do the actual capture. I downloaded something I don't recall offhand, but it didn't seem to "see" anything to capture when I launched it, even with the legacy driver installed and deck playing and connected via Firewire. If there's a way to get it to work, though, I'm willing to try again, but there is the added caveat that the PC has no internet access; they won't allow any unauthorized computers on the company network. So I'd have to do some workaround, use my phone data or something via USB tether if I need internet access for anything.

As for progress so far, it's been wobbly, but I knocked out about 450 so far. I'm trying to get into a daily routine of 3 tapes a day. I could do probably do more, but doing 3 a day gives me time to rip, compress, upload to YouTube and tag with slugs and times (the most tedious part). The compression isn't beautiful; I'm using Handbrake, but we're going for speed, not quality! Plus, I'm trimming out small chunks of more interesting or nostalgic pieces and saving those uncompressed clips on a separate drive for whenever we get around to posting retro videos. Next year is the station's 30 year anniversary, so that might be a good time to start with some "Flashbck Friday" or something that sales can get sponsored.

[radiokom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomrog

I did manage to get engineering to spring for a 4-Ports 1394A PCIE FireWire 400 Expansion Card, but never managed to get it to work. I can't remember what all I tried; I want to say downloading old legacy drivers or something that someone recommended, but no luck. Maybe I'm not using the right software to do the actual capture.

Do you see your card in device manager? If it is there and working, probably card is OK. Otherwise get another card (new, any cheap).

Those card are plug and play (at least from Windows 7).

There can be cards what looks OK in Device manager, but does not work. Simply replace it with another and try again. Do not ask how I know it

[latreche34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomrog

I did manage to get engineering to spring for a 4-Ports 1394A PCIE FireWire 400 Expansion Card, but never managed to get it to work. I can't remember what all I tried; I want to say downloading old legacy drivers or something that someone recommended, but no luck. Maybe I'm not using the right software to do the actual capture. I downloaded something I don't recall offhand, but it didn't seem to "see" anything to capture when I launched it, even with the legacy driver installed and deck playing and connected via Firewire. If there's a way to get it to work, though, I'm willing to try again,

Knowing what DVCPro version you have can help:

[tomrog]

It's DVC Pro 25, or Standard

[aramkolt]

Not that I see this option used much, but there are also hardware DV recorders. The one that I've got is the DN-400 by Datavideo. Basically it records the DV in the native format to a laptop sized drive and you can upgrade them to SSDs. It can record either DV25 or HDV formats.

Most cost-effective route though would be an older laptop that already has a firewire port or really any older iMac or MacBook Pro with a firewire port. Lots of Windows XP and Vista Era laptops had firewire ports as well.

[tomrog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by radiokom

Do you see your card in device manager? If it is there and working, probably card is OK. Otherwise get another card (new, any cheap).

Those card are plug and play (at least from Windows 7).

There can be cards what looks OK in Device manager, but does not work. Simply replace it with another and try again. Do not ask how I know it

Looking inside the machine I have at work, I don't see the card physically in there; I think I actually tried it on a different machine that's at home. The thing is, though, this Z820 PC already COMES with firewire ports, 1 on the front, and 1 in the back. I checked the device manager and saw CONTROLLERS listed, but don't think I saw anything beyond that. I'll have to try again when I get to work. The PC was given to me without a hard drive, and a Windows 7 CD they had lying around. I had used it to install Windows 7, then upgraded that to 10 with the free upgrade from Microsoft, all before I was even thinking about video capture and was just using it as a desktop PC. Should I roll back to Windows 7? I might just swap out hard drives if I do that.

Assuming the firewire port(s) work, or if I add a card, what software should I be using to receive or see, not to mention capture, anything?

-- merged --

Not sure I could convince them to spring for one of those! Maybe if it became a profitable venture for them by selling sponsorships on retro video, they'd consider it.

-- merged --

If AI answers can be trusted, it doesn't look like there's an affordable option to capture digitally, other than down-converting to DV, and that's still a "maybe". Software that can natively see/capture DVC Pro is out of my personal price range, and it's pretty much guaranteed the station isn't gonna spring for it. So it's analog via SVHS in perpetuity, I reckon.

Now if I can just figure out where that automatic gain control is coming from..!