LP/SLP with Panasonic AG-DS550
 

I just bought an AG-DS550 for help digitizing some old VHS tapes.

Uh-oh! Some of my tapes are LP & SLP. I had not anticipated that I might have a problem playing back different speeds with this machine.

I did not get a manual with this machine. Does anyone here know if I have any options to accurately playback these speeds on the AG-DS550?

Many thanks from a new guy.

The AG-DS550 is a professional editing deck, unfortunately they are SP speed only. We ran into that problem a lot in TV class back in the day. People would bring in tapes from home that were recorded in EP that all played fast.

Most of these ancient "big Bertha" type S-VHS VTRs make for lousy playback decks -- especially with consumer VHS tapes. These decks not only have limitations (no LP, no EP/SLP), but also tend to be very worn (bad heads, beat-up transports) and generally just do nothing for the tapes. These old decks largely lack the various image-cleaning filters as found in the more suggested decks.

Complete list of suggested VCRs can be found here: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/show...uide-2669.html

Units like this were honestly made for recordings and analog editing, but not really known for their top quality playback. Playback quality was addressed in later years, as more and more digital hardware made it into analog processing -- i.e., DNR, TBC RAM, etc.

That this VCR proves problematic for a conversion workflow comes as no surprise.

Help me understand where I need to improve for my transfers...
 

Hey guys. I am a total noob, but I am glad I found this forum. I am about to undertake a large effort to transfer my huge collection of VHS and I want to achieve the highest quality reasonably possible.

So I have this Panasonic AG-DS550. The transfer looks decent but I would like to understand what qualities I can expect to improve if I am using something like an AG-1980.

Can you view this 1 minute sample off of my AG-DS550 and help me to understand where I need to improve, and I what I should be looking for in an improved transfer?

http://bit.ly/gIxa4I

This sample is RAW coming directly out of the AG-DS550. Normally I would do some Color Correction and remaster the sound a little in NLE, but for the purposes of this conversation this sample is straight from the deck.

I am grateful for your advice.

Bit.ly redirect to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auzjOPJsnTw
And the response is...
Honestly, Youtube will generally crap up the quality with its re-compression to H.264 or FLV. To truly see what's going on, it's best to view a higher quality clip, such as a snippet of the MPEG encode, or even a tiny slice of an AVI files (HuffYUV or your other favorite lossless codec -- or even DV format).

You can always attached a 30MB sample file to forum posts.
Or if you become a $20 Premium Member, one of the benefits is FTP access to send us test files for technical assistance, critique, etc.
So those are two more options, for showing samples.