#1  
01-03-2023, 05:18 AM
BarryTheCrab BarryTheCrab is offline
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Looking to convert a single Umatic tape, who’s got game?
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  #2  
01-06-2023, 04:14 PM
nicholasserra nicholasserra is offline
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Seems not many anymore. I'm slowly building up a umatic setup for a project that might happen. When the time comes i'll be going DUB out to one of these svideo converters:

https://keystrobe.co.uk/product/dub-...-u-matic-vcrs/
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  #3  
01-06-2023, 08:08 PM
latreche34 latreche34 is offline
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Cheaper to find a u-Matic compatible TBC with S-Video out. They are not easy to find though.

https://www.youtube.com/@Capturing-Memories/videos
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  #4  
01-06-2023, 09:08 PM
BarryTheCrab BarryTheCrab is offline
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I believe this is an NTSC signal. I will verify.
EDIT: The owner of the tape will follow up at here with the DFaQ telephone number to seek a solution.

Don't be shy if you have information to help, please post, others may need this rare service as well.
thank you all.

Last edited by BarryTheCrab; 01-06-2023 at 10:01 PM.
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  #5  
01-06-2023, 11:24 PM
nicholasserra nicholasserra is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by latreche34 View Post
Cheaper to find a u-Matic compatible TBC with S-Video out. They are not easy to find though.
Yup and old and complex. I have one, but don't intend to really use it if I can avoid it. My rationale is to get as much old gear out of the mix as possible, if I can get a clean svideo signal right off the DUB output.
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  #6  
01-07-2023, 12:59 PM
keaton keaton is offline
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I don't have much "game", but I'm 4 for 5 with U-matic tapes so far. I've kept capture as a hobby, doing it only for video that I want in my collection, and haven't solicited my services. I'm pretty busy with my personal collection.

My setup doesn't utilize the superior Dub connector or a proper broadcast TBC. Just a basic BNC/Composite video out to a Panasonic DMR-ES10, then the S-Video out of ES10 to an ATI AIW capture card. I have a Sony VO-9600, which plays back standard NTSC U-matic and U-matic SP, although I've yet to get an SP tape. Got XLR to standard audio jack adapters, so I have stereo XLR audio out to my capture PC.

One thing to be aware of with U-matic is the strong ringing that can occur in the video. It can be rather distracting. It is touched on in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnoSeFOzBn4 in the Umatic problems chapter around the 11:30 mark. I haven't found any Avisynth filter that is able to totally remove it. Although I have been able to remove some with a strong denoiser filter, at the expense of some other details, of course. I don't have any hardware that helps with that.

The biggest obstacle with U-matic is often Sticky Shed Syndrome. Much more common issue than it is with consumer 1/2 inch formats (i.e. VHS or Beta). If the tapes are Ampex or AGFA brand, then it could be a real challenge to get it to play. The baking times for such tapes can be very long. Mercifully, I've yet to deal with Ampex. I did have an AGFA tape that I ultimately abandoned due to it not responding to the baking process. I've heard they can be just as bad as Ampex. I did have success with an older Sony tape (circa 1984) that was sticky and had a wax crayon smell (I've read that's the tell for Sony tapes), but did play after a few hours of baking. I had a newer Sony tape (circa 1995) that didn't have the wax smell and didn't need baking. I had success with a Fuji tape (circa 1978) and a 3M Scotch tape (circa 1984), no baking was needed in my case.

Older 3M Scotch tapes may have issues with loss of magnetic information, i.e. weakened signal. That is also mentioned in the youtube link above. I experienced this. The video was "rolling", i.e. not a stable frame sync. I was able to get the rolling to go away with the ES10. In my case, a DataVideo TBC was unable to fix the rolling picture. The ES10 results still had a fair amount of vertical bounce/jitter, similar to what I've seen with some VHS that had rather bad timing problems. I can only suppose that a proper broadcast TBC type setup would have worked better. I have very little experience, so this is just what I've seen so far.

I found Obsolete Video Services (OVS) (https://www.youtube.com/@obsoletevideo6048/featured). He helped me shop for a deck on ebay. I had it shipped directly to him, then he refurbished the deck for a few hundred and double boxed it back to me (shipping of large/heavy U-matic decks is also substantial). He's a video engineer that was in the broadcast industry for decades. Very knowledgeable about the gear and has the parts. I suppose if you've got a fully refurbished deck, it should fetch much more on the market than the typical ebay listing. Those with some experience know that U-matic decks that have been inactive for years will almost certainly need servicing, regardless of what a typical ebay seller may say.

OVS does transfer work as well, and seems to bake/clean all U-matic tapes irregardless. I haven't had him transfer anything for me. If you follow his youtube channel, you'll see there's almost no format he cannot transfer.
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  #7  
01-07-2023, 01:56 PM
BarryTheCrab BarryTheCrab is offline
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The tape is Maxell.
You certainly got game!
Thank you for that post.
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  #8  
01-08-2023, 08:29 PM
nicholasserra nicholasserra is offline
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Great info keaton, thank you.
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  #9  
01-09-2023, 04:17 AM
timtape timtape is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BarryTheCrab View Post
The tape is Maxell...
I've not heard of any sticky shed problems with Maxell tapes. They have a good reputation generally.
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