digitalFAQ.com Forum - Camcorder passthrough vs. analog-to-lossless capture?

Hello,

I'm trying to capture from some old VHS tapes (actually VHS-C tapes) that almost all came from the same camcorder. Most of the tapes seem to have good quality recordings on them (at least from what I can tell).

My current equipment:
JVC SR-V101US deck, Sony DCR-TV17 camcorder for analog to digital passthrough, PC running Windows 10

I don't think I'm likely to be doing any advanced editing at this time, but it's possible some day in the future I might try something (possibly some sharpening... and who knows what else).

I currently capture via Premiere Elements 11, and end up with DV-AVI files.

My immediate goal is to get as lossless digital recordings as possible to save for the future... which is why I was thinking I should upgrade my setup to one that allows me to save the files using Huffyuv to get a lossless compression (assuming the color spaces match). I have plenty of hard drive space, and we're only talking about 50 home videos... so I don't mind using up the extra storage space to save Huffyuv encoded files instead of DV-AVI encoded files.

I intend to mainly do playback in two ways:

by streaming the files (which will have to be re-encoded and saved in an alternate encoding for playback... not sure which yet) across my network on a HD TV.
I will also burn some DVD's to give to family members (MPEG-2, I assume).

I have three questions:

1. Is it worth it? I know that I will need to re-encode for final playback, but is there likely to be a truly noticeable quality difference in either of the two playback scenarios for files that were originally encoded in Huffyuv vs. DV-AVI?

(I know that in theory the color space is trampled when converted to RGB for DV-AVI. But is it actually noticeable in either of the two playback scenarios I mentioned?)

I know there is some loss when encoding in DV-AVI. And, then again, when re-encoding for playback... but is this double loss really more noticeable in my playback scenarios vs. the single loss on the re-encoding the Huffyuv files for playback?

2. If the difference would be noticeable in either playback scenario, then is there a best suggestion on what capture device to use?

I am currently using Windows 10, but I'd be willing to use an older operating system on a different computer if it opened the door to a significantly better capture device. (Though the preference would still be to use this Windows 10 machine, if possible. I do already have VirtualDub and the Huffyuv codec installed and working.)

I'd also be happier spending hundreds rather than thousands of dollars for a good capture device. (Again, assuming that you think there would be an actual, practical, noticeable difference over my current DV-AVI setup.) I get that quality is in the eye of the beholder, so this may be hard to answer.

3. The deck. Beyond these capture device and initial encoding questions, is the JVC SR-V101US (which I understand to be a good, but not best tier deck) likely to be a limiting factor in the recording quality for either of the two playback scenarios? Would you suggest trying to find a better deck?

Thanks, again!!