Comparing capture setups for XCapture-1
 

Before I start any capturing I wanted to do a comparison of a few ways I can capture using the XCapture-1.

I've made the following captures and I'd be grateful for your opinions on them. I've provided links as I notice I've made them too large to attach to the forum. :smack:

1 - JVC S8600 vcr connected directly to XCapture-1
2 - JVC through BrightEye 3 TBC connected via SDI to a BrightEye 11 that converts the SDI back to s-video on to the XCapture-1
3 - JVC through Pioneer SVM-1000 with component output to the XCapture-1
4 - JVC through SVM with s-video output to the XCapture-1

And just for fun:

5 - Toshiba V804B vcr connected directly to XCapture-1
6 - Toshiba through SVM with component output to XCapture-1


I say for fun but it looks like the Toshiba gives the JVC a run for its money, the colours look richer and there's less noise, I guess due to a softening of the picture.

The captures were made in VirtualDub using Huffyuv lossless. I adjusted the brightness and contrast in the XCapture's proc amp to fit with the VirtualDub's histogram but made no other changes.

For reference the vhs is the Star Wars digitally remastered release from 1995.

The download links don't work.

Are you getting an error message, or just missed the necessary button click?

Attachment 6655

:P

Are you still having problems sanlyn?

If you'd prefer another host for the files let me know.

Sorry for the delay, was traveling without a computer/ Very first effort downloaded zero-length files with quickie flashing message about Google Cloud. Tried it again yesterday with no problems. TAM ("Yet Another Mystery").

Can you also list the VCR settings? AUTO, DNR&TBC On, Digital 3R On, B.E.S.T. On, etc.?

Sure msgohan, I can't edit the post so I'll add them here.

JVC settings: TBC/NR=on, BEST=on, Picture Control=Edit, Digital 3R=on.

I've done another couple of captures, this time using Spiderman 2002 release as I saw it mentioned in a comparison thread (written by you?) on the VH forums.

7 - Spiderman on Toshiba through SVM with component output to XCapture-1
8 - Spiderman on JVC through SVM with component output to the XCapture-1

Sorry, I was hoping to respond earlier but better late than never I guess.

Yes I did a comparison tape with Spider-Man, but I used an NTSC tape so it isn't directly comparable. (There was an older VH thread that also used Spider-Man, but it's unclear to me whether the author used the actual retail release or recorded the DVD to tape as a comparison).

Each of your captures has multiple dropped frames (both skipped and inserted).

I shifted the attached screenshots to match JVC_8600_SVM_component.

Star Wars:

The Toshiba captures are smoothed over. Laughable garbage. The black level of the Toshiba direct composite capture is raised. The direct composite capture has more dot crawl than the SVM capture. The SVM has more horizontal jitter.

Not much differentiates the four JVC captures from one another. #1 & #3 are slightly masked along the left edge, to the same degree. Some levels and hue differences. To me, it looks like the tape was tracking a bit better on playback #1 & #2. #3 and #4 have extra noise throughout most of the sample and it doesn't look like the type of noise I would associate with adding a piece of equipment.

Spider-Man:

Toshiba: still mushy garbage, with chroma noise.

JVC: I think you can gain some more detail (on the newspaper, for example) by disabling TBC/NR, but of course if your other devices can't do line TBC as well that won't be a good trade.

Thanks for the appraisal, I'll keep the Toshiba just for tape winding then :)

I was going to stick with component from the SVM but looking at the stills and your observations maybe s-video is the better bet.

I've captured the Spider-man clip again with TBC/NR off and attached the screen shots.

11_Spiderman_JVC_S8600_TBC_OFF_SVM
The frame timing from the XCapture-1 is all over the place in VirtualDub, I never saw this issue with OBS. I've unticked Drop and Insert frames, and also Ignore video timestamps in the Timing settings for the above capture to see if there was any difference.

I also unticked the Drop and Insert frames only for the capture used here: Spider-Man VHS vs DVD Comparison

I wanted to start in learning how to improve the colour. I've used the Color Tool filter and Avisynth's Videoscope, are there any guides on how to interpret them and what filters to use to fix the colours?

Why? I don't see anything wrong with the color. Other than that, action movies like Spiderman really look strange speeded up to 25fps for PAL. Still, you can always encode it at the original 23.976.

But if you're serious about color:

1. Calibrate your monitor. You're wasting your time if you don't.

2. Read up on basic color theory, advanced techniques, what "contrast" and the color "white" really mean, and how color controls work. It doesn't matter which software you use as long as you understand what you're doing. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Color-Corre...lor+correction

Either you also changed from EDIT to a different picture mode, or something strange is happening. TBC/NR Off shouldn't have less detail.

Take a look at the brick wall in the photo, her shirt, her hair... All more clearly defined on my NTSC capture, even though text and diagonals are much clearer on both of your PAL captures due to the added resolution of the source.

I looked it up on Google, and it's free on some official/legit education sites. Attached. Sometimes textbook companies do that with old textbooks. It's from 2013, almost 4 years old, and it probably means that 3E is coming out with updates. I have some printed textbooks, from a then-local college bookstore, that cost me $0. When the new editions came out, the store was told to just discard/recycle/whatever the old version. These days, it seems, the old versions are released as PDFs. I've noticed that trend for several years now.

Thanks, lordsmurf. The PDF is only the first half of the book, but it's a good start.

The free DaVinci Resolve Light is usually a previous edition of the software. Very complicated image controls, but the free tutorials and user guide are a great bonus. You have to install the product to get access to them unless you can find a download site for the much older free editions of the manual only. This stuff is helpful even if all you have to work with the usual Red-Green-Blue, and so called brightness and contrast controls (which are extremely limited).

Glad you caught that. I thought maybe it was just me.

Side by side the VHS clip seems to lack the vibrant colour of the DVD. I know there's nothing to gain from improving this clip but it seemed as good a place as any to work with the colour settings.

Thanks to you both for that book as looks to contain lots of useful info.

Yeah my bad, the vcr had gone back to Auto. As a sanity check I've recaptured both TBC on and off and attached the clips.

Such matters are subjective, of course, but I think you confuse "vibrance" with the low resolution of VHS compared to the higher resolution of DVD. The first thing that will happen if you try to get more vibrancd from your VHS version is that you will see highlights and upper midtones start to wash out and disappear. Next you'll see intense colors like red, yellow and blue take on an unnatural bloom or neon look. It's not often that one can get decent color from VHS to begin with, so don't go overboard with this one. If you want a little more snap, avoid contrast or brightness filters and look for a boost or gain control (ColorYUV in Avisynth has the latter). Remember that valid chroma and luma levels should not exceed 16-235 for YUV or 0-255 for RGB. Most beginners overdo it and make otherwise good captures look like something played on a cheap DVD/VCR combo.

It's an impressive first half of the retail book. The second half gets even better, so keep the retail version in mind. If you think the book is expensive (it isn't IMO), try taking a 6-week color correction course that usually runs about $1000 USD or more.

Thanks for the new captures.

Thanks sanlyn, I appreciate the advice.