Chroma noise filtering hardware: what to buy?
 

Hi all,

I have to capture some home video VHS. My setup is

NV-FS200 (Blaupunkt) -> Electronic Design TBC -> NX express PCI-E (GV lossless codec, this one does not mess up video by automatic conversion to DV as ADVC boxes do)

The only problem is that there's very visible chroma noise. Panny's own TBC does nothing to remove it (in fact no noticeable difference when switching it on/off).

I've heard good things about Panasonic DVD recorder pass-through noise reduction.
What would you recommend? I'd prefer hardware to software option as it's much less hassle.

Cheers,
B

TBC's are not chroma noise filters.
No VCR will clean 100% of chroma noise on many noisy tapes. There are some things you have to do yourself.
But I'd question what you mean by chroma noise? Can you provide a sample?

A major effect of a line TBC in JVC and Panasoinc S-VHS VCRs is cleaning up chroma noise.
LSI-based DVD recorder.
Avisynth and VirtualDub on lossless 4:2:2 AVI capture.

The Panasonic ES10 is very strong, and might do it. It depends on how bad this noise is.

I'd be interested in seeing a demonstration of chroma rainbows and grain cleaned by a TBC. Maybe I was using players with the wrong kind of tbc. The owner's Panasonic (like my AG-1980) has DNR that can effectively ameliorate chroma noise, and the DNR in that unit remains enabled whether the TBC is on or not -- thus, turning the TBC on or off had no effect on the chroma cleaning, which apparently wasn't enough to completely repair the chroma of a noisy tape. My former JVC's with TBC could also lessen chroma noise, but when their DNR was turned off the TBC had no effect on chroma noise except to reduce the effects of some levels of chroma bleeding and fringing. A Panasonic DVD pass-thru with noise reduction turned on can also lessen chroma noise somewhat but it worsens the posterization effects and ghosting. If there's a way to make an ES10 clean up chroma noise without turning on its faulty DNR I haven't found it.

I'm still uncertain about the exact meaning of the owner's term "chroma noise". I've seen posts where a user complained about "grain" that turned out to be herringbone RF noise, and posts where "grain" turned out to be dot crawl.

Agreed. We need samples.

Sort of untrue: DNR on the PAL unit can be disabled. The NV-FS200 has independently-switchable TBC & DNR, if the NOISE FILTER ON/OFF/EDIT ON switch performs its claimed functions.

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