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-   -   SuperBeta workflow needed. (https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/8797-superbeta-workflow-needed.html)

Judd_the_budd 06-24-2018 01:50 PM

SuperBeta workflow needed.
 
One of “my guys” has several hundred archived superbeta hifi tapes he wants to digitize.

I’m not sure how far I want to even dive into this one, I have my hands full figuring out vhs-s capture.

But just for giggles, how would a beta workflow differ from a vhs-s/hi-8 workflow.

Looking quickly, the first obstacle seems to be a lack of s video output on any available beta players, they are only composite video out?

When working with composite, should it remain composite until the capture stage or is it ok to use one of the intermediate pass through devices to switch to s video?

For instance, if I went beta player > avt-8710 (green) via composite, should I use the composite out > capture device

Or is it ok (better) to use the s video out, just like I will with vhs-s/hi-8?

What about es10 passthrough, which has both composite and s video in/out?

Sorry, total newbie. Should know these things I guess, but I just don’t. And can’t find answers....

hodgey 06-25-2018 10:19 AM

Composite means that the brightness and color signals are sent through the same wire (as opposed to S-Video where they are separate.) This means that they have to be separated again somewhere in the chain. Due to the composite signal having limited bandwith, the colour and brightness can often interfere with each other, resulting in visible artifacts such as dot crawl. Capture devices use something called a comb filter to filter out the signal interference, both the AVT and the es10 have one, but I don't know which is better. The old ATI AIW cards have decent comb filters as well, many of the modern usb devices don't, so it may be worth using the AVT or es10 as a pass-through for this purpose. Alternatively, a some high-end vcrs can also do this on pass-through.

I don't really know much about betacam, so I can't say much about whether there are betamax devices with s-video out, which would be the ideal choice if possible.

Judd_the_budd 06-25-2018 01:16 PM

Thanks for the reply. I realize my post is a bit of a ramble.

My basic question, which seems so dumb I hate asking it: is it ok to take the composite out of the beta, put it into a passthrough device (tbc, es15, avt-8710, etc.) and then take s video out of that device into the capture card? Or should I use the composite out since I started with that signal?

If it’s ok, are any of those devices better at that “conversion” than others? Worse? Is there an additional device I should be adding to the workflow to more efficiently “convert” from composite to svideo?

Thx again. ��

hodgey 06-25-2018 01:49 PM

Yeah that is ok. I don't know which is better at it, but other people here can probably answer that.

NJRoadfan 06-25-2018 04:30 PM

I just used the AVT-8710 to convert from composite to S-Video when I did Beta tapes. Betamax decks with S-Video are extremely rare and expensive, so composite is the best you'll do. Other options are to use a SVHS VCR as a passthru as they have very good comb filters built into them. The ES15 might also be an option here and it has a line TBC for difficult tapes as you won't find a Betamax deck with one of those either.

For playback hardware it really depends on the tapes the guy has. Hopefully he has his deck still for you to use and its in working condition. Generally Betamax tapes are of two types:

-Standard Beta with linear mono audio.
-SuperBeta with Hi-Fi audio.

Tape speed is generally BII or BIII speeds.

There are rare varieties like SuperBeta recordings at the original Beta I speed (sometimes called Hi-Band or BIs recordings), but they aren't commonly found in the wild.


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