Possible Mac capture options in 2018: Aja, Brighteye, Blackmagic?

[lordsmurf]

QTGMC is a script for Avisynth, and must be run in Windows. Yet another reason Windows is the tool of choice for video, not Mac. It can sorta run in Linux, but the best way is to just create a Windows 7 VM in Virtualbox. The main 3 OS all have Virtualbox (Linux, Mac, Windows).

I've never messed with LD, but I find posts from our LD members to be quite interesting.

[tkt2rde]

I too have embarked on capturing the family collection of home videos on VHS. If I had a PC, I'd probably take the easy route, but I already have several Macs, including a MacPro that originally came with OSX Lion that I'm not using. I used to work with an AJA IOHD form SD-SDI sources back in my editing days, I don't recall ever ingesting any S-Video sources though. Anyhow, I still have access to the AJA IOHD, and I have a little Yamaha mixer. I still have a crappy Sony VCR, but the quality is terrible and no TBC that I am aware of. So I grabbed a JVC HR-S9600U off ebay and wow, the tapes play back great on it and everything is capturing nice quality to ProRes 422 720x486 29.97 with good audio levels (no choices but it's ending up Linear PCM, big-endian signed integer, 48,000 hz). Keep in mind, I'm not starting with any pristine footage. Most all of it was recorded on a Sears Camcorder that had terrible auto settings and the tapes are not the best they made. Anyhow, of the 4 tapes I've left unattended to capture while doing other stuff... only 1 had 3 frames reported as dropped by AJA capture app.

BUT (always a but), the clips have an audio sync issue. They start off in sync, but as the video ages, the audio drifts off. I vaguely remember having a similar issue back in the day, but I seem to have pruned the memories of the fix. At first I thought maybe it was a premiere import issue, but when I open them in Quicktime Player, they are off there too. The REALLY interesting part is that it doesn't appear to be linear, so I'm guessing there are frame issues somewhere. I can't seem to find any reference in the AJA settings for specifying drop-frame vs non-drop if that is even an issue. And I am obviously not using a variable frame rate codec.

I know it's not linear because I changed the sequence display to frames and went to the end of my longest capture and dropped a couple of markers, where sync should be, and it was about 400 frames off. I used to speed duration adjustment to shrink up the audio that fraction of a percent and got those markers to line up. But then I went to the middle of the sequence and it was off a second or two there still.

I'm still digging, but I thought I would post on this more updated thread to see if anyone has been using the AJA IO HD and experienced this. I know I'm missing something, probably super simple.

A few more facts:

I've tried ProRES 422, FCP Uncompressed 10-bit, and a couple of AJA's own Codecs... same issue across all of them.


My AJA settings:

Source Video = S-Video 525i 29.97 (both 10-bit and 8-bit)
Source Audio = Balanced Input 1 & 2 525i 29.97

Capture Settings > Compression = ProRes 422 HQ I specified 29.97 for frames per second under Motion settings because by default it was set to Best and I thought maybe that might be jacking something up, but didn't make a difference either.

Playback Timing = Freerun I tried Video In as well, even though I know there is no timecode in the s-video feed... did not change the outcome.

All the other settings are pretty straight forward.

Any ideas?

[ELinder]

Probably not related to your sync issues, but if you're still on Lion, can you capture to Huffyuv via the Perian codec pack? I can't remember of those were playback only or if they were useable for captures.

Erich

[tkt2rde]

I'm pretty sure HuffYUV is a windows only codec... I checked the download and it's in Microsoft Dynamic Link Library format. I did try ProRes and Lossless Apple Codecs, plus I tried a couple of AJA's codecs. I might download Cineform and try that, but I think the audio issue is something the AJA IoHD is doing or a frame rate problem. I'll play with it some more this afternoon, but I feel like I've thrown every setting I can think of at the AJA. So weird.

[ELinder]

There are 2 flavors of HuffYUV listed in the Perian codec pack, that's why I asked. It's the only way I've ever seen to have it in Mac, and unfortunately it doesn't work on newer Mac OS. https://www.perian.org

As for your audio synch issues, it sounds like unreported dropped frames. Lordsmurf and oters much more knowledgeable than I will most likely recommend a TBC.

Erich

[tkt2rde]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Perian! I'm running 10.7 on the Macbook for this project, so I'll go ahead and install regardless of the issue so I can use HuffYUV over ProRes anyhow. Thanks!

I was going to dig into the potential for sync/dropped frames today with a few tests. I had the AJA set to report not abort but report the dropped frames. On one of the tapes, it reported 3 dropped frames. I would like to think that's an indicator that it is doing it's job, but ya know.

I'll look into an external TBC on here, I did confirm that the TBC in the JVC unit is on and functioning. I was under the impression that getting this unit with a built-in would maybe spare me having to have another piece of hardware, but ya know... doing things the hard way. : )

[ELinder]

The built-in TBC is most likely a line type TBC, but you'll likely also need an external full frame TBC.

Erich

[tkt2rde]

Ah, that makes sense. The quality is improved, but the timing, not so much. Thanks. So any recommendations on an external TBC for S-Video?

[tkt2rde]

Found the TBC FAQ. Looks like I may have waited too long... this may be a challenge to find one. Only seeing a couple of the black box AVT-8710's on ebay. Anyone selling anything affordable?

[jwillis84]

I wouldn't say "too late" yet. Five TBC-1000 sold on 'Bay in the last two months. The challenge is that its like winning a lottery, so you don't know what condition they are in unless you buy from a trustworthy source.

Format converters from Kramer usually have to perform frame sync before performing format conversion, so they would be another option. Kramer specialized in the era when s-video was most common. External TBCs are mostly performing vertical sync reconstruction.

DVD recorders, with or without HDD also have to stabilize the frame sync before recording, some pass-thru their result on their outputs even while not recording. NTSC recorders almost all had s-video connectors, PAL it was more common in the UK, SCART had a s-video options, but they were more complicated.

[dpalomaki]

FWIW:Some analog video mixers; e.g., Videonics MX-series, included frame synchronizers that provided some TBC functionality. But they are generally not low cost and subject to the usual cautions about used gear..

[Eric-Jan]

@tkt2rde you know for sure your sync/dropped frames issue is not due to transfer speed rate to your storage media during the capture ?

[tkt2rde]

I have not tested the throughput but it’s an older Lacie 2Big Thunderbolt JBOD Enclosure I tossed a couple of new 3TB Seagate 7200 drives into it that were spares I never used from a RAID system I used to have. It’s definitely not yhe fastest, but I’m pretty sure it can sustain writes of over 300 Mb sec. at least... maybe?

[ELinder]

BlackMagic Design have a free disk speed test app that lists read/write speeds as well as a chart for compatibility for various video resolutions.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blac...25264550?mt=12

Erich

[tkt2rde]

I used to use that, but it also used to require Blackmagic hardware be detected to run. I was gonna check it out, but it looks like it's only compatible with 10.10 or newer. : (

[ELinder]

Oops, forgot you were on Lion. Totally unrelated, but I just found a full Final Cut Studio 3 for $38 on ebay. Talk about depreciation!

Erich