01-24-2019, 07:40 PM
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Hi there! I've found a bunch of 8mm tapes (mostly Video8) in my dad's garage and I'm having a great time going through them. At first I spent a couple weeks transferring them all using a Sony GV-D800 with the miniDV into a PCE 1394 card I purchased. I captured it with Corel VideoStudio Pro. Worked fine, but then I did some more reading and learned that I was losing color integrity by forcing a digital out for an analog source.
So, I pulled my Elgato USB capture ( this one) out of the closet, hooked up the s-video, and fired through a couple tapes. The color integrity is MUCH improved, however - despite the nearly 100GB per 2-hour tape - the resolution when there is motion (especially panning) in the home movies is horrendous. I don't really know how to describe it but here goes. The quality seems higher and crisper, but it seems... interlaced? Like it's split into horizontal lines so when there's side to side movement it just becomes a blur. By contrast, the miniDV captures don't look as good or as sharp or as colorful, but seem much smoother.
What am I doing wrong? I'm flipping through the posts on this board and learning more about compression (I tried using Lagarith - YUY2 but it said my device does not support that) and realized... I'm too newbie to really understand what I'm doing wrong.
Is it my gear? The player seems great. I'm eyeing the Elgato suspiciously and wondering about the ATI TV Wonder 600. I'm using Windows 10 though and not even sure if that would work. Otherwise, I'm at a loss at what the issue could be. If not hardware - maybe it's a configuration issue. I'm willing to invest in the equipment I need to do it right.
I have an old Dell (and/or a laptop) I could probably get up and running on XP if that would be helpful...
Can someone help? The videos I have are watchable, but as this is for preservation I would like to get the best quality possible (and feel confident throwing out the old 8mm tapes once done). I also spent MONTHS doing our old VHS tapes and I shudder to think how wrong I did them - but I'm focused on 8mm now.
Thank you so much in advance for any help you can provide!!
Kris
Last edited by kriscraigs; 01-24-2019 at 08:04 PM.
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01-24-2019, 08:25 PM
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How does the video look if the GV-D800 is connected via s-video directly to a TV set?
The Video8 is just naturally interlaced and should have smooth motion, but the native mode for PCs is progressive. Something in your viewing system is probably messing it up. Frame grabs, comprised of two field will have interlace motion artifacts.
Video8 just naturally tends to have a lot of noise, especially if shot indoors or with low to moderate lighting levels. That noise plays havoc with DV compression and degrades the image from the full potential of DV.
8mm tapes are small, when done don't pitch them, they provide another (lossless in the short term) backup of your video.
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01-24-2019, 08:37 PM
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Thanks so much for the fast reply! I meant to mention that - when I hooked it up directly (using the composite as I don't believe my TV has an s-video in) it looked much smoother. The problem with my transfer is evident when I view the 90GB file on my PC as well. When I transfer with miniDV, the quality isn't as good (nor the file size as high) but it doesn't have the lacing problem the lossless one does. Wonder what is going on... if not the Elgato, could it be a setting I have wrong in VirtualDub? I'm using the default setup.
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01-24-2019, 08:45 PM
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As noted, it's likely that Corel Video Studio removes the interlacing when previewing DV, likely using some crude method. I know other video editing suites tend to do that at least.
I don't know what format you are capturing to when using the USB dongle, though based on the size it sounds like it's uncompressed. I and others here would recommend using a lossless format like huffyuv, lagarith or ut video, which can reduce the size by 1/2 - 1/3 without losing any information and capture using VirtualDub. In that way you can save a fair amount of space and not risk missing video frames due to the disk being unable to keep up when capturing.
The DV video encoding format is always encoded as interlaced so e.g Corel Video Studio knows it can deinterlace for preview and export. Lossless and uncompressed video formats can vary, so whatever application you are viewing the video from the dongle with will likely assume it's not interlaced by default and thus you see the interlacing lines.
There seems to be multiple versions of the elgato USB capture device, so it's hard to say what quality it will be compared to the ATI alternative.
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01-24-2019, 09:08 PM
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Hmm. Well, I'll definitely try some compression for sure. Thanks for that. So is there a way to tell VirtualDub to remove the interlacing lines when I'm using the Elgato? I may not be following correctly... sorry...
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01-24-2019, 09:34 PM
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Here's an example of what I mean - is this what you would call "interlacing?" note especially toward the end of this very short clip. as the camera pans, the horizontal lines all blend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX0X...ature=youtu.be
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01-25-2019, 09:34 PM
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I use Corel VideoStudio for capturing straight digital (from MiniDV), but for analog capture it leaves a lot to be desired. You'll get better results by using VirtualDub...and it's free. You should find detailed instructions elsewhere on the forum, but, basically:
- Install VirtualDub (1.9.11) and the HuffyUV codec
- Make sure that your VirtualDub settings are correct for capture
- Capture using VirtualDub to HuffyUV, YUY2, at 720x480 (assuming NTSC)
For best results, you need a time base corrector TBC suitable for analog video work. Not everything which advertises itself as a TBC is in fact a suitable TBC. You're ahead of the game in that the GV-D800 does have a line TBC built-in like the forum's recommended VCRs, but you really should complement that with a full-frame TBC. They're getting hard to find, but this forum's Marketplace may be the best spot for tracking one down.
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01-25-2019, 10:02 PM
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01-28-2019, 08:20 AM
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Hi, just to follow-up on this, I wound up finding an Osprey 100e card for my Windows 10 machine and it's working great! Interlacing is gone.
Now however, every tape has a few horizontal lines at the bottom in a clump (black, green, changing). I understand from quick research that this is expected. Any way to resolve, or is it just price of entry for transferring analog to digital?
Thanks!
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01-28-2019, 08:45 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kriscraigs
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Yeah, that is a interlaced clip. though the video compression blurs/blocks it out a bit in this case.
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01-28-2019, 03:28 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kriscraigs
Now however, every tape has a few horizontal lines at the bottom in a clump (black, green, changing). I understand from quick research that this is expected. Any way to resolve, or is it just price of entry for transferring analog to digital?
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Head switching noise, part of overscan noise, present on almost all consumer analog tapes.
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