Since no one seems to want to elaborate on this, although I consider it an important thread:
Thank you for the posted sample.
It does show signs of obvious problems, but it's an important post in that it demonstrate why the forum recommends certain equipment and methods, and why it recommends that certain equipment and methods should be
avoided. In this case, from your description it appears that you're doing everything that we have always advised users to avoid: inferior playback from a DVD/VHS combo, playback distortion caused by linescan errors and no tbc, crosstalk and interlace noise caused by poor playback technology, distortion and temporal resolution loss caused by poor ddeinterlacing and frame decimation (discarding alternate frames), plus accumulated loss of definition and clarity and worsening distortion from multiple stages of lossy encoding. That's not to omit the grungy chroma and tape noise that adds to the distortion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bzowk
Would the quality gained from using a lossless format, using different hardware, or anything else be noticeable to the naked eye/ear?
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You don't need a "naked eye" to identify these typical problems. They are objectively defined and clearly identified effects. You see them yourself, you just don't yet know the terms that describe them. Unfortunately some of the major problems like scanline distortion can't be repaired after capture, and data destroyed through lossy encodes is not recoverable.
It's possible that you haven't seen the results of lossless capturing and processing, although browsing most tech forums such as this one would expose your view to lossy work, lossless results, good and bad video repair, and many other elements. Along lossless lines, here are a few posted results of video made with lossless capture, recommended brands and types of VCR, inclusion of linescan and frame timing tbc correction, use of recommended capture devices from expensive AGP cards to more affordable USB dongles, use of lossless codecs and lossless processing, recommended cleanup operations using preferred restoration apps instead of "editors", and
no lossy encoding until the final delivery output stage.
Here are a couple of quickie home video final results:
test_sample_1a2.mp4 (4.9 mb) from a lossless capture:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...-sample-1a2mp4
Edited home_tape_rework.mpg from a lossless capture and lossless processing:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...tape_reworkmpg
Slightly longer sample restored from lossless capture of a 1979 home recording off old analog cable TV, using a recommended player, time base correction, a preferred capture card, and lossless processing:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...back-samplemp4
Here is a longer 2.2 minute example of edits losslessly made from a lossless, unfiltered capture of a poorly mastered retail VHS tape ("Memphis Belle") and selected, unimproved scenes from the original lossless capture played with an appropriate quality VCR with time base correction thru a recommended capture device to lossless media. There was no further processing or filtering other than lossless cut-edits in Avisynth:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...ts_originalmp4
See if you think these lossless samples demonstrate better results.
You can't expect quality results from poor equipment and destructive processing. There are good VCr's and other hardware available if you research for them, and good capture cards that we recommend for less than $50 USD. The optimal capture software used for all these samples was
VirtualDub, which is free.