Add JVC DR-M10 to workflow?

[2ombieboy]

Hi guys this is my first post I've been reading stuff on the forums for a few weeks. I'm wanting to capture my retail pre cert and post cert tapes to my media server in somewhat decent quality. I've done some with a VHS dvd combi in to an elgato. But I'm not happy with that outcome. So I picked up a few bits of recommend tech to start from scratch again. Got a Philips VR1100 SVHS with TBC coming. I read it's a JVC rebadge and should perform well it's newly serviced too. Then I got myself a DR-M10S dvd recorder. I don't have the money to buy a dedicated TBC. My question is would it be better to run the VCR directly in to the capture card I got a startech usb one. Or would it be better to run the VCR in to the dvd recorder as a pass threw then in to the capture card. Either way I will have the M10 connected to make a dvd backup. I'm hoping for improvements over my current setup.

Thanks Alan

[lordsmurf]

Good VCR.

Excellent DVD recorder for making DVDs. No passthrough, no TBC at all, replaced capture card to make DVDs. It's not 100% transparent on output, no DVD recorder is. (Well, a certain Zoran is close, but not useful for VHS either.)

Some Startech USB capture dongles are low-end Chinese crap (Easycap-like), a few are decent. Not best, not ideal, just not worst. One is actually a ATI 600 USB clone, but vastly rarer than the other clone models. In PAL, there's a few other options as well.

No frame TBC of any kind is not good. I would at least look to acquire a weaker TBC(ish) device, such as a DVK (but it required modding, preseting). You only waste your own time with dropped frames, audio skew, etc. You'll have to redo it, try again. With proper equipment in place, capturing gets vastly easy, looks/sounds better, less problems. I'm not suggesting $2k+ TBCs here, you already stated funds don't allow, but something in the $550-ish range (~25% the cost), budget options. (These are tools, all tools have costs. Lawnmowers, dishwasher, etc, don't have the same cost as a cheeseburger with fries/chips.)

Some of this is source dependent, some is capture card and OS dependent. Whatever you do will add some costs, and what you have now is likely to have a high fail %.

[2ombieboy]

For the time being i am just doing vhs with the s-vhs player with its tbc in to a lvw-5045gdl+ and im recording to hard drive but picture seems a little dark. im going to set up the m10 and try that. but im putting away money to buy a decent setup i tried doomsday duplicator but got worse results from that than i get from the dvd recorder.

[lordsmurf]

Dark picture can likely be AGC from false anti-copy detections, which is one of many reasons that a frame TBC is needed.

Yeah, that Domesday/vhs-decode project/method is wrapped in a lot of BS, and more and more people are reporting bad outcomes, which is what I've said all along. It's definitely NOT better (few exceptions), just different, and with lots of downside quality risk. It suffers especially from heavy obvious ringing. As you've learned, as others are sayings, you'll often just spend time chasing your tale, with no results to show for the effort, time, and costs.

That LiteOn recorder is quite decent, also LSI like JVC, but does suffer from slight green shifting (luma shifting) like many Panasonics. The quality of the LiteOn and JVC are comparable, and both need quality with-TBC input.

Saving up is what any mature responsible adult will do. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Kudos to you.