Of lordsmurf's list, the thrift store had Home Alone. ISBN 0-7939-1866-9 / UPC 086162186639.

I also picked up The Land Before Time, in case we want to add animation as a category. They had two tapes with near-identical covers. It took me two minutes of careful comparison before I saw the text that indicated one was a 1994 reissue. I went with the original one, of course. It's from 1991, though only the tape itself actually lists that year. ISBN 1-55880-081-6 / UPC 096898086431.

Good call. I'll see if I can find Home Alone locally first.

I have that, too. I'll go out and get it right now. (I call it "outside" but it's not. We have this big cabinet of family tapes.)

I may be able to test ATI 600, ATI AIW, Tevion cards, and JVC DVD recorders! So we can see more than just the VCRs.
First it would be through a pair of Panasonics.

___

Edit: The Land Before Time is from 1988. This is probably the first edition -- we bought it when it came out. Stuffed animals and tumblers, too!
Same ISBN, but the UPC is different: 047897808647

Missing a digit somewhere, smurfy.

Yep. Fixed it. :)

Had a busy week! I'll try to catch up with everyone on this thread soon.

Here's a list so far as to what everyone has suggested where ISBN's were provided:

• Titanic (1997) - ISBN 0-7921-5171-2 / UPC 09736-33481-39. (on way)
  
• Home Alone - ISBN 0-7939-1866-9 / UPC 086162186639. (I need to order)
  
• The Land Before Time (1988) - ISBN 1-55880-081-6 / UPC 047897808647 (I need to order)
  
• Flashdance (1983) - ISBN 0-7921-0000-X / UPC 097360145434 (received today)

Also, I am waiting for this order to come in:

Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) - Has not arrived. I don't know the ISBN at this time.

Comments:

• Which tapes should we ensure we have for doing comparisons? Maybe we list them by priority? For example, if anyone must have one tape, maybe this should be: Titanic? So Titanic (1997) is priority #1 (or #0)?
  
• Let's have a variety of videos, but keep the list narrow enough to where we all can have them.
  
• Let's make sure these tapes are still available. We can't compare unless we all or a good portion of us can obtain these tapes.

Once I capture them, I have no use for them. So they can be circulated among our group easily by mail.

By the way, I intend to tabulate our capture files into a "Results Thread" and keep this one for discussion of tapes, timestamps, goals, etc. So long as that is not against the rules.

^^ Sounds like a good idea to me. I'll stop by the thrift store in town tomorrow and see what I can find.

From an exposure stance, I think Home Alone takes precedent. It has quite a few good scenes, both dark and light.
And that's what we want. I'll be popping it in soon.

I'm tempted to just run the whole movie overnight each time, so I have all the scenes and can just scrub to it.
Any objections to grabbing the whole thing?

I'd grab select scenes for others. Maybe just capture the first 10 minutes there? Land Before Time, etc.

I'm not hurting for drive space. I have several TBs open for stuff just like this. :)

Grabbing the whole tape and then scrubbing through for interesting bits was my intention for every one. Unfortunately I can't do that with my current setup due to Macrovision.

robjv1: Could you give me approximate timecodes for the Titanic shots? There were a few I couldn't find easily.

Hmm, I'm confused -- our plan is for all of us to choose an identical selection of different frames, correct?

Sure, although I thought we were skipping Titanic? All of the scenes there are within the first five minutes or so of tape #2.

We somehow or other decide upon what we are going to compare: some video scenes, some image scenes. Then we provide the necessary timecodes where they are found so that everyone can grab the exact same portion. I need the movie captured to decide on what I think would be good to suggest, first. ;)

"We" are skipping Titanic but I still wanted to check for myself.

Ahh okay, I got where you are going now. Yeah, I'm sure it'd be easy to come up with a good set of scenes to test different characteristics and qualities of the signal. I'm going to leave it to you guys to establish which scenes will be used to minimize my time spent capturing stuff.

I'd be up for a test but I'd hate to do it with Titanic, I hate that ending to that movie. How about we try it out with The Lion King? The scene I think is best to try out is the song Be Prepared. It's about over 30 minutes into the tape and has lot''s of reds, blacks, greens, and yellows. Some of my test decks could be: JVC HR S6900U, JVC HR S7100U, JVC HM DT100U, JVC HM DH30000U, Panasonic AG 1970, JVC HR S80000U, and once I get these, JVC HR S10000U and JVC SR W5U.

Awesome, looks like you found the thread haha.

Yeah I am personally neutral on the movies we use, I think it'd be a good idea to make a standardized set to work with that we've all agreed on, whatever that set might be. I'm gonna wait to contribute until we've all agreed on a solid list, but once that decision has been made, I'd be happy to get whatever tapes necessary. The MV tapes may be problematic for those without TBCs though or will at least muddle the "purity" of the comparison if a TBC or signal enhancer of some kind is needed.

I'd want to avoid anything by Lucas or Disney because of harsh anti-copy that can mess with capture. Some of them are so messed up that even a TBC can't fix it! So I don't know about using The Lion King. I have it if we must. I think The Land Before Time is a better choice.

Edit: I'm capturing Home Alone this morning on both Panasonics. :)

Let's make this our discussion thread -- and make a new just for showing results.

^^ Like that idea about the discussion/results. We'll definitely need both!

So do you guys think maybe we should all just decide on one video first, go through the whole chain of tests with that video and then move onto the next after everyone has contributed?

I just see this going all over the place otherwise with our variable collections and I'm not really keen on rooting around the thrift stores for a bunch of videos and making a bunch of captures that we may or may not use. After all of the suggestions have been made and considered, if someone wants to be appointed (or self-appointed) to compile an "official" list of videos we'll be doing, I'd be a happy man haha. ErikCalifornia has a pretty good cross-section above.

I'm going to do a thread on live-action, and one on animation.
Home Alone was captured at 352x480 (oops). I'll do it again at 720x480, then go to the other VCR. So I've started. :)

Went to another thrift store and I found another copy of Land Before Time. No case, but it says 1989 on the spine label. Still not the right one?

Some other tape was described on the packaging as being recorded in the "best quality EP mode"...

Yeah I think that's common with budget distribution houses or companies selling "priced to own" tapes back when renting was usually the most economical option. Media Home Entertainment and Video Treasures actually had a ton of slow speed releases in the mid 1980s.

Here are the two tapes I have. Does yours only say 1988, LS?

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1364369210
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1364369407
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1364369407

Hope everyone's interest doesn't wane before we even get one capture done... :) Still picking through thrift stores and haven't found Flashdance locally, or anything from before about 1988 for that matter.

Home Alone is surprisingly noisy, or at least the copy I got plays back with a lot of noise. The wavy-type rather than the grainy/particulate-type, if that makes any sense. Not necessarily a bad thing for a comparison like this to include some iffy sources as long as they are reproducible.

I'm still interested! I'm letting you guys lead the way though -- as results start to come in, I'll chime in with mine as well.

Visited four more thrift stores over the past two days. Looks like the copy of The Land Before Time that I have matches the one with this UPC, as I found another copy that actually included the jacket; top and spine stickers match the one I have.

Looked through boxes and shelves and boxes and boxes, but there's very little around here from the pre-Macrovision years. No luck on the Flashdance front but I did find an HBO Video copy of The Dark Crystal that Wikipedia says is from May 1984.

The Dark Crystal | ISBN 1-55803-325-4 | 026539196638

I'll be posting my caps this week or next. It just takes me a while to do things these days. :)

FTP access to CDN4 can be provided for uploading PNGs or sample clips.
That's one of the servers used to store files. It's better than Dropbox, whatever, because we control it, and it'll never get deleted.

Dedicated space sounds great!

I wonder if we might also be able to create a consumer-grade test tape that we could ship to one other? With recordings of say, DVE patterns, the MiscTestPatterns stills that were previously shown on VideoHelp, a pattern of straight vertical lines recorded on a crappy wobbly VCR, and some TV or movie content. Each person could even add their own recording to the end of the tape before mailing it to the next guy.

Just a thought I had. Maybe crazy.

Have you been able to get any captures done, LS? :)

For aligned screenshot displays with as much data as possible packed into one frame, I created a script that stacks together the original frame, Y, U & V (since the greyscale resolution can be good while the color sucks), Y scope, and UV scope. The resolution fits onto a 1920x1080 monitor but is too big for the forum's current attachment limits.

Yes I did! I'm going to start this, plus other tests, in July. I'm finally ready!
I want to test each VCR, on each of several capture cards, with various types of source. I've found some interested things!

We can attach large forum images in a RAR or ZIP. ;)

Any of you guys still around? I'm almost ready to share a few comparisons myself. :)

Shockingly, The Matrix: Collector's Edition fullscreen VHS appears to be Macrovision-free! Does anyone have the regular edition to check? Should be a widely available tape that would make a nice comparison for dark scenes.

The Matrix: Collector's Edition | ISBN 0-7907-4260-8 | 085391698531

Never mind, the CE is actually the regular wide-release retail version. Only the rental-exclusive version lacked the extras. Good stuff.

I checked out another 1999 WB VHS, You've Got Mail. Also Macrovision-free. Did WB give up trying to protect VHS once DVDs became the target of piracy?

I was around, but now I just stop in once awhile to see what's changed. My :2cents::

1) Doesn't seem like any of us can come to a consensus on similar videos for comparison purposes. It makes it easy when EVERYONE can obtain and have a copy of the same VHS tape. The thread is called "Who wants to compare our VCR's"? How do we compare VCR's if we don't have something similar to use as a comparison? MONTHS ago, I suggested we come up with a list. Then, I, you, and everyone else can obtain the same VHS (or as close as possible) and digitize the same scene. Who should choose the tapes? Well, we just need to come to an agreement. I don't care if LordSmurf is the one who chooses them for us (since he's one of the PRO's). So my question is therefore, what are we comparing?

2) If we came up with VHS tapes to compare, maybe noting the time positions in the VHS where the scene was captured saves me and everyone else time when they try to capture the same scene. You captured Titanic at time 01:15:00 (hour:minute:seconds) then I know where to go to capture the scene at the same position. You then post your captures...I post mine close to nearly the same....everyone is happy.

3) I was very excited about this project, but then what was said on my part out of the enthusiasm was taken the wrong way (ego of my VCR vs your VCR being better which I meant in a sporting sort of way got taken personal...as if I was trying to put others down) :eek:. We worked it out, but I just decided to walk away from this thread since then.

There's no coordination despite me suggesting we come up with a list. For example, 1 or 2 videos EVERYONE should make sure they have for comparison purposes. Then, others can go that further mile by comparing other video's not on the list. That makes it fun and productive.

Hey but don't listen to me. I suppose that's why since March of 2013, there's hardly been much action or others people helping to contribute to this thread. I love the idea! It's a fun way to see which VCR's really produce quality transfers to digital. It helps you...it helps me...it helps everyone. But, in my :2cents:, there is no coordination.

I look at this thread and go, I have no clue which video's we are comparing? I have no clue what the time positions in the scene people are comparing (even approximations would help). For example, the Titanic scene captures...where are they within the movie? It just makes it very complicated and cumbersome. Again, just my :2cents:

When and if I see action from others contributing, then I'd be happy to chime in. Meanwhile, I'll just check in once and while and see what others choose to do :).

:congrats: