Viability of cheap VHS capture

[crissrudd4554]

So recently I upgraded to Cyberlink Powerdirector to use in place of my preferred video editing/burning software Nero which for the past year and half had been giving me glitches in the exported videos which I've been unable to remove. So far I'm happy with Powerdirector. The software has a capture option which allowed me to have two devices running simultaneously as well as letting me control the volume of the audio device, in this case my VIDBOX capture card, so I tested it out on a Phantom of the Opera tape. Looks pretty good and doesn't have the annoying static noise. With that said here's what I plan to do. For my Universal tapes, I will use 2016 Dazzle and 2008 VIDBOX with Powerdirector. Everything else I will use 2008 Dazzle with 2008 Pinnacle Studios and burn the video with Powerdirector! I consider this case closed (for me at least)!

[spoRv]

Happy to hear you solve the problem; now we are all waiting for your projects!

[crissrudd4554]

Haha you gotta pitch them first!

[crissrudd4554]

I'll get some screen grabs up tomorrow but has anyone here have or had any experience using EyeTV Hybrid??

[Jetrell Fo]

I have a USB Dazzle that doesn't have any of these issues when using VirtualDub and I've used it with Windows 7 numerous times. I wish I could explain your noise and help you fix it. The only way I could do that would be to actually be there to watch you go through your process to diagnose the issue in real time.

Do you happen to know the year of your Dazzle??

https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Dazzle_DVC100

Probably 2005/2006

[crissrudd4554]

I'll have to check but I think that's what it says when my 2008 Dazzle appears listed in a program.

[Bigrob]

Slightly off topic but anyone in the UK should sign up to free cycle in their area.

It's a newsletter / gumtree type thing but with no money involved. A lady posted that she was getting rid of a VHS player should emailed her with my interest (its first come first served with these things) and ended up picking up a VHS / up scaling DVD recorder from Samsung!

Trying to figure out how to break the macro vision protection though

[Koopa Luath]

Trying to figure out how to break the macro vision protection though

It's simple: just use VirtualDub.

[crissrudd4554]

Hey everyone. First let me respond again to Jetrell's post before going into what I really wanna go into. Jetrell, the DVC100 Dazzle I am using. That's the 2008 Dazzle I had noted in my prior posts and yes I have not gotten the annoying static noise with that. It was the 2016 Dazzle, Dazzle Video Capture USB v1.0, that was giving me the noise but I was eventually able to find a workaround for that which I explained in post 111. However, I'm now having other problems with Dazzle v1.0 again, one of which I just discovered just a little bit ago, but I'll get to that later in the discussion.

Next I would like to apologize in advance because this post is rather long. Anyways I asked if anyone had any experience with EyeTV Hybrid, or rather I should have said any Elgato products. The reason I ask is because about 8 or 9 years ago I for about 3 years had a friend copy some of my Universal Monster tapes to DVD. His capture method was EyeTV Hybrid. About 6 years ago I started trying out EyeTV myself. The tuner I have/had was the one pictured below and according to my friend it was the same tuner he had.



However whenever I use this tuner with VHS', regardless of the VCR being used, I do not get the same results as him. I've even talked about this with him and even he's puzzled. I asked him at one point maybe 3 or 4 years ago if I could perhaps try his tuner instead but he informed me it broke. Anyways let me show you what I mean.

This first grab comes from a DVD he burnt.



Here's from a video I had captured using EyeTV Hybrid (this was the same exact tape my friend captured).



As you can see very fuzzy and grainy. The sound is fine, the video not so much. Why is this? The actual quality that the videos my friend captured, aside from being a bit pixilated, I was very pleased with and have been trying eagerly to replicate but have not. I even tried a few other EyeTVs (Hybrids, 250, HD) and even tried Elgato Video Capture and all gave me varying results but not exactly to the look and quality my friend had. One other EyeTV I tried was this one. This was a 2009 I believe.



Here's a grab from a DVD I burned using a video recorded with that tuner.



This is basically the same look the 2008 Dazzle (DVC100) has been giving me when I try to do my Universal Monster tapes. It has that washed out and bright look which for me doesn't look very good (I mentioned this in post 98). However, quality wise the '09 EyeTV Hybrid is much poorer compared to both DVC100 and the EyeTV my friend captured with. I recorded my '92 SW Trilogy recently with DVC100 and they aren't that low in quality nor have the washed out look. Not perfect perhaps but definitely better than the '09 EyeTV. Also the image above does not have the same geometry as my friends capture (note that his has more image on the sides).

Just to back up a bit the first video capturing software I had tested was Honestech VHS to DVD 3.0. The main bugger about this was the 'overlap' the exported video gave me (why I had started this thread https://fanrestore.com/thread-724.html) and the Universal tapes had the bright washed out look. Elgato Video Capture, which I tried at one point but ultimately sold, gave me the same effect.

My DVD (Honestech capture).




Friends DVD (EyeTV capture).




Note in the last pic there there's a bit more detail in the forehead compared to the Honestech capture due to the lack of brightness?? 

Anyways I mentioned I tested a few other EyeTVs. One of them was this one.



Here's a grab from a capture from that tuner.



Pretty close. This actually looks a bit more detailed compared to my friends capture. However the signals slightly off evident by the noticable 'curves' of some of the edges (compare the letters in 'Frankenstein' in this grab to the grab from my friends capture).

Anyways I ultimately decided to keep toying with this and really only use EyeTV to capture TV programs from my cable box as the issues it was giving me with VHS' it wasn't giving me there. Unfortunately most of my EyeTV Hybrids are now faulty to some degree though my original one, the one giving me the fuzzy video, still works fine at the moment.

Some of you may also be asking 'didn't you already solve your whole video capturing problem??' Well yes technically I did. The DV100 hooked into the 2016 version of Pinnacle Studios will work mine for other things while I had established that I was gonna
capture my Universal tapes with Dazzle v1.0 for the video and my Honestech VIDBOX for audio. Well I'm now having problems with Dazzle v1.0. First I noticed that videos in color captured will have a subtle but noticeable color 'flicker' on the upper screen evident by these pics. They're exactly a frame apart.




Notice the purple 'glow' towards the top of the video in the second image?? That's the 'flicker' I'm speaking of. Yes you can maybe see a bit of it in the image above it too but its still noticeably less than the second. Another tape I did that had color footage had the same effect. This flicker is fortunately not visible if the footage is B&W but at the same time most of the video capture devices I've tested did not have this effect.

Another problem I'm having with this Dazzle which I just noticed tonight is the video plugin isn't working on it. I guess either the driver needs updating or the device is getting faulty although I've only had it for a few months. The Device Status in the devices properties window reads: Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19). So I have to tinker with that. I may revert back to the Roxio capture device should nothing work since it had essentially the same look and quality as v1.0 including the color flicker.

However, I really wanna capture my tapes looking like how they came out when my friend was using EyeTV and for whatever reason I cannot. Just the other day I tested WinTV through Cyberlink PowerDirector to see what that gave me. It's this device.



Note that the device looks much like the EyeTV tuner featured in my first image. And if that weren't enough it captured at the same fuzzy quality as EyeTV!

So I'm not having any luck with this. Anyone skilled with EyeTV that can tell me why I'm getting that cruddy looking video?? I don't think its a VCR problem either. I've tried the same EyeTV tuner on a 1999 General Electric VCR, a 2003 Panasonic VCR (same model as my friends VCR), and a 2004 Sony VCR. All have the fuzzy effect. 

Is there perhaps a different capture device anyone here recommends?? I basically have the programs I need to actually do the capturing so stuff like VirtualDub isn't gonna help me here I'm afraid. I'm not exactly rich either so I dont exactly wanna spend hundreds of dollars on one of those fancy capture cards which considering my luck probably wont work with my computer though to my credit I don't know much about them (I'm using an HP laptop circa 2009 with Windows 7 32 bit if it means anything). Anyways I think I've rambled enough. I do hope someone can assist me with this.

[Bigrob]

Trying to figure out how to break the macro vision protection though

It's simple: just use VirtualDub.

I meant from VHS to DVD using the machine as I have some VHS I would like to back up. I already have a VHS to PC connection which does that but it's not the best