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Sometime, maybe, you will need to capture an analog source... maybe you need to know that not all analog tapes and/or discs are created equal, as well as players...
About software: I noted it once, when I was ordering my laserdisc collection; I stumbled upon three different copies of the same title, a PAL italian edition of a US movie; they seemed the same, same cover, same discs... I was curious, and I play them one after the other, on the same player, and guess what? The quality was different, and differences were quite noticeable: one was more saturated than the other two, and the other two, while with the same color grading, had different grain structure... I think it could be the same with VHS tapes...
About hardware: at the contrary of digital disc players, where a really cheap player plays a disc with a video and audio quality really close to a top player (don't tell it to hi-end aficionados!  ), analog tape and disc player quality differs a lot from one to another... for example, the best laserdisc player could play a good disc with a quality near to a good non-anamorphic DVD disc, while a very cheap and slightly out-of-alignement player could reveal an image quality worst than a VHS...
Then, if you need to capture an analog source:
- try to get the best version available - and different copies of the same title if possible
- try to get the best player you can afford - and service it if needed
- try to get the best capture device - think a very good used one is really cheap nowadays!
If this topic could be interesting for someone, I'm thinking to write a proper article so let me know here with your comments!
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My capture card keeps introducing noise that isn't in the source, do you have any ideas for a replacement? I want something that does no automated video correction like my present one (not just for Macrovision, but because I don't want it altering the brightness of the picture anyway).
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2015-01-24, 12:11 PM
(This post was last modified: 2015-01-24, 10:55 PM by spoRv.
Edit Reason: added link
)
What is your capture card now?
I'll post soon an article about high-end video and audio capture cards; hope it will be of some help.
EDIT: Done! Here you are the link: http://fanres.com/showthread.php?tid=83
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2015-01-26, 03:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 2015-01-26, 03:23 PM by Valeyard.)
It's a Leadtek card, but I've temporarily solved the issue now. I removed my card and replaced it with another, slightly older, Leadtek card. I think if I attached metal shielding over the card itself that the introduced noise would disappear, right now it's introducing some small blips in the picture, but not very much and most of it will be filtered out without issue when encoded. Unfortunately ATI card, from what I've read, all perform automated gain "correction" on the video as well as intentionally disable recording when the macrovision signal is detected. SweetSpot sounds like an acceptable alternative, but it's very expensive. I could just use a video stabiliser with an ATI card, but that only solves macrovision it doesn't solve the AGC (see for instance this post with regards to the problems auto-gain introduces). TVW705 as you mentioned has AGC issues, and according to that same user, just about no ATI card seems properly suitable for good quality captures.
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An used SweetSpot it's really hard to find but, if you are lucky enough, it could be found quite cheap; about ATI, IIRC there was or a model without it, or some kind of specialized software (or driver) that could disable the AGC...
I found that Philips chipsets has a better quality than BrokeTree ones; I wonder how good could be the AJA, as it seems it's very hard to find - all the cheap ones were without breakout cables, and without its non-standard cable it's useless!
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When it comes to capturing laserdiscs, is there any chance that this project could be helpful? http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/view...=17&t=1647
It appears that using the Pioneer LaserActive system with the PC1 PAC gives you direct access to the iso sectors on the disc. Something like http://www.kryoflux.com/?page=download might be able to capture this directly.
Maybe that signal could then be fed to LD-Decode? Not sure if that would give any better results than a graphics card solution happycube is currently using.
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Nope, it will dump only the digital encoded part of the laserdisc - like digital audio tracks (PCM, AC3, DTS) and the eventual ROM track (that will replace one or two PCM tracks); but, it's possible to capture any digital track using a simple bit-perfect audio.card.
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I made a small capture guide; hope it helps: https://fanrestore.com/thread-933.html
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2016-04-07, 11:09 AM
(This post was last modified: 2016-04-07, 11:10 AM by Evit.)
Valeyard, sometimes digital noise is added if you record at higher resolution than the source material. Could this be the reason why noise appears with the newer capture card and not as much with the old one?
AKA thxita on OriginalTrilogy
I preserve movies as they first appeared in Italy.
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