Record analog without overlap

[crissrudd4554]

So I did a quick google search and found the owner's manual on Panasonic's website here

This is a pretty common/typical/standard (whatever word you wanna use, LOL) "ok" VCR of that era. It's not a horrible VCR, but it's not even mid-level. It does NOT have TBC correction, but that's not necessarily a problem unless you are dealing with damaged VHS tapes.

The FIRST thing you should do BEFORE capturing ANY VHS tapes is CLEAN YOUR TAPE HEADS!!!

Over time, the tape head gets dirty from dust and all of the tape that is, literally, rubbing against the heads whenever you play a tape. This leads to tracking problems, lower audio and video quality, on-screen artifacts, tape "wobble," etc.

You should also clean your tape heads when capturing about EVERY 10-20 hours of use. (Some will say this is excessive, but now-a-days with all of this equipment being old and the tapes being older, it's a good precaution and way to get the best transfer possible)

ALSO, if you will be doing a lot of capturing, invest into a VHS TAPE REWINDER!!!

This will extend the life of your VCR substantially and they can be bought on amazon, ebay, and I've even seen them in Wal-mart, for about $5-10 which is nothing.

For the tape head cleaner, I recommend spending around $10 at wal-mart for something like this If you decide to use/get a different one, make sure that the one you get is a WET CLEANING SOLUTION, as the dry cleaners don't do shit!!!

Then, on the computer side, just make sure that you capture it at 29.970 fps and interlaced (NOT progressive) and you should be good to go. I honestly recommend capturing using MPEG-2 at about 9000kbps with the audio captured in LPCM 16-bit (24-bit is overkill for VHS, even if you have an excellent Hi-Fi Stereo source) at 44.1kHz or 48kHz if you want it to be compliant with DVD/BD standards.

Thank you for the tips. And dont worry. I actually use a head cleaner almost everytime Im gonna WATCH a VHS since I rarely use the VCR anyways and I would like the unit to last. I also have a Sony VCR from 2004 which still works pretty good. I dont have it on hand but when I do I'll post the number for that.

[crissrudd4554]

Im testing out AmarecTV now. So far I'm still getting the overlap and also I'm getting an AmarecTV logo in the bottom left corner. Since I'm pretty new to this program can someone throw me some setting suggestions???????

[Feallan]

I got it from this site IIRC and never seen any watermarks.

http://www.amarectv.com/english/amarectv_e.htm

Btw AmarecTV is alright, but if you are recording audio and video simultaneously, be sure the captures are as good as if you were recording separately. With my VHS captures, plugging anything in SCART socket introduces noise to the audio. Maybe it's just a SCART thing, I don't know.

[crissrudd4554]

That was the site I got it from as well. And I I really think its just a method in capturing that can either be solved or unsolved. I doubt it has anything to do with how the video capture is rigged up but again I'm no expert. I set my setting to composite if that helps any.

[crissrudd4554]

So I have three screen grabs below. First from a video where as you can see the overlap still occurs and as you can see an AMV logo is in the bottom left corner. The other two are part of the setting menu just to give in idea of what settings I have at the moment. Other than the frame size I've kept the settings mostly default.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=E6...hoto%2cPNG

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=E6...hoto%2cPNG

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=E6...hoto%2cPNG

[Feallan]

I don't see the images

[crissrudd4554]

Fixed it (I think). I shared links to the original post instead. On another note, I was messing with the settings in VHS to DVD 3.0 and switched to AVI. The overlap was gone but the image quality was greatly reduced.

[crissrudd4554]

This guy on YouTube posts videos from VHS' and the quality looks pretty. He says he uses Ion Video 2 PC. I may try that.

[crissrudd4554]

Figured Id give a little update here. Recently I got the 2012 version of Roxio VHS to DVD. Quality and signal wise it is without a doubt the best of these VHS to DVD softwares Ive tested and Ive been playing with these softwares for 5 years now! And yes no overlap!

[crissrudd4554]

Well Im pretty much back to the drawing board. The Roxio program is pretty good image quality wise but I get an annoying crackle throughout. It's not too bad but considering most of the previous softwares I've tested lacked this I'm gonna keep looking. If anyone wants the specifics, I've tested two tapes on one VCR with one set of cables, one of those tapes and another on another VCR with another set of cables and got the same thing. I know VHS' tend to have audio crackle at times but I'm convinced that that is something within the program especially considering one of the tapes I tested I had captured previously on another program and was not crackling the way it is here. I tried the program through AmarecTV and besides still having an Amerec emblem in the bottom corner it still gave me the overlap effect. Any suggestions guys????