Result of SCC test on old videotape

[Michelle Cox]

Well, I finally got the SCC in the mail today and hooked it up. It doesn't help one bit. In fact, it makes the picture coming off of cable jump around and occasionally flash green, so I don't see how it's going to make old video tape look better.

Unless someone has a suggestion on how to make this thing make the picture look better, not worse, I'm going to see about returning it.

Michelle

[Michelle Cox]

I guess no one has any suggestions for me. Darn. I was really hoping this would work. I guess those old shows will have to stay on VHS.

Michelle

[dchip]

I looked at your post before but I had could not think of any suggestion for you because I have never tried capturing from VHS tape and have no familiarity the SCC.

One thing I did just think of that might help is to transfer those shows to digital tape using the camera and then try capturing off of the digital tape using the camcorder firewire. Of course to make this work you will need a digital camcorder with analogue in jacks and I-EEE 1394 on your computer. You could also try the same thing with an analogue camcorder.

Whether your capture hardware will see the signal from the camcorder differently than your VCR is the question. It might.

[Michelle Cox]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't have a video camera.

Michelle

[Patrick]

Michelle, can you beg, borrow, or steal a Videonics MX-1 video mixer? This unit has a built-in TBC (time base corrector) and can do a pretty good job (within reason) of cleaning up a less than perfect signal. All you have to do is run your video through it using either the composite or S-video connectors. There's nothing to adjust.

The SCC may also have a TBC, but I'm not familiar with it at all.

[Michelle Cox]

I did a quick web search on "Videonics MX-1" hoping it was something I could afford. $800! Sorry, no can do. I wouldn't know anyone to beg or borrow it from, and I certainly wouldn't steal it.

I'm begining to think this is a hopeless cause. I can't believe how hard it is to find something to just clean up the signal enough that I can capture it. I'm not expecting the picture to look any better than it is on the VHS. I just want to capture it without my computer crashing.

Why does a jumping picture make it crash, anyway? Can't it just record the jumpiness?

Thanks,

Michelle

[Patrick]

Michelle, is there no business in your area that you can rent video equipment from?

[Michelle Cox]

Honestly, I have no idea. I'd hit the phone book, but I don't even know what to look under for that. I didn't even know stuff like that got rented out. Could you give me a hint as to what type of business I'd look for?

Thanks,

Michelle

Originally posted by Patrick
Michelle, is there no business in your area that you can rent video equipment from?

[Patrick]

Check your Yellow Pages for Video Equipment-Sales and Rentals or some other similarly worded phrase.

I don't know what size community you live in, but here in Vancouver (population 1 million) there is a whole page of places to rent this stuff from.

[AndrewDV]

Hi,

Have you tried playing the VHS tapes on a SVHS machine using svideo?

[Michelle Cox]

Hmmm... Imagine that... Look under "video". Sigh. That's what I get for replying when I'm half asleep. Sorry for the dumb question.

Anyway, my area is considerably smaller and doesn't have anything like that. The closest I found is places that do video duplication. One of them happens to be in the building I work in, so I'll ask them if they have any suggestions on where I can rent something like that locally.

Thanks,

Michelle

Originally posted by Patrick
Check your Yellow Pages for Video Equipment-Sales and Rentals or some other similarly worded phrase.

I don't know what size community you live in, but here in Vancouver (population 1 million) there is a whole page of places to rent this stuff from.

[Michelle Cox]

No, I haven't. I don't have an SVHS machine. If I knew 100% for sure it would work, I'd consider buying one becuase we could use an extra VCR. But after wasting my money on that SCC, I'm leery of spending more on something that I don't know if it will work.

I'll see how looking into renting something goes... Maybe there's a place that rents SVHS VCRs?

Thanks,

Michelle

Originally posted by AndrewDV
Hi,

Have you tried playing the VHS tapes on a SVHS machine using svideo?

[Dr Mordrid]

Michelle,

The signal is off cable? How are you connecting the 75 ohm cable signal to the SCC? Are you feeding the cable to a deck then passing it through? Are you using the SCC's composite or S-Video inputs? The connection method alone can affect the result, especially if the cable signal is digital ready. So can bad cables.

I've tested the SCC on degraded tapes and it worked pretty darned good for a $100 box. It at least restored weak sync pulses & the colorburst levels and allowed color & tint adjustments.

The Elite Video BVP-4+ works better, of course, but still then that's a $730 box.

Dr. Mordrid

[Michelle Cox]

Dr Mordrid:

What I am trying to capture is some old video tapes that I taped off of TV years ago. The quality is really poor and the frequently the whole picture bounces up and down. When I hit one of these spots, AVI_IO crashes and my whole computer becomes unstable. What I'm trying to find is something that will stabalize the signal enough that the capture program won't crash.

I tried the SCC at its default settings and it made no difference in the picture when playing the tape. Changing the settings adjusts the color, but makes no difference in the jumpiness. The only controls on there are for color, contrast, brightness and sharpness, so I don't know what I should use to adjust the jumpiness.

The SCC is hooked up between my VCR and the G450 E-TV using composite cables.

The bit about the cable was just that before I switched over to the tape, I happened to notice that it made the basic cable picture look worse. I was just saying that if a regular cable signal looks jumpy through this device, I didn't understand how it could make my old tapes _less_ jumpy.

I read through the manual, but don't see anything about making the picture stop jumping. This unit seems to be geared towards making the color better. What am I missing?

Thanks,

Michelle

[AndrewDV]

Originally posted by Michelle Cox
No, I haven't. I don't have an SVHS machine. If I knew 100% for sure it would work, I'd consider buying one becuase we could use an extra VCR. But after wasting my money on that SCC, I'm leery of spending more on something that I don't know if it will work.

I'll see how looking into renting something goes... Maybe there's a place that rents SVHS VCRs?

Thanks,

Michelle

Hi,

You can always go to a Circuit City and buy the SVHS for "testing" purposes (wink wink... nudge nudge... say no more...). If you don't like, return it to them. There return policy is very customer friendly. The prices for SVHS are pretty reasonable as well.

Just my 2 cents (whatever my 2 cents is worth), never be afraid of returning anything. I returned many a capture device in the past few years If you don't like the SCC, get your money back.