capture problem, time base error?

[chameleon]

Hi, im trying to capture a film, I got it in both VHS and Laserdisc format. But when the credits appear, I got a lot of drops.

I used a Matrox Rainbow Runner Studio under win98 and avi_io. Its strange, cause the rest of the film is captured perfectly at 704x480 ntsc. I have the film in VHS (original) and Laserdisc (original), they are different releases (the VHS is not the laserdisc copy), but when the final credits arrive, then I only can get drops. The credits are white letters with a black background.

when I captured the credits at 352x240 the drops went out, but I need the original resolution 704x480.

How can I resolve this?, is this cause some video desync or time base errors?

[Dr Mordrid]

hmmm....are these rolling white text on a black background? Sometimes they record those at higher than legal IRE levels and it can cause capture problems.

Dr. Mordrid

[chameleon]

Yes, the video sequence are white or yellow letters with a black background, do you think the dark scene is the cause?

Could a time base corrector solve my problem?

thanks

[jeff b]

I've had similar problems with VHS (and other) video sources in the past, and was able to eliminate them with a "Sima SCC". I just checked, and Amazon has them for 100 USD.

Aside from TBC, you also get the elimination of false sync pulses with this unit, along with IRE levels brought into legal levels, which is probably what you're dealing with in this case. You get all that without using any of the eight adjustments that are available for changing tint, color level, sharpness, brightness, contrast, or red, green, or blue levels, which all come in handy for other problems.

It's a great "bang for the buck", because I found that it also cleans up typical problems with digital cable signals, ie- if there's jitter in the cable (which there always is), then the cable box often "converts" those spurious pulses into unwanted false sync pulses on the composite output, as well as the channel 3 modulator output. The reason most cable converter boxes will do that is because they're designed to pass Macrovision, which, by an odd coincidence, includes false sync pulses.

I tried explaining this to Charter last year, over the course of four months, but it was a lost cause. I gave up and started using the SCC, which to my great delight, worked like a charm.

It's also great for softening up source material that I want to put onto DVD, by setting "sharpness" all the way down, eliminating the hard edges of any video noise on less than perfect source material. That can get rid of or drastically reduce MPEG2 "splotchiness" on black levels and dark scenes.

As you can probably tell, I can't say enough about this little box! It's a "must have" in my house!

Jeff B

[Dr Mordrid]

The Sima SCC is a pretty good little box for the price, but given how often I deal with peoples degraded tapes I opted some time ago for the Elite Video BVP-4 Plus. Problem is the price tag: $700+ USD

Dr. Mordrid

[jeff b]

The BVP-4 is a real nice unit, Doc, with the point to point luminence control and the black level restore, along with IRE adjust... very nice stuff to have in the arsenal, for sure. But like you said, the price is a bit high.

Getting the RR to capture any and all composite video signals without choking, though, can be accomplished with the Sima, in my experience. That's half the battle with the Rainbow Runner, after all.

The difference between the two boxes is that with the BVP-4, you can do much more "tweaking" of the video at the source during capture, as opposed to spending hours in post using MSP video filters, only to find that you can't really get rid of noise, you can't really knock the black level down, etc.

So, I would say that Chameleon should consider the BVP-4 if he can afford it, because if you're going to buy something like this, this is the best. But if he can't afford it, the Sima will at least get the video he's working on to capture without a problem.

Jeff B

[chameleon]

Ok, I think Ill buy the Sima SCC, Ill post the results here.

Thanks for the replies guys