VHS to PC problem

oxygene

oxygene

oxygene

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Joined
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Hey guys! I'm hoping someone here has the expertise I need to help me out.
I have recently been tasked with transferring some old family movies on VHS to pc.
I was provided with one of these and a VHS player. On top of which I found in my wire collection one of these.

Now I've plugged these in to the pc and installed the windows 7 drivers for it. The problem is, when playing, none of the video software thats meant to work with it shows anything! I've tested the vhs player on the tv and it works fine there so thats not the issue. I've tried AVS Video Recorder, VideoStudio 12 from Corel, Movavi Video Editor, and I'm confused as to what I could be doing wrong! So heres helping someone has first hand experience in this area!
 
Hi,

Not sure about the USB one you have but depending on your output source you may need to specify this in your video capture software.

e.g. The yellow, white and red leads you would need to set the input source to Composite in your capture software. Or S-Video (recommended if possible). Check Windows Device Manager to make sure the device is listed under Sound, video and game controllers.

I have a Compro Videomate C500
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=ca-001-cp

i use virtualdub myself which is widely used for capturing and restoration. check this guide http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/capture/start.html

Another important tip is to use a Time Base Corrector to get the best out of your tapes. Some higher end VCR's have Time Base Correctors built in which stabilises the video signals to stop the picture jumping about as much. If your on a budget some DVD players such as the Panasonic DVR-ES15 have a Time Base Corrector built into it. So you can pass the signal through this, but its best to keep the video chain as small as possible.

Then there's deinterlacing, post processing, colour correction. It can get quite addictive and obsessive if your weird like me :).

I'm still learning myself. www.doom9.org and www.videohelp.com have lots of information to glean from there.
 
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Hmm I've got it all plugged in right but all I see if a blackscreen on vdub, same as the other programs. Makes me wonder if I'm missing something tbh. All the software is installed and detected correctly. Shame I cant try svideo instead of this scart as I dont know how many pins the scart adapter is meant to have.Its only got half a dozen on it compared to a full set on normal scart to scart.
 
oxygene said:
On top of which I found in my wire collection one of these.
Click to expand...

That cable is for connecting RCA output to a scart input. Not a scart output to the RCA input on your capture device. I've used one of these cables before. You need to get a scart pin diagram and rewire the scart connector. It's not too difficult.

The physical pins on the scart converter will only be going to either input or output, not both. SCART itself is a two way input & output interconnect, but when you have RCA on one end it can only be hooked to either the input pins or the output pins. This is why some RCA-Scart converters have a little switch on them to switch between in and out like this.
 
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Wow! I consider myself techy, how did I not know this :/ At least that explains why I cant get it working hehe! Many thanks for your help I will go shopping shortly!
 
Ok cheers for all the help chaps! I now am able to see the video and hear the audio fine on the pc, I can even watch VHs on videolan hehe. The problem is any method I try to use to capture it creates a lot of sync issues. one recorder even stops the video entirely!
 
Driving me bonkers now! Fixed the sync issues by playing it in VLC then using fraps to record it. But god the video quality is terrible! Not sure why its so bad in that but fine in everything else :/
 
I use a Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD recorder. I bought it before freeview recorders were on the market. :)

Now I just use it to record VHS to DVD, I play from the video and start recording on either a DVD-RAM or DVD-RW dvd. The quality is awesome and no problems as the dvd recorder is built for the job.

Been down the road of recording video to pc a few years ago and it was never great. :(


The dvd recorder route does require you to finalise the disc to read in a pc with video editing software (hence the RW) DVD-RAM lets you do some editing with the recorder should you need to edit out chunks of unwanted footage among the recording.

Hope you have better luck with your video to pc route, I just found it too much hassle as my Panasonic VHS has only used for video transfer it's quality is very good I only need to worry about quality recording.
 
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