digitise VHS

I'm using a Sony DSR 1500a DV cam VTR as my analog I/O device, and I have the optional board for the deck that lets me do so. I need to didgitize from a VHS tape, but when I connect the output of the VHS to the composite input on the DSR, FCP sees a very shaky unstable image. This is not a commercial copyrighted VHS tape and it plays fine on the VCR. Seems like a time base issue. Does this deck have a TBC function hidden in some menu that I can't find? Would sending a black burst signal to the deck help?

FCP 4.5, G5 dual 2.0, OS 10.3.9

Monitors have troubles, too. If you externally sync a monitor and then look at the tape, you'll see all sorts of wiggles and jumps.

I'm always surprised when I digitize VHS how good it comes out. I'm using a Canopus ADVC 100 and have no troubles at all--or none that make any difference.

You can certainly have a tape that's been dubbed a million times and all the errors added up. Do all tapes have roughly the same problem--like your 3 year old dubs of Sesame Street?

You can also have tapes whose basic video characteristics are bad, like the relative sizes of the video and sync signals are so far off that the recording machine can't find them.

Or you could just have a machine that won't accept timebase uncorrected signals. Do you have the instruction book?

Koz

I've tried a number of different VHS tapes, all with the same problem. The manual for the DSR 1500a doesn't mention this at all, so you may be right about it simply not accepting an uncorrected signal. I'm just surprised that a deck as expensive as this, plus an analog I/O board that cost almost $1,000, can't provide this function.

A TBC is need, and that may not help.
VHS, and for that matter most consumer analogue video is poor.
Bj

I dunno - I have often dragged in vhs via the composites without trouble on a dsr11 and a dsr25. I can't see why the 1500 would not be able to do this.

Are you setting the input to 'video' so that it's not looking for timecode? Are all your menu settings correct for e to e?

Maybe it's an NTSC thing.. Can you beg, borrow or rent a canopus box to see if that eases the problem?

Never The Same Color Twice

<<<VHS, and for that matter most consumer analogue video is poor.>>>
<<Never The Same Color Twice>>>

That's "Never Twice the Same Color."

Yes, nobody's expecting VHS to look like D1, but it should be possible to use what's there. My favorite point is being the only person to have video of the Hindenberg burning. I don't think anybody is going to turn down your video if it's on VHS.

Also re: the camcorder footage of the World Trade Center.


You may be in Professional Hell.

All of our Prosumer Beta SP machines will accept uncorrected S-Video, but the Pro/Broadcast ones won't. By the time you're big enough to have the pro machines, you're also big enough to have an Injest Room with special machines to take care of this so all your regular machines don't have to.

Koz

Well, I'm glad to hear that you can do this with a dsr 25 - sure seems like I should be able to. I'm pretty sure I've got everything set up corrrectly. FCP is receiving a video signal form the vhs, it's just unstable and constantly smears and breaks up.

Yeah, this happens to me too. Actually, my DSR-11 handles it fine, but my DSR-40 does not. I just run the VHS signal through a distribution amp and it seems to clear it right up.

It might be good to note here that most uncorrected playback machines deliver unstable video and depend on the monitor or TV to straighten it all out.

The two places that kill you are capturing that unstable video, and combining two signals in a switcher. In the first case, the record tape machine has to change motor speeds to match the incoming video. If the video is constantly moving, they'll never make it. Capturing electronically has its own problems. Some capture machines depend on a very accurate relationship between all the parts of a video signal. In VHS, a lot of those signals are damaged. That's what's going on in this posting.

In the second case. you can't lap-dissolve two video signals if they don't both start the upper left corner of the picture at the same time. You can do it in small special effects switchers, but they have their own problems--like they generate sound sync issues.

Koz

Well I swapped out the DSR 1500a with a borrowed DSR45 and was able to digitize from VHS with no problems.