Converting VHS to Digital format

[V5V]

Originally Posted by AndrewAction

Recording VHS playback to DV camera or deck facilitates a stable analog to digital conversion. If you just pass the signal through the DV device you may well end up with
the VHS's issues. Record it and you get a stable digital stream.

Bringing the DV signal into the computer via SDI or Firewire records a stable digital stream. My experience is that the DV devices produce the best results from analog VHS. (I have also tested with Beta SX, Digi Beta and HDCAM decks with and without TBC's between the VHS and digital devices)
In suggesting the method here I assumed DV devices would be more readily available through friends or rental than TBC's. Plus they are also easier to connect than wiring through TBC's.
FWIW I have used that method for years. It is my preferred method for inputting archived VHS footage to MC for broadcast documentaries.

Andrew

The *device* you're using to capture is likely the significant factor here, not the format itself. Whether the recording is in DV format or DNxHD shouldn't matter. If the capture device can't lock to the VHS player's sync, there's nothing the recording format can do to fix it. Apparently the devices you have DO play nicely with VHS decks. The Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle does not.

If you have access to an Intensity Shuttle you can try it yourself. Connect a VHS deck to the analog inputs and try recording something on the computer. It doesn't matter which format you use to capture, DV or otherwise, it just plain doesn't work.

[AndrewAction]

Originally Posted by V5V

The *device* you're using to capture is likely the significant factor here, not the format itself. Whether the recording is in DV format or DNxHD shouldn't matter. If the capture device can't lock to the VHS player's sync, there's nothing the recording format can do to fix it. Apparently the devices you have DO play nicely with VHS decks. The Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle does not.

It appears to me that we are at cross purposes. I am talking about playing out an analog signal from the VHS device and using a DV tape device to convert it to digital and record it onto tape. There is no sync cabling between the VHS and DV device. To my understanding the VHS's degraded analog sync pulse is not converted to digital, the DV device replaces it with it own digital sync pulse. THe DV devices playback is then a digital stream of the "pristine" DV recording. Here it has always worked from using the cheapest DV cameras and Clamshell's to the full blown studio decks.

The suggestion to continue using the DV format when recording to the computer (via SDI, SDI to HDMI or Firewire) was to maintain quality. The DV devices digital stream saved as a digital file with no processing for minimal quality loss.

Sorry the Intensity Shuttle does not work. I use several different BM IO cards in computers around here but they are used for monitoring not capture.

Andrew