[mythtv-users] VCR capture recommendation

[Andre Newman]

On 19 Dec 2014, at 14:38, Alistair Grant <akgrant0710 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> I'm looking to transfer some VCR tapes, and possibly capture the
> analogue output of a satellite receiver, both in Australia (PAL-B) and
> the Czech Republic (PAL-DK?).

If you have composite or s-video out then there is no difference between PAL-B and PAL-DK, difference is in the audio modulation, this should work with most analog capture devices.

> 
> What would you suggest as a capture device to work with MythTV?

I wouldn’t use MythTV as a capture system, it’s not really designed for that, it’s more about tuning and scheduling.

I transferred some PAL-B VHS tapes for a friend recently using the s-video input of a HVR-4000. It worked pretty well considering but don’t have high expectations of anything from VHS on a modern TV or computer screen.

I had some trouble finding the right way to select the correct video and audio socket but I think I have a script somewhere if you have a HVR-4000 too. It’s also important to go directly to the best quality format you need and a matching framerate for your video 50fps for PAL, I was making DVDs so I encoded directly from the card with ffmpeg and made 9Mbps DVD compliant files.

VHS is very poor quality and you should use a high bitrate or you will have a recording of mostly the tape noise and PAL artefacts with little left of the picture. It’s easy to have a capture file that looks massively worse than the tape does, especially if you have watched the tape on a CRT TV.

Otherwise you could use VLC, it’s got lots of options to capture from video cards and one of the best h264 encoders if you just want files that MythTV can play, might be best to stick with mpeg2 unless you have a very fast PC to encode h264 in real time.

It’s very important to feed a good clean signal in to the capture card, if you have or can borrow a pro grade VHS deck especially one with an SPG or frame synchroniser output, they are surprisingly common as they are often the only VHS deck still working. Sadly mine is broken and the part isn’t available any more.

Andre

> 
> Many thanks,
> Alistair
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