I am using Studio 10.5 through a Pinnacle 500 USB and I have been trying to convert an old VHS tape.

The tape clearly has a bit of damage to it as at times the tape slows down and distorts the picture and sound slightly. The problem is that when this happens on the video it results in dropepd frames in studio, making the audio go out of sync.

I've tried using enditall to close any unnecessary programs and also turning off the preview box in studio, but it makes no difference.

Can anyone help?

 

As you probably realise, it is likely to be dropping frames because of the damage. Do you have issues with other, undamaged tapes?

With old tapes, I find spooling them through my VHS two or three times, then running a cleaning tape, then trying to capture sometimes helps to get a stable playback.

Once the frame rate goes significantly out, a relatively simple device such as the 500 USB is going to have problems. You probably need to use a VCR with a timebase corrector, and/or a more professional capture device, to get a successful capture, but if the tape is that bad, then even they might not help.

and welcome to the forum

Thanks.

I havent had any issues with undamaged tapes.

Its an old concert video and by the end of the tape its dropped around 300 frames.

Watching the captured video and the audio is only out of sync in certain places. Once it goes out of sync, it corrects itself after a few mins.

I've captured it a few times and it goes out of sync at the same points on the show. And I've checked the video and the audio is in sync throughout so its not the tape thats the issue.

What I also notice is that at certain intervals the picture noticably slows down for a split second and then corrects itself to be at normal speed.

It doesn't have some sort of macrovision protection, perhaps?

Some of the USB devices have a "VCR" checkbox, in capture settings, which might make it more tolerant - have you got such an option?

Otherwise, I don't think you are going to get much improvement without trying new gear.

I have a 700 PCI and a S-VHS VCR. They can't cope with heavy drop outs, but normally dropped frames don't lead to OOS for more than a second or two.

As you appear to live in the UK (timezone GMT?), I'd be happy to have a go at capturing the tape for you, as long as you are willing to meet the postage costs, but I can't promise anything.

In Settings - Capture Source the only reference to VCR that I can see is a tickbox for VCR input, which has to be ticked if I am hooking a video up to it.

I am not sure how, but you might be able to use another pass through device.

If others would agree, they can give you the details on how to.

Sorry I'm late.....

Jeff mentioned spooling the tapes, and that's a very good suggestion. 

My impression is that tapes get flat spotted during their long resting periods, and they sometimes get physically distorted, kinked or curled. You might try winding the tape to the "other" end, and leave  it sitting in a warm area for a few days. It seems to even out the kinks in the tape. You might wind the tape several times and let it rest,  just to gain a second chance for the tape.  

 

Do you have a mini-dv camera. If you do, and it has a 'pass thru' mode, connect your vcr to the camera, put it in pass thru mode, then to the computer via a firewire connection. If your camera doesn't have pass thru, then make a recording of your vcr tape on the camera, play back the recorded tape and capture that via firewire to the computer.

Don