VHSC video conversion using Ulead Video Studio 10

leesajane · Post by **leesajane** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 7:47 am

I am desperately looking for advise! We are converting VHSC's through our video player to our computer and every odd tape is putting the sound ahead of the image.. sometimes up to 5 seconds, sometimes at the beginning of the tape, sometimes midway.

At first I thought it was the video player so we swapped that out. Now it would appear that the video plays perfectly through (when we are not capturing) through the player however when we are capturing on the odd tape it throws out the sound.

We use DV's through the camcorder with firewire and have never had this issue however the VHSC it seems to be happening every other tape.

I look forward to getting some help to solve this problem!!!!

Thank you in advance...

Leesa

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 7:53 am

We need some further information before we can proceed. The most important is to tell us what capture device you are using to connect the video recorder (VCR) to your computer: is is an external device? If so what is the model number and how is it connected (e.g. using USB, Firewire, RCA cables)? Or is it a capture card inside the computer itself? If so, what is the model. Telling us something about the format you are capturing in would also be helpful, though I am guessing you are capturing mpeg-2...? Can you also tell us about your computer and its operating system.

Does your digital video camera manual say anything about using the camera as a pass-through device i.e. to connect another piece of equipment like your VCR, and then convert the signal into digital which can be sent via the camera in DV format over firewire, just like your digital videos...?

dmz · Post by **dmz** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 8:11 am

I cannot solve your problem directly but I do have some advice. I tried for over a year in converting VHS tapes to DVDs using videostudio. My VHS player was hooked into my vivo video card and I captured directly from it into VS. I had limited success but over time the quality seemed to deteriorate without me changing anything. I have since bought a dvd recorder with a hard drive. I have hooked up my VHS player to the dvd recorder. I record the VHS onto the dvd hard drive, burn it to dvd, then import it from the dvd in videostudio. The results are far superior than my old method of doing things.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 5:34 pm

If your camera does not allow passthru, or the DVD recorder suggestion is not an option for you, you could connect your VCR to your camera and record to your camera, then transfer via firewire to your computer. It is another generational loss, but I doubt you will notice since the original is VHS.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 7:16 pm

When I converted my VHS tapes a few years ago - some 300 hundred or so, I used exactly the same settings and equipment. Most tapes transfered to my computer OK but a few had audio/synch problems.

I think you may find the issue is with the quality of the VHS tape which even though it plays correctly on your TV (or TV card) the worn tape contains defects (in its signal) which cause these problems.

You can try the VS & MSP: Fix for Out of Synch Audio/Video for the odd few tapes that have this issue. Please remember though that this article is intended as a last resort fix.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:17 pm

"When I converted my VHS tapes a few years ago - some 300 hundred or so"

Steve, I didn't realise you had been at this game for quite so long!!!

leesajane · Post by **leesajane** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:49 pm

Thank you all for your help! One thing you mentioned fixed the problem straight away.. we were recording in .avi format and not in mpeg - on trying mpeg the sound hooked up perfectly on the odd tapes! Dont know why, if anyone could explain that would be great!

I really like the idea of getting the DVD recorder also because I understand what you are saying about the longer you go the worse they get..

The odd tape is still a little dodgy but I can live with that!

Thank you so much for all your great advice!

Leesa

DiscCoasterPro · Post by **DiscCoasterPro** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:58 pm

OH Boy is this a sore spot with me. I had about 75 VHS tapes, a ton of 8mm and VHS-C stuff and I bought all (what I thought was the) good equipment. Including building a seperate computer for video editing.

If you look up "poor sorry tortured dope" in the encyclopedia, you will find an article on me. If you look among my computer parts you will find a ton of garbage capture cards and devices. Months of experimenting, doing over and over. Dropped frames, audio sync issues, capture stops, field order jitters, you name it.

I'll save my crying and horrifying flashbacks and give you the solution. Forget USB. Forget PCI, Forget MPEG, just forget it all.

I'm sorry, I don't care what anyone says about success with those devices. The mfg's should be shot for selling them.

www.canopus.com and pick up a ADVC110 or as I did a model 300. END OF TROUBLE. Completely perfect. In fact, better than original. YOU MUST transfer via firewire into your computer, through a device that hardware encodes to DV-AVI period.

Well, thats my rant and I'm stickin to it!

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:25 pm

DiscCoasterPro wrote:OH Boy is this a sore spot with me. I had about 75 VHS tapes, a ton of 8mm and VHS-C stuff and I bought all (what I thought was the) good equipment. Including building a seperate computer for video editing.

If you look up "poor sorry tortured dope" in the encyclopedia, you will find an article on me. If you look among my computer parts you will find a ton of garbage capture cards and devices. Months of experimenting, doing over and over. Dropped frames, audio sync issues, capture stops, field order jitters, you name it.

I'll save my crying and horrifying flashbacks and give you the solution. Forget USB. Forget PCI, Forget MPEG, just forget it all.

I'm sorry, I don't care what anyone says about success with those devices. The mfg's should be shot for selling them.

www.canopus.com and pick up a ADVC110 or as I did a model 300. END OF TROUBLE. Completely perfect. In fact, better than original. YOU MUST transfer via firewire into your computer, through a device that hardware encodes to DV-AVI period.

Well, thats my rant and I'm stickin to it!

Do you always contradict yourself in your rants? I'm glad that this one works for you. What do you call it, if it's not a capture device? It must be worth it's weight in gold if the captures are better than the original. Never seen that before, Congratulations and thanks for sharing that with us.

DiscCoasterPro · Post by **DiscCoasterPro** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 1:36 am

Ah, but it does capture better than original ... because I can make analogue changes to the color contrast and brightness and even remove some noise PRIOR to digitizing with my ADVC300 so ...

when I said capture device, I said "garbage capture device", and I meant those mickey mouse USB PCI to MPEG devices. sorry. Bottom line, get a real DV-AVI capture device.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:53 am

Amen to that