VS 10+ Trouble capturing VHS

middlebury madness · Post by **middlebury madness** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:10 pm

I am having trouble capturing from VHS Tape. I have not trouble capturing DV. I Use a Canopus 300 to connect both my VHS ( Via composite ) or my camcorder via firewire in order to get it into the computer. I have replaced and tested all my cables including my firewire, I replaced the old ribbon connections in the computer with round. I've tried defragging the disks, capturing to c drive , internal E drive, external J. they all work fine with the DV. whe I bring in the VHS I get confetti artifacts though out. I tried putting the VHS thru the canopus onto my DV camcorder & it worked fine but not to the Hard drives. I have made sure the drievs are running in DMA mode and the UDMA5 is shown. It was on the primary but not the secondary. I am getting a bit more technical that I am comfortable with but just need to figure this out. Any suggestions. I've tried both Mepeg and AVI project preferences with no difference.

Thank you

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:18 pm

I tried putting the VHS thru the canopus onto my DV camcorder & it worked fine but not to the Hard drives.

If you have a DV camcorder than you surely have a DV in/out port? Or, better yet, does your camcorder support pass-thru?

Connect your VCR directly to your camcorder and record to tape, then transfer to your pc. Or use the pass-thru function if available.

middlebury madness · Post by **middlebury madness** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:43 pm

I have numerous VHS tapes to do and don't want to abuse the camcorder. Plus the fact that there are 15 - 2-3 hour performance tapes and I don't have DV tape longer than 83min which would require not only numereous tapes but everything would have to be monitored so I didn't miss anything then I would have to turn around and inport from the dv tape. too much work for me.

What is so baffling is that in January it worked perfectly and now it won't. It won't even do commercial tapes that I already transfered so we could watch them in the car in Jan.

Carol

BrianCee · Post by **BrianCee** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:16 pm

But if your camcorder support 'pass-thru' you do not record anything to a DV tape - the signal just 'passes through' being converted from analogue to digital as it goes.

middlebury madness · Post by **middlebury madness** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:57 pm

I have it going from VHS to Canopus( could not easily reach the back of VCR for direct hookuo) via composite from canopus to video camera via composite to audio video plug no three wire compsite on camera from camera to computer by fire wire. put on C Drive and it works but still doen't explain things unless there is a problem with the canopus' ability to digitalize? Anyway I can get what I need immediately done and then work on it. Thank you

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:57 pm

BrianCee wrote:But if your camcorder support 'pass-thru' you do not record anything to a DV tape - the signal just 'passes through' being converted from analogue to digital as it goes.

Hi

I agree with Brian.

Pass-through will probably give you the best capture quality.

Does your cam-corder support pass-through?

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:06 pm

middlebury madness wrote:I have it going from VHS to Canopus( could not easily reach the back of VCR for direct hookuo) via composite from canopus to video camera via composite to audio video plug no three wire compsite on camera from camera to computer by fire wire. put on C Drive and it works but still doen't explain things unless there is a problem with the canopus' ability to digitalize? Anyway I can get what I need immediately done and then work on it. Thank you

Hi

I connect VHS via composite cable to A/V-In on camcorder.
Then Firewire DV-Out to PC.

The camcorder does the re-coding/transfer.

I select DV as the capture format, I capture DV-Avi.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:57 pm

I am somewhat confused by all this. The Canopus 300 is one of the best analogue-to-digital DV capture devices there is! And it comes with both a 4 pin and 6 pin Firewire port for that direct DV capture, so you connect it directly to your computer via Firewire.

Are you saying that you do not do this, or that when you do, it does not work properly? What connections do you use between the VCR and the Canopus -- RCA only, or S-Video plus RCA audio...

middlebury madness · Post by **middlebury madness** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 3:38 am

Ken,

At this moment the canopus is not doing the job. In January it did now it won't. It does fine with DV but not analog.

When it worked I had it connected to the VHS via RCA ( even got new "Gold" thinking it was the RCA's that had somehow failed.)and then I connect it to my computer via Firewire( replaced that also thinking it may have problems) it was fine. Even import my DV thru the canopus two days ago.

Now when I try to use the canopus to convert the anolog to digital I get "confetti artifacts".

Then I decided to use my sony camcorder as a pass through. it didn't have RCA in and getting to the back of the VHS was a big hassel so I simply left the canapus in the middle and went RCA in and Out of the Canapus. I would not go to my E drive but did transafer to my C drive beautifully. Is it the canapus converter maybe. Or the new Rounded cables I put in to replace the ribbons in the cmputer?

I also found that Ulead did not stop capturing when the recorded part of the vcr finished it went to the end of the physical tape before ending...

middlebury madness · Post by **middlebury madness** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 12:23 am

Thank you to all that replyed.

After more than 3 days of trying everything suggested and buying numerous new connectors and cables I was able to successfully get the vhs into VS 10+ using the pass through on my Sony camcorder. I think the canopus is faulty.

I also cleanned and defraged all my drives tested them so I guess it wasn't all lost but it is frustrating whe there are so many different things that can cause a problem.

railroadguy · Post by **railroadguy** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:37 am

middlebury madness wrote:Thank you to all that replyed.

I think the canopus is faulty.

When you use the 300 do you set the dip switches or use their software? If I really play around with the software (which is replacing all the dip switch switching) I also would get some artifacts as I was really jacking the signal. Sometimes to many options is not a good thing.

If you use the dip switches, make sure that are all set to default. If you use their software controller, bring that up and set to default and see what happens. While not unheard of, I would not think the 300 would suddenly "go bad".

middlebury madness · Post by **middlebury madness** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:52 am

I never installed the software and have left the switches set at the default off positions. I never even played with the adjustment levels on the top. the only thing I would do is make sure that the anolog in light was on when coming from the VCR and if it was comming from my digital camera it was digital in. I bought the Canopus because it had such a great reliable reputation. I am waiting to hear from support. I hope it is soon.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:25 pm

I never installed the software

It is often advised on this forum that you capture with the software that came with your capture device, then import those files into VS for editing. Maybe that is (was) your problem.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:44 pm

The Canopus device is for capture of DV format. And DV is DV is DV regardless of the program. The only difference is between Type 1 and 2 encoder... Still, it wouldn't hurt to see what happens...

middlebury madness · Post by **middlebury madness** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:51 pm

I would if I could figure out waht I caredfully did with everything that came with the canopus. It is not like me to not be able to put my hands on things as I do have a file for such. Anyway, I didn't have any problems getting the conversion thru the canopus back in January and prior withour the software so why now? Have the same version of VS haven't changed the VHS. The only thing different is that I went from ribbon connectors in my computer to round calbles. Nothing else has been affected and have ben doing massive digital VS projects just fine, only the VHS input.