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I have searched but unable to find a topic that secifically relates to my particular problem. So any help would be marvellous.

Captureing VHS from Philips VR830 video recorder via Asus TV7134 WDM tv video capture card and VideoStudio 11. Using the s-video connection the video is captured but it is b/w not colour. How can I ensure the video is captured in colour? and any advise on settings that should be used.

I have tried capturing using the composite connection - OK the video is in colour but the quality is extremely poor so would prefer to use s-video as I believe the guality could be better.

The tapes are of family weddings that were professionally recorded in the mid 80's.

Thank you for any assistance with this matter.

The general rule is to use the software that came with your capture device. Some capture-hardware and capture-software just don't "play well together". Once you have a digital file on your hard drive, you can use the editing software (and/or DVD authoring software) of your choice.

I wouldn't expect that to cause your loss of colour, but it might be the cause of your low-quality results with the composite connection.

Using the s-video connection the video is captured but it is b/w not colour. How can I ensure the video is captured in colour?

I would guess this is caused by a defect in the Asus card, or the Asus-supplied driver.

Or... Are you sure the S-Video output from the VCR is OK?

the video is in colour but the quality is extremely poor so would prefer to use s-video

You shouldn't see that much difference betweeen the composite and S-Video connections.

The capture quality will be affected by the quality of your digital-to-analog converter, and by the choosen video format. The least-compressed formats will give you the best quality, and are the easiest to edit. If your capture card can capture to DV/AVI (13GB per hour), this is your best option.

Then assuming your making a DVD, use a high-bitrate for your MPEG-2 encoding (a bitrate of 6000kbps with Dolby audio will give you about 90 minutes on a single-layer DVD).

If you can't capture to DV/AVI, high-bitrate MPEG-2 is the 2nd best choice.

As Graham has explained, S-Video can be rather touchy about the chain he describes. It is in effect an older form of component video, and is recorded, and re-transmits in quite a different way to composite video. If one element fails, then the chroma or luminance fails, and you get black and white. Sometimes, people have found that if the controlling software for the card allows it, you can go into an advanced section, and change the TV type from PAL to NTSC (or vice versa), and apply that. Then do it again the opposite way. That sometimes re-establishes a connection which will transmit colour. Others have found they have had to actually add a jump wire between two of the S-Video plug elements. Others have found that updated card drivers stuff things up -- and reinstalling an older version of the driver cures things. But all this goes to show that S-Video is rather troublesome...

And I also think Graham's query about the connection on the ASUS card is relevant. I have a WinFast TV card on one of my computers which appears to have an S-Video jack (in fact it is the only jack apart from the antenna!) But I am not convinced it is a 'classic' S-Video jack since the cord which came with the card has a variety of other plugs at its end, including a real S-Video female plug, plus composite yellow, white and red, all of which connect into the single male plug which goes into the Philips jack in the card.... And if you have a SCART plug involved anywhere in the chain, then it is incompatible with S-Video anyway, and will only work with composite...

I don't have your particular capture card but do have a number of Hauppauge TV cards. A few years ago when converting my VHS to DVD I found that I had a VHS in NTSC format. Played in lovely glorius colour in the VHS Player. However I could only ever get monochrome when played through the TV card.

I did some research and discovered that it was a hardware problem.
This might be the problem you are having with your capture card.
Because I am in Europe my Hauppauge TV card was manufactured to be PAL. It would play NTSC but only in monochrome.

Anyone in another part of the world such as the U.S.A. who purchased a Hauppauge TV card would have one manufactured to work with NTSC and so the reverse problem would exist. They can watch NTSC in colour but can only view PAL in monochrome.

In the case of Hauppauge equipment it is a hardware issue not a software issue.

You might want to check the pins on the s-video connectors, its easy to bend one of the pins when plugging in the connector. I have bent several s-video connector pins not realizing it.

tyamada wrote:You might want to check the pins on the s-video connectors, its easy to bend one of the pins when plugging in the connector. I have bent several s-video connector pins not realizing it.

Good Point! I almost forgot... "90 percent of hardware problems are cable/connection problems". And, the S-video cable might have an internal break, so it wouldn't hurt to try another cable.

Thank you Doug, Hughes, Ken, Steve and Tyamada for all your detailed suggestions regarding this problem.

In conclusion it appears to me that the best way forward would be to persevere with the COMPOSITE video input and endevour to better the quality via the file format. I have checked out all of your helpful suggestions and reply so as to maybe help other users as to the details of my setup.

The capture device was pre-installed on my HP Media pc (not aware of any software) together with Intervideo WinDVD Creator 2.0, I used this to capture in the first instance and then VS11, but identical result with both. There is no driver update available for my Asus TV card. Not sure if my vcr is a s-video player - Philips VR830 but this was a high end model 5 years ago, the spec in the manual is no help! The s-video cable is brand new of top quality, a gold plated job, so doubt if this could be a problem. There is a SCART connection involved as this is the only available video output from the player, so using a scart/s-video & composite output adapter. The Asus tv card appears to be manufactured for europe as when setting the captute options for this card PAL is selected but greyed out, so and option for NTSC is not available. The pins on the s-video cable are not bent, nor on the scart adapter, have captured from both AV1 and AV2 scart outputs on the player with identical results. i.e. b/w on s-video and colour on composite video.

Many thanks again guys

If there is no s-video output from the player it is not an S-Video player.
USe the composite.

And as I said, any involvement of Scart automatically means you have no choice but to use composite.

Can you change the capture settings in WinDVD Creator to capture high quality DVD/mpeg-2 format? That would probably be your best bet since it is unlikely to be able to capture in DV format...

Ken Berry wrote:And as I said, any involvement of Scart automatically means you have no choice but to use composite.

That is not true. Scart connectors can carry composite, s-video or RGB. It depends on the video equipment used.

Tom

I believe the scart standards do not allow for s-video signal carraige, whereas some modern day scart connections have one of their connectors changed to allow for an s-video signal.
So, in this case you'd both be right.

Although the overriding factor is, if the vhs player was an s-video player it would have an s-video connection.

Ken

Just to clarify a point

With scart involved I can capture with s-video without any trouble - but it is black and white?

Roy

Sorry. I was perhaps not clear enough. Using scart with s-video will always produce black and white video because of the incompatibility of the systems. Using scart, you will only get colour if you use the composite connections.

Hi Roy

I believe I have a similar problem in capturing S-video in B/K

Only capturing using composite provides colour.

I own a Samsung Pal Combo DVD/VHS player which has S-Video Out socket.
I also have a scart-plug with S-Video connection
Either option produces B/K

I have tried many/many options over as many years but still get B/K

It would be nice to capture in colour just to compare the quality.

My question is:-

Who on the forum can capture using S-Video and achieve colour