Capture, VHS, ScenalyzerLive

AlohaMike wrote on 12/28/2003, 11:14 AM
A few years back I obtained a JVC SR-VS10 Mini-DV & S-VHS Cassette Recorder. I've captured a lot of DV from the deck with Vegas Capture. Interestingly, I could never capture VHS through the firewire. I just assumed it couldn't be done.
Well, last night I was perusing some past entries regarding VHS capture (among other topics) and came upon someone's input that they use Scenalyzer Live, http://www.scenalyzer.com/main.html .
This morning, on a lark, I downloaded the capture utility, and for grins stuck a VHS tape in the SR-VS10. I'll be darned, captured perfectly. And my deck has TBC and NR to boot.
What started this was a search for a replacement for my Hollywood bridge, which is worthless. Funny, I bought the bridge to copy VHS (as well as 8mm). Live and learn.

Mike

Comments

filmy wrote on 12/28/2003, 12:18 PM
The VS10 did not allow for pass through the same way the VS30 does. I would guess a huge part of the problem was that you wanted to put a VHS tape in and just hit play and expect an output from the firewire. That didn't really start to happen until the VS30 came out. I beleive with both the DV10 and DV20 you needed to have a mini-dv tape in that side and 'fake out' the deck so that it would think it was sending a dv signal. Now all you do is drop in a VHS tape, push the 'DV' button, select 'L-1' input, go back to the S-VHS side and hit play.

As for why it worked for you this morning with SCLive I am not sure. To a large degree all capture utilites work the same in that they look for a firewire device and signal coming from that device. The signal going into SCLive would be no different that what goes into the VV capture app, the free WinDV app, Premiere, Avid XPress and so on. I think the problems come into play with how the various software interacts with various hardware. (Pinnacle pops into my head at this moment) Also drivers may have issue - somewhere you see the mention of TI 1394 drivers versus other drivers. But at the bottom line - the VS10 and VS20 aren't supposed to have a 'pure' VHS > 1394 passthrough.
AlohaMike wrote on 12/28/2003, 12:32 PM
You know, I thought the same thing, exactly, until my meandering over the web brought me upon some old reviews of the VS10 where the reviewers talked about capturing VHS through the firewire (you can print back TO the VHS). I was somewhat surprised, so I came home and fired up VEGAS and tried again, with no luck. Checked all the settings, went over all options on the deck...nothing. I then downloaded said program and wala, it worked. I'm not sure why, but hey....it's cool.

Mike
AlohaMike wrote on 12/28/2003, 12:41 PM
Oh yeah, I thought about "fooling" the deck also....but I didn't have a DV tape in the DV side when I captured.
I just recaptured some footage to make sure I'm not "seein" things. Worked great. Not "perfect" by any means, but a lot better than the Hollywood Bridge was giving me. Imported the AVI into Vegas...no problem. I'm psyched! My old dinosaur pulls through for me. Of course, there's no deck control.
Mike
AlohaMike wrote on 12/28/2003, 12:47 PM
One last post....Tried again with Vegas Capture...it keeps telling me to insert the tape and I can hear the TV audio signal. Strange. Didn't change a setting on the deck but SCLive works like a charm. Of course, Vegas Capture works the DV side just fine.
Oh well...just wanted to get this litle bit of info on the board in case anyone else searches for the same thing.
Later,
Mike
filmy wrote on 12/28/2003, 12:54 PM
Just as a thought - In VV do you have the deck control enabled or disabled? VHS side has no deck control so make sure deck control is disabled.

Just for a test download WinDV and Divo and see if they work to capture from the VHS side. Both are free and they are really tiny apps. Divo is older, but will work with any firewire device and any OCHI card.
filmy wrote on 12/28/2003, 12:56 PM
>>>Tried again with Vegas Capture...it keeps telling me to insert the tape....<<<

Sounds like you have deck control enabled.
AlohaMike wrote on 12/28/2003, 1:05 PM
Of course, you hit that one on the head. I knew it had to be something simple...just couldn't put my finger on it. Vergas capture works also, assuming I'm smart enough to disable device control (even after I touched on it in the previous post). Anyway. THANK YOU, filmy! And I'm still psyched I can capture VHS straight from the old VS10. Shouldn't I also be able to input my 8mm signal and have the deck convert?

Mike