S-Video cable versus red, white & yellow

FlashGordon wrote on 5/26/2008, 6:51 AM

Now that I've figured out the how tos I am wondering if a S-Video cable would be better quality coming from the VCR to the TRV-18 Camcorder. I've gotten the video and audio fine but I get a slight "hum-bar" the way I am connected now which is red, white & yellow from the out. Any comments on whether S-Video might be a better quality connection?

Comments

newhope wrote on 5/26/2008, 7:04 AM

S-Video is inherently higher quality than composite, the yellow connector.

It separates the chroma and luminance signals. One of the immediate changes you should see is less smear on red objects in any images.

You will still need to connect the white and red cables though as they carry the audio part of the signal and S-Video is only a video signal. So your new cabling arrangement will be S-Video plus white (left) and red (right) audio.

The rest will depend on the original quality of the images and the medium onto which they were recorded. Typically if the source is low quality, like VHS, then it's not going to improve because you connect it via a higher quality connection. You won't be degrading it further though so that's a plus.

On the other hand if the source recording was S-VHS, Hi-8 or a Betacam with S-Video outputs then you you'll notice a definite improvement with the S-Video connection.

As you haven't specified in this post what your source material is then it's difficult to offer more advice.

New Hope Media

farss wrote on 5/26/2008, 7:19 AM

Only bit of additional advice I can offer is to get a good quality S-Video cable. There does seem to be some difference between the cheapies and the ones made for the task. We had some Sony ones that I'm told had in small print "for monitoring only" on the package. Changing them for something better made a noticeable difference.

Bob.

FlashGordon wrote on 5/26/2008, 8:09 AM

Thanks for the advice. I will find a high quality S-Video cable and see if it improves the video transfer. I am taking old VHS tapes from the VCR to my Camcorder (Sony TRV-18) which acts as my converter and from there firewire to the computer using Vegas as my editing program.

musicvid10 wrote on 5/26/2008, 8:44 AM

If your VHS tapes were not recorded at true S-VHS quality, you're probably not going to see a lot of difference whether you use a composite or S-video connection from the player.

johnmeyer wrote on 5/26/2008, 9:51 AM

If your VHS tapes were not recorded at true S-VHS quality, you're probably not going to see a lot of difference whether you use a composite or S-video connection from the player. That is a popular misconception. However, the S-Video connector and S-VHS are two independent, different things. newhope accurately described the S-Video connection and its advantages so I won't describe that. But, unlike S-Video which is a connection scheme, S-VHS is different recording technique that records more resolution onto standard VHS tape (although it is most reliable if done on specially formulated S-VHS tape).

S-Video connections can be done from any SD source, whether VHS, S-VHS, cable box, satellite box, laserdisc, etc. It should always be used, when available, if you want the best quality.

The other thing you should be doing, that I didn't mention in response to your other post, is to use the "Edit" switch on your VCR, if it has one. Most modern (post 1990) VCRs add "enhancement" circuitry which is supposed to make yuccky VHS video look sharper. However, it is a visual trick (it adds "ringing" around all dark-light transitions) and actually degrades the image. On better VCRs, there is an "Edit" switch (sometimes labeled "Dub"). You want to enable this. Doing so defeats that enhancement and gives you the original video. If you don't do this, you end up with a dub that is degraded from the original signal on the videotape.