VV5 capture feature request

scissorfighter wrote on 10/29/2004, 1:11 PM

Maybe you can do this already, but if so, I haven't figured it out. It would be nice to have more control over capturing DV when using a non-controllable device (i.e. ADV-100). For example, if you're trying to cap a 60-minute VHS tape, you have to manually stop the capture process after the tape has ended. If there were a "capture length" setting, you could just set it and walk away. A minor issue, but probably not to hard to include.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 10/29/2004, 1:28 PM

Scenalyzer has this, and much, much more. Highly recommended. Click here:

Scenalyzer

For more information on what this app can do, click here:

Scenalyzer Features

scissorfighter wrote on 10/29/2004, 1:41 PM

Hey, you're right. I forgot about Scenalyzer. But that's just all the more reason why something as powerful as Vegas should have such a simple function included. BTW John, the reason I thought of this request was because I've been capturing VHS to fix up with your Ultimate VHS Recipe. That's a great tool! Thanks for doing all the legwork to give us the right settings. Let me ask you something even though we're in the wrong thread... it's been my experience that capturing 2 or 3 copies and rendering to a new file does make a small improvement, but the VirtualDub chain seems to have a much larger effect on improving the quality of the video. From what I've read of your posts, it seems like you may experience the opposite - where the multiple-copy-render makes a larger improvement than the filter chain. Am I perhaps missing something in my capture>render part?

Thanks!

Spot|DSE wrote on 10/29/2004, 2:32 PM

It's more or less there. Options/Prefs/Capture, max capture length:Timecode.

scissorfighter wrote on 10/29/2004, 2:47 PM

Thanks Spot, I'll try that. I had given up on timecode-based capture since TC is not consistent with a non-controlled device. But if the max capture is based on the "capture duration" TC and not on the "current location" TC, then it should work fine.

Also, less than 4 minutes ago I pressed the "submit order" button to order a copy of your new book, I'm looking forward to it! Everyone here says it's great, and hopefullly it will help me improve my Vegas skills. Thanks for taking the time to write it!

johnmeyer wrote on 10/29/2004, 5:17 PM

... capturing 2 or 3 copies and rendering to a new file does make a small improvement, but the VirtualDub chain seems to have a much larger effect on improving the quality of the video ...

You know, I somewhat regret starting that thread, because I emphasized the ultimate, and didn't spend enough time on the practical.

First, multiple capture only reduces noise in relation to the square root of the number of captures: two captures reduces noise by 1.4 (square root of 2) and so on. The reason I was so keen on it at the time is that it was (and still is) the only noise reduction technique that doesn't introduce residual artifacts. The noise really does average out, and the signal shines through. The problem is that unless you are restoring video for the National Archives, most people don't have the time to capture the same tape several times, and certainly most people don't have time to make the adjustments needed to compensate for the fact that each capture may be off from the other by 1/2 field. It takes a lot of work to line everything up.

In the time since I started the "ultimate" thread, I have posted several times about other tools I have found for VHS (and other analog formats like 8mm) video restoration. This quest has taken me from VirtualDub to AVISynth, which is what I now use for most restoration, both because it is quicker and because the filters available are much more sophisticated. As I have written in several other threads, I am getting remarkably good results with the AVISynth version of Mouchard's VirtualDub chroma denoiser (the AVISynth version is called CNR2), coupled with a rather obscure Russian temporal/spatial denoiser called Fluxsmooth (although I use the version that is temporal only and is lightning fast, which is called FluxsmoothT).

I have also had amazing results with an AVISynth plug-in called Despot. I have used it to eliminate "vacuum cleaner noise" that you sometimes get from tapes recorded on dirty heads, or from actually static in over-the-air broadcasts. It also can be used to almost completely eliminate "laser rot." Finally, it kills dust spots in old film.

While doom9 has lots of chatter about AVISynth plug-ins and some threads about restoration, I am hoping that VASST -- or maybe even this forum -- might expand one day and have an area dedicated just to restoration. In other words, have a forum dedicated to application rather than product.