Hi all, first post here. Seems like an incredible place.
So I'm trying to rip these old VHS tapes with Uleadvideostudio. I bought this adaptor that comes with the software and has the standard 3 connectors (white,red,yellow) and it goes to USB at the other end.
I started the caption and pressed play on my VHS player. It rendered a complete (and enormous) AVI file, but the playback is erratic. I get a few images, but they are very far apart of each other and in between there are just frames of complete black. The colors seem messed up at times too.
Now, I'm guessing that I got some setting wrong when rendering my file, but I'm not too sure of what it could be? I come from an audio background and I know next to nothing about video.
Thanks!
Could I ask, first off, how old the version of Ulead Video Studio you're using is, and how old the capture device is?
Because I used to use that exact combination for grabbing footage from VHS and 8mm VHS for projects back in the day. But that was nearly 6-8 years ago.
AVI files are large and cumbersome. They're still used quite regularly, and are still included in every major software I believe. But I quit using them quite a while back due to how large they are, and how erratic or unpredictable they can be if you're using a very old version of the codec.
Also, I'm assuming due to their size and composition in said codec, that when you are streaming an input source to a capture program that records to AVI, you're computer system has to be rather fast in order for the stream to be captured perfectly at any given moment. Because if the recording is ever interrupted due to an overload of physical memory, then it will likely cut out: leaving you with missing frames or missing chunks, as I believe you described.
I've had a pretty difficult time finding modern capture devices that use A/V cables or Composite Cables. And finding any modern video software that has a capture function is equally as hard, because the software not only has to be able to capture video from a source, but it has to recognize the video source you are actually using. And often my computers don't recognize even the web-cams I've plugged in.
My recent solution to this (I have yet to try it, however) is to make use of modern capture devices intended for Video Game reviews on Youtube. These are specific devices that support most modern game consoles, and allow all footage to be captured in crisp 1080p quality onto a thumb or flash-drive. The video format I believe is the much more versatile h.264 Mpeg format, which is very small in file size as well.
In theory, I should be able to hook up one of these capture devices to my HDCable adapter for Composite cables, which are plugged into my VCR, record the footage onto the flash drive. And then take that flash drive to my computer and copy over the files. These files would likely be much more clean, unbroken, easy to read and playback on any player, and would be editable by any software.
I have plenty of old tapes I'd like to convert to digital, so this would likely be the way I would do it, because anything else has neither proven easy, reliable, or even doable unless you have the right combination of equipment and software. And frankly, using a dedicated device that stands outside of the computer I feel is more reliable than hooking a bunch of cables into the computer and capturing it that way. Because my computer and the software I use is not a well-oiled machine: it would be closer to a Gerry-rigged system made from multiple different parts that work in tandem, and only if you get the right combination of parts does it even work the way you want. Whereas a single specified device intended for capturing live streaming footage would be designed from the get-go to do it's job, and hopefully do it well.
