Blackmagic Forum

I recently bought the Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle (Thunderbolt version) to capture old VHS footage through the S-Video input. I'm using the latest version of Media Express (and Video Desktop).

During capturing, depending on the tape, i get dropouts (black frames). Some tapes work fine, others don’t. It’s not the VCR, because when i hook it up to my TV, it runs fine. The same happens when i try to access the menu on the VCR. It seems like the Shuttle can’t handle something that is slightly out of spec?

Does anybody know what is causing this, or an alternative to capture from the Shuttle which won’t drop frames?

I'm on the “trashcan” Mac running El Capitan. Drives are fast enough to capture every format.

Thank you.

This is typical of VHS tapes, they loose their time code track, and then yiu see drop,out. Also, older tapes will have drop,out caused by wear in the tape, similar to dropped frames. Both will cause the digital capture to stop. You need to get a good Broadcast style Time Bas Corrector, that will fix these issues and give yiu a continuous signal to the Shuttle. Go to the Live Production form and search on transferring VHS tapes or VHS and TBC. This will bring up the many previous discussions on this issue.
Cheers

Thank you for your answer. It still doesn't explain why i can't see the VCR menu, however.

Also, my VCR equipped with TBC (a JVC HR8600), or would this not be sufficient?

No, that was barely sufficient for a CRT Monitor and analog equipment (tape to tape editing).
As for the deck menu, it is probably being blocked by the card. Try displaying the deck to an old crt monitor. I have several laying around for that purpose. I have a spare Sony 8-inch field monitor available if you are interested.
Cheers

Denny Smith wrote:Try displaying the deck to an old crt monitor.

Thanks, yes i hooked it up to a CRT and that showed the VCR settings (wanted to check the settings before capturing).

Okay, so i have to accept the blackouts (unless buying an expensive broadcast grade TBC)?

Capturing with other software than Media Express won't show the dropped frames either?

No, and no. You can get a used Broadcast type TBC on eBay for reasonable prices.
I got a Snell and Wilcox Kudo, works well. Sony made one , as did Digital Processing Systems, and the Datavideo TBC-1000 should do the trick.
Cheers

Denny Smith wrote:No, and no. You can get a used Broadcast type TBC on eBay for reasonable prices.
I got a Snell and Wilcox Kudo, works well. Sony made one , as did Digital Processing Systems, and the Datavideo TBC-1000 should do the trick.
Cheers

Alright, gonna look those up. Thank you for all your help!

Hi,

Just wondering if these suggestions helped as I've encountered the same problem. Did you end up buying the Datavideo TBC-1000?

Cheers

Hi! I'm also wondering if this worked for you, as I'm currently trying to figure out ways to fix this. One suggestion I found was to use a AV2HDMI converter, but when I have that in my "lineup" and hooked up, Media Express does not want to capture anything. I'm going to keep playing around with it, but just curious how this worked out for you?

Hi, I have had the same problem with lost frames, but at the moment I have a working solution. My VHS video JVC J-HR748 is giving me SCART output and I convert that signal to HDMI with a converter to approx $ 100 from a shop i Norway called Kjell. I am using an older version and have not testet this newer version. The product is not from Norway and I don't se the product name.
The HDMI signal goes then to HDMI input on my USB Intensity Shuttle and Media Express. It works for me.

Cheers

+1
Quick update. After a long and uneven fight with my Intensity Shuttle and Media Express, I bought a cheap AV to HDMI converter. Of course, the Intensity Shuttle was again quite picky and didn't want to take the signal. I used a dirt-cheap no-name USB capture card and OBS to capture my VHS. Everything worked flawlessly, and the converter even upscaled the footage to 1080p. Again it proved to me how unresponsive and unfriendly the Shuttle is. And what about Media Express? This Software is so bad that it hurts. I remembered the days when I used the buggy Intensity Shuttle and Media Expres for streaming and had to constantly plug the Shuttle into different USB ports with the hope that it will run and also restart Media Express multiple times. So my advice is that if you want to capture some old VHS tapes and just use them for general purposes don't use the Shuttle and Media Express!

All the best,
Milen

There's nothing wrong with the Intensity Shuttle, the analog video signal of VHS or any analog tape format is not stable enough to transfer/capture to digital format also the colour information is "weak" and needs the correct way to decode to a digital format, (some vcr menus are not of any standard) most cheap converters will only convert to Widescreen, which the Intensity Shuttle does not, Most important is to have a device that will have some sort of TBC function, the real "good?" ones are mostly pro models, and where meant for use in studios or local tv stations in the US, also in combination with genlocks I guess.... but these are kept very expensive by the internet sharks, due to that they are very old and rare, and also refurbished to very great extend, because of degraded components, which is also still going on for the other components...

Better try to find a suitable passthrough device, most of the time this will be a (Panasonic) dvd-recorder or combo recorder,
if these are not available, a DV device in the form of a Digital8, minDV, or ADVC "box" will also work, the ADVC box is preferred, it can be set to specific features of the video signal. it can also generate a colour video test signal.
Some of the Panasonic dvd recorders or combo recorders have the VHS fresh "feature" (the DMR-ES35V has it for sure) which works better than the TBC feature on JVC vcr's

Using a computer PC or MAC to capture is just not a good idea in this age, most new (consumer) capture devices are crap, or the rare one that does a good job, needs an operating system downgrade because the lack of driver support on the recent operating system,
even the Intensity Shuttle does not work on a MAC with M1/M2 chips, not to speak about thunderbolt 2 support, USB3 is a better option.
To record by SDI/HDMI is a better option, once the analog signal I stable, you can convert and record with devices from Blackmagic Design, (or pro HDMI input cards) only ..... when firmware updates are needed, (needing a computer to do that) one has to be careful, and look from which "generation" both device and computer/laptop are, for drivers, and OS, they all should be of the same age, otherwise a bricked device can be the result, is my experience.