Blackmagic Forum

Hello,

my VHS recorder is connected per S Video to an Intensity Pro 4K. I'm using Media Express to capture my videos to disk. At the bottom of the captured video is a small stripe where the image has bad colors and is somehow distorted / flickering.

This happens with different recorders. If the recorder is connected to a TV set, no distortions are seen.

My system is a desktop running Linux Mint 20, has 16 GB and an Intel Core i5-8400. I'm using Media Express 3.6.2.

Is this a failure of the Intensity Pro 4K?

(Sorry for my bad english).

No failure. Welcome to the analog world. You need a time base corrector (TBC).

Do you know a TBC suitable for private use?

To stabilize the frames I use until now a Panasic DMR-ES10 DVD recorder berween VHS recorder and Intensity Pro. With that the resulting video was very stable, very good colours and audio was in sync (which wasn't always at the beginning).

That stripe sounds like the overscan lines when you transfer tape. You don't see it on a television set because the television doesn't display those lines. But you do need a time base corrector. I recommend getting a professional one if you can afford it. But you'll need analogue to sdi converter with other connections to make it work properly.

It depends how wide that stripe is. If it's just very few lines, you are right.
But if there is a wider band at the bottom that stretches and moves right and left, it can be a sync problem.

Thanks to all for your replys.

The stripe at the bottom is about 10-12 lines wide. It doesn't move.

gbrand wrote:Thanks to all for your replys.

The stripe at the bottom is about 10-12 lines wide. It doesn't move.

Overscan lines usually will take up the entire width of the screen on the bottom. This sounds like something different. Nonetheless, you need a time base corrector to ensure proper transfers with the Intensity Shuttle.

I use Intensity Pro 4K for capturing from S-VHS without a TBC. The results are excellent! TBC is unnecessary
with Intensity Pro 4K. What you see at the bottom is "Vertical Interval" which is no longer needed with Digital Video.

how long are the tapes that you are transferring Dreamer? From what I hear, a long enough tape will have the audio get out of sync with the video without a tbc.

The height of the stripe is 10-12 lines, not the width. The stripe width is 100%. Sorry for my inaccuracy.

At the beginning (first tapes transferred) audio could get out of sync, but that was independent of tape length. After an update of Media Express (and using another recorder) it disappeared. Tapes of 300 min are transferred with audio in sync.

gbrand wrote:The height of the stripe is 10-12 lines, not the width. The stripe width is 100%. Sorry for my inaccuracy.

At the beginning (first tapes transferred) audio could get out of sync, but that was independent of tape length. After an update of Media Express (and using another recorder) it disappeared. Tapes of 300 min are transferred with audio in sync.

Are you able to post a sample video?
I'm curious to see how it looks. I have done a much more complicated transfer of tapes using a s vhs machine to a snell and wilcox time base corrector to an analog to sdi to teranex av to hdmi to an intensity shuttle to usb 3.0 to a macbook for media express capture. They do look amazing. But im curious if taking out the tbc would help it look better. I must say, with the ternax i was able to delay the audio by 3 frames to help correct for the out of sync picture i was getting without the delay.

Well, a Snell & Wilcox is pure quality. But the For-A should do was well and they are much cheaper second-hand.

As all of the videos converted until now are rather old (80s and 90s), they are no reference for the capabilties of the Intensity Pro card and/or Media Express software. But both are much better as my first attempts with an usb stick (I don't remmeber which one).