Old analogue recordings, bad vertical sync

I am struggling with some old VHS recordings. When played on a TV they look fine, but when imported by DV equipment (DV camera, either recording or passthrough to iMovie) things get jerky. I assume that this is due to bad quality of the original recording, and that the DV camera simply doesn't always understands that a new frame is beginning, and thus it duplicates the previous frame.
The suspicion is strenthened by the existence of an analogue copy of fragments of this tape. That copy was made ten years ago on professional analogue equipment that synced the whole thing anew.
So, I've tried to run the VHS signal (from the original tape) through an old "video stabilizer" (Macro 2000) that I found in a cupboard of mine. It is supposed to regenerate the sync signal, but alas, it didn't help me.
Is there anything I can do, apart from visiting the local TV station and ask them to help?
PowerBook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

Have you tried to adjust the deck heads?
A VHS deck with a timebase corrector TBC might also help. Some SVHS decks have such a feature and maybe some higher-end VHS decks, too.
But even TBC may not do miracles if the tape is bad. So you might want to consult the profs or the TV station, too.
Just make sure you don't spoil the old tape!

Similar Messages

  • Miglia Director's Cut Take 2, old VHS source - vertical sync offset problem

    I'm using a 20" iMac G5 and a Miglia Director's Cut Take 2 to import old family videos from VHS.
    Some of these tapes are up to 21 years old, so they aren't exactly in the best shape. Still, I'm doing everything I can to get them in shape for capturing (including using the original tapes from the VHS camcorder, and exercising the tapes by fast forwarding them to the end then rewinding to the beginning before capturing).
    Unfortunately, I'm having problems with the Director's Cut losing vertical synchronization whenever a worn out bit of the tape causes picture to be glitchy for a few seconds. The Director's Cut doesn't ever "fix" the sync on its own, until the next "glitch" in the tape happens to put it back in sync (or further out of sync).
    This offset basically causes my captured video to have the bottom half of a frame on top, then the VHS head switch noise (which should be on the bottom of the video, not in the middle of it), then the top half of the next frame on the bottom. The VCR's on screen display, when I enable it, is offset too (this happens with both of the VCRs I tested). This means that the sync offset is NOT due to a VCR failing to properly syncronize the video (not to mention the unlikelyhood of that being the problem, due to the way that the VHS standard encodes pictures onto the tape).
    What I find especially strange is that the vertical blanking interval doesn't appear in the middle of the video, right after the VHS head switch noise. The vertical blanking interval lasts for about 30 field lines (60 frame lines once the fields are combined in iMovie), so it should be quite prominent. This leads me to believe that the Director's Cut has managed to sucessfully capture the frames WITH proper vertical synchronization - which is then broken again somewhere between the Director's Cut and iMovie. My theory is that the Director's Cut isn't smart enough to change the read offset in its buffer between its analog to digital converter and its DV encoder. Another possibility: iMovie isn't doing the same thing between its Firewire interface and its DV decoder.
    I can force the Director's Cut Take 2 to "restart" and regain sync by stopping input capture/monitoring in iMovie then starting it again, which also flips the DC2 between "Capture" and "Export" modes. Unfortunately, this is not a real solution for me - I don't want to babysit the computer while I'm importing all these long tapes. Plus, this causes me to lose a few seconds of video.
    I've also tried to find ways to fix this problem using iMovie effect plugins. The closest I've got is using the "Vertical Hold" effect from the free Effects Pack 2 plugins (http://yorgle.cis.rit.edu/Software/iMovie/#dload) by Jerry Lawrence. Unfortunately, this plugin is really only useful for simulating, not correcting, vertical sync problems. It doesn't reference the previous or next frame in the DV file to get the top or bottom half of the picture. This results in a tearing effect, because, after I apply the filter, half of the picture is still from a different "frame" on the VHS tape.
    Is my Director's Cut Take 2 defective, or is this normal behavior for the converter? If this is an unavoidable problem with the converter, is there any iMovie effect plugin that could correct it?
    (If they would be helpful, I can post framegrabs of the DV file, and also framegrabs of the results of trying to use the "Vertical Hold" effect plugin.)
    imac g5 (isight) 2.1ghz (base configuration), miglia director's cut take 2   Mac OS X (10.4.5)  

    Hello, dbloom,
    Is there a particular reason you are using Miglia for VHS conversion/capture?
    I captured my old VHS tapes the way the other poster suggested by recording them onto DV tapes in my camcorder. (My computer setup is not convenient to do any direct connections from a VCR with a converter).Then, I imported the DV tapes to iMovie directly from the camcorder. I had no stoppages of imports/capture; the importing continued as long as my DV tapes, some of which were 80min.
    This method also gives you a digital copy of the original VHS tape. I don't know about yours, but some of mine were getting to be pretty bad. I like having the DV tape of the raw footage to save. The DV versions are actually quite a bit better than the VHS tapes.
    I have made iMovies of our family movies and photos of 15 years so far, burning the final edited versions to DVDs. I think I have made at least 40 movies so far, most of which are nearly 2hrs long. I also save the final movies back to DV tapes so that I have multiple backups of our family movies.
    Just to add my 2 cents worth

  • Overclocking & Vertical sync'ing issue's

    O.K. This post is strictly for braging rights.  I have reached 295mhz FSB with 1.7 voltage at a 5:4 ratio.  I must have had issue's before with vertical sync being disabled.  With memory running further than 220 mhz I would get serious fragmentation with Open GL mostly, but for some reason when vertical sync is enabled, the frag.'s only appear in UI's of Open GL games...  the rest of the game is fine (which I can live with).  Of course your limiting FPS with vertical sync enabled, but really is it all just an illusion past 30 fps anyway?  I can't run this board past 295mhz fsb, but still not bad an OC at all, at least by my standards.
    I am finally satisfied with this boards overclocking abilities, but I do think this issue will also result from D.O.T. and should be addressed in a bios fix, or at least a mention in the motherboard manual.  The threshold for my ram is about 220 with minor artifacts and changing RAM and video cards still had same sync'ing issue's.  Relaxing timings and up'ing voltages had no effect also.  Performance mode becomes disabled at 5:4 so that wasn't a cause either.  Hope this helps.

    Whooops... Ain't it getting steaming and stuffy with 295FSB folding for hours...   Give your CPU a beer for the hard work...

  • Fixing "Herringbone" Colors in old analogue tapes

    FCP 4.5; QT7
    I've been given some old analogue tapes to transfer to DVD.
    No problems with getting them into FCP4.5.
    I've used the 3 way colour corrector's auto options for black, mids and did a manual white balance to get a better looking picture.
    However being old VHS analogue tapes there's what I believe is refferred to has a "herringbone" colour "wash" through the lenght of the recordings even over the black lead in and out. (Sorry it's hard to describe, without a picture).
    OK, if that makes sense, is there anyway to "fix it"?
    thanks all.

    VHS can look great in black & white - it can be surprising how much definition can hide behind the lousy color and artifacts.
    I only bring this up because going B&W will completely remove the pattern as long as you take it as B&W right from the deck. You can do this by simply clipping the C (chroma) wire of a Y/C cable from say an S-VHS deck.
    Even if you don't do the luminance-only thing, the pattern should mostly disappear after being turned into B&W in digital land.
    Not that this is what you wanted...

  • Hi. I habe one old ID and now i have one new ID. The old one is bad , because the Email not working. But i hav a lot of Apps and i want to copy this apps in my new ID. How can i do this?

    Hi. I habe one old ID and now i have one new ID. The old one is bad , because the Email not working. But i hav a lot of Apps and i want to copy this apps in my new ID. How can i do this?

    You don't. Apps are permanently tied to the ID used to purchase them. Instead of creating a new ID, change the primary email address on your existing ID.

  • HT1692 How do I get my old contacts that were last synced on my ITunes account through my laptop (USB) to my new iPad ? I no longer have a laptop just my iPad mini.

    How do I get my old contacts that were last synced on my ITunes account through my laptop (USB) to my new iPad ? I no longer have a laptop just my iPad mini.

    So the contacts were synced to the computer you no longer have?  You could use a free app like MCBackup and email the contacts from the ipad to yourself and open the email on your  phone and then import the contacts from the email to the phone

  • I currently have an old work phone that is synced to my iPad. I would like to delete the old work phone number from my iCloud without having to contact my previous employer. Is there a way to do this and replace it with my personal iPhone?

    I currently have an old work phone that is synced to my iPad. I would like to delete the old work phone number from my iCloud without having to contact my previous employer. Is there a way to do this from my ipad and replace it with my personal iPhone?

    Hi Ktchast,
    Welcome to the Support Communities!
    The article below may be able to help you with this issue.
    Click on the link to see more details and screenshots. 
    Frequently asked questions about Apple ID
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5622
    An Apple ID is a user name you use for everything you do with Apple. Creating an account for an Apple service, such as the iTunes Store or the App Store, creates an Apple ID. Apple ID allows you to access other Apple services. You don't have to create a new account for each service—just use your Apple ID.
    How do I change my Apple ID Name or personal information?
    You can change your Apple ID Name at My Apple ID. Click on Manage your Apple ID and sign in with your Apple ID name and password. Click Edit and enter the new information, then click Save Changes. Changes take effect immediately. You can also use My Apple ID to change your personal information, such as your mailing address or email address. See Changing the name you use for your Apple ID if you'd like more information.
    Cheers,
    - Judy

  • HT4527 how to transfer info to a mac book pro from a pc i need to get my iTunes and other iTunes related items off of my old computer so i can sync my phone and get my music

    how to transfer info to a mac book pro from a pc i need to get my iTunes and other iTunes related items off of my old computer so i can sync my phone and get my music.
    I have already tranferd some info to an external hard drive i just need to get my itune items. also i have heard if you plug your phone to a differnt computer you lose of you information.
    i need help please.

    The tv is a extended display on your mac like a second moitor you want to mirror them (same thing on both)
    This should help you

  • Vertical sync?

    I've got my primary display setup as my external video output (apple+F12) so i can preview my sequence in full screen on the monitor I'm using. But when i switch into this mode, and previewing my sequence fullscreen, I'm getting some vertical sync issues.... horizontal tearing because the video playback isn't sync'd to the monitors refresh rate.
    is there a vertical sync toggle in FCP anywhere?
    thanks!

    Have you tried changing the settings found in the QuickTime Control Panel?
    I also suggest checking for updates to your video card drivers.
    Hope this helps.

  • Apple 30 Inch Vertical Sync and Hoeiz Refresh Rates

    I am trying to figure out the exact Vertical Sync and Horizontal Refresh Rates.
    I have a dual boot setup with OS X and Ubuntu Linux on my G5 PpwerMac
    I know that the Dell 30" is pretty close ( which I am using now ) but I don't want to damage my Display by using the wrong specs.
    So If anyone knows the sync and refresh rates it would really be appreciated.

    Here is a section from the 30" Cinema's EDID data that has the info you want:
    Descriptor #1 is Timing definition:
    Mode = 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz
    H. Active...............2560 pixels
    H. Blanking.............160 pixels
    V. Active...............1600 lines
    V. Blanking.............46 lines
    HSync Offset............48 pixels
    HSync Pulse Width.......32 pixels
    VSync Offset............3 lines
    VSync Pulse Width.......6 lines
    Pixel Clock.............268.00MHz
    Horizontal freq.........98.53kHz
    Vertical freq...........59.86Hz
    H Image Size............641mm
    V Image Size............401mm
    H Border................0 pixels
    V Border................0 lines
    Non-Interlaced
    Sync: Digital separate with
    * Positive vertical polarity
    * Negative horizontal polarity

  • Disable vertical sync in fullscreen

    Hello,
    I have a game that runs in both windowed and fullscreen modes. I am able to switch dynamically between them while the game is running. When in windowed mode, the game runs very quickly. When in fullscreen, it runs significantly slower. When it's switched back to windowed, it runs quickly again.
    It's been suggested that the cause may be that the page flipping in fullscreen exclusive mode is based on the sync rate of the display. Is there a way to disable vertical sync?
    Thank you.

    Maxideon wrote:
    Painting in fullscreen mode should be handled slightly different then painting in windowed mode.
    http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/extra/fullscreen/rendering.html
    Are you sure that it's not the mechanism in which you are painting that is causing the slow down in fullscreen mode?
    As for actually disabling vertical sync, I don't know if java can do that. I'm not even sure if it's enabled, or if there's any way to query if java is doing vertical sync or not. I am curious, though, as to what this method does
    java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().sync();
    Thank you for your reply. I'm already using active rendering for both windowed and fullscreen modes. Since I'm drawing the entire contents of the window, I figured it would be easier to use active rendering with a Canvas. The drawing code is the same for the fullscreen and windowed modes.

  • Vertically sync time position for two or more 2D axis systems?

    In DIAdem: VIEW,
    Is it possible to vertically sync the time position for two or more 2D axis system charts placed above each other?
    I have displayed several channels on one 2D chart, and one channel of particular interest on a separate chart above, which was very easy to do. It would be really useful to sync the time position on both charts, such that scrolling one chart also scrolls the second chart, or zooming one chart also zooms the second chart to the same area, which seems like a fairly basic thing to want to do, but I haven't found a way to do it yet.
    Any help greatly appreciated!
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    Hi Brad,
    Yes, I have been using that method, which works fine up to a point.
    But, say you have several curves displayed on the bottom chart, with the Y-Axis set to "n Y-axes", then the start of the x-axis will be further across to the right than the top chart which has only one curve displayed.
    It is possible to add an empty area to the left of the top chart, to push the start of the x-axis across into alignment (see attached), but every time you add or remove a curve on the bottom chart, or the scale changes enough to add a digit, the start of the x-axis moves and the top chart needs aligning again.
    I'm really after a method to lock both ends of both x-axes to the same vertical screen position, so everything stays aligned automatically?
    Attachments:
    chart - full.JPG ‏152 KB
    chart - detail.JPG ‏145 KB

  • Reading monitor vertical sync time

    I'm using Labview 5.1 in Win98. I'm writing a program for a psychology experiment where a subject responds to events on screen, and we record the response time in milliseconds. Response is recorded by a NI digital I/O card.
    I'd like to synchronise graphic drawing on screen with the vertical flyback of the monitor (the vertical sync pulse), or alternatively, be able to read the millisecond counter value at the last vertical interval. Is there any way of doing this, maybe with a Windows API call?

    Is there some sort of hardware signal that would accompany the vertical sync pulse? If you can get a hardware signal, synchronizing things will be much easier. I've never tried anything like this, but I can imagine several problems trying to do it through software. For one, I would bet that the type of functionality you want would be controlled by the graphics and video drivers, which means that you could not get it from a Windows API. Even if you could create a windows event for it, by the time you captured the event in your control software, you will have already lost several microseconds.

  • Vertical Sync / Shearing problem

    Hey Guys,
    This has been a problem for me that comes and goes, it seems:
    If you move an object across the screen in a long tween, it
    'shears' or 'tares' as it moves; it's the same effect as when you
    don't have vertical sync, as if one part of the object is moving
    before the rest of it has a chance to be updated, so it moves in
    jagged parts. I've tried this with both pixel graphics and vector
    symbols.
    Help? :P
    Thanks
    -Chuck

    60 fps is a lot to ask the player to redraw - i'm curious
    about the panarama project - i'm sure
    there's a difference as one project uses a tween and the
    other ActionScript.
    All in all - the alpha in your bitmap and the 60fps frame
    rate may be taxing the player - but it's
    still no guarantee that you will see better results at say
    30fps. Still hard to provide any real
    solutions without seeing what you are seeing.
    Chris Georgenes
    Animator
    http://www.mudbubble.com
    http://www.keyframer.com
    Adobe Community Expert
    *\^^/*
    (OO)
    <---->
    Fen4 wrote:
    > Unfortunately no, I don't have access to the server at
    the moment. Yes, I fully
    > understand that Flash renders in realtime, but the
    animation is quite simple;
    > just an image of a satellite passing across the stage.
    The stage size is
    > 750x400, and I'm running a beast of a computer (Dual
    Core P2.1 Duo, 2 gigs of
    > memory). I'm animating it at 60 frames per second, but
    it doesn't seem to
    > matter what I try it at. I'm just viewing the the
    preview swf in flash player,
    > so really it's the best possible conditions. The graphic
    is a PNG with
    > transparency, but I've tried the same thing with just a
    vector-drawn bar and
    > I'm having the same result. When I say 'vertical sync'
    I'm not talking about
    > when video flips. It's a shearing effect that creates
    steps in the graphic
    > height wise.
    >
    > What's really frustrating is I'm also building another
    project that pans a
    > massive (3000x1000) image around by using the mouse,
    panorama style, and it's
    > smooth as silk. It can't be a performance issue in my
    mind, if this runs great.
    > The only difference is that the panorama animation is
    controlled by
    > actionscript.
    >
    > Any ideas?
    >

  • Vertical sync / frame sync in Quicktime

    I've noticed a very annoying thing with Quicktime on Windows. When displaying full screen or in a window, it doesn't seem to update the image synchronously with the monitor refresh rate. I get a lot of tearing because the frame updates in the middle of the refresh (so the top portion of the screen is from a previous frame, and the bottom portion is from the new frame). Quicktime on my Mac mini doesn't have this problem.
    It's quite annoying as the tearing is visually distracting. It really needs to wait for the vertical sync of the monitor to update the image. Does anyone know if there is a setting to enable this in Quicktime for Windows?
    Does apple purposely make the Mac version superior?

    Have you tried changing the settings found in the QuickTime Control Panel?
    I also suggest checking for updates to your video card drivers.
    Hope this helps.

Maybe you are looking for