- Diamond vc500 reviews movie#
- Diamond vc500 reviews install#
- Diamond vc500 reviews manual#
- Diamond vc500 reviews software#
- Diamond vc500 reviews Pc#
I also used a non-destructive MPEG editor to do any editing (Womble). To get the file off the Panny I transferred it to either DVD-R or DVDROM, shoved it in the PC's DVD drive and extracted the MPEG2 file with 'DVD Ripper' or something (it was a while ago!).
Diamond vc500 reviews Pc#
No sync issues, dropped frames or artifacting plus the PC isn't tied up while doing the transfer (even breathing on the PC while it was capturing via the Hauppauge could cause errors).
Diamond vc500 reviews software#
There are some excellent software options for this stage. This still kept it oversampled but reduced file size accordingly. The end product usually ended up on DVD with animated menus, upgraded audio (sometimes dual audio) so sometimes I'd have to downsample the video a bit to fit everything on one disc (and keep the overall bitrate compliant - dual PCM audio takes up a fair slice). The only 'downside' was that you ended up with a bigger file than absolutely necessary due to the 'oversampling' that isn't really required with VHS quality. The Panny's onboard encoder made a great job of it (there was no difference between the capture and the original tape). It was just a matter of hooking the VHS to the Panasonic, setting the Panny on the highest quality settings (including PCM wav audio) and then pressing 'play' on one device and 'record' on the other. This was to end up with a (at first VCD) DVD complaint file (MPEG2).Īll I can tell you is that my life became infinately less stressful when I bought a hardware Panasonic DVD recorder (DMR something or other). I messed about with transfering VHS to digital for years, at first using the fairly low-spec PC I had, a Hauppauge analogue TV card (with 3rd-party driver) and a version of Virtualdub (Vdubmod). But almost any TBC will do the job you want, and you should be able to adapt them with a couple of BNC to RCA adapters.
![diamond vc500 reviews diamond vc500 reviews](https://z6x8b9i8.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/DIAMOND-VC500-CAPTURE-CARD-16-min.jpg)
These were incredibly popular because they were priced for the "prosumer" market created by the NewTek Video Toaster. It's average quality, but what I like about it is that it can handle two different TBCs in one case only one rack unit high, and it weighs a fraction of what any normal TBC weighs.Ī company called Leitch bought DPS. Here's the TBC I use for dubbing my old tapes. A lot of them also have the ability to freeze video.
![diamond vc500 reviews diamond vc500 reviews](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/R0MAAOSwaD1g7nUc/s-l225.jpg)
Diamond vc500 reviews manual#
Most of the TBCs ever made also have manual controls to adjust the picture Brightness, Contrast, Color and Tint. When new, these things were very expensive, but since the advent of HD, they are pretty much boat anchors. What you need is a device known as a "Time Base Corrector". If you feed it directly into any capture device, you're going to have dropped frames. The main problem anybody has when dubbing VHS tapes to computer is that the signal from a VHS tape is basically unstable. Whatever device you're considering, that forum will probably have some good info about it. It's worked great for me, but apparently there have been numerous versions of it, some of which are problematic. I noticed some people reporting problems with the VC500 that I've been using.
![diamond vc500 reviews diamond vc500 reviews](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71mE3m8lCOL._AC_SL1446_.jpg)
There's a forum called "digitalfaq" that has a wealth of info on this: Capture, Record, Transfer - The Digital FAQĮDIT: after posting this, I briefly perused the digitalFAQ forum, which I haven't looked at in a while.
Diamond vc500 reviews install#
You might still need to install the included software for the drivers. So whatever device you get, I would find out if it works with VirtualDub (I think most devices do), and use that. Basically, all the "noise" in the signal creates a visual wasteland of compression artifacts.
![diamond vc500 reviews diamond vc500 reviews](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SouH9JzS2mQ/mqdefault.jpg)
but if anything the opposite is true: low-resolution analog media are severely degraded by compression. The underlying fallacy is that since VHS is low resolution to begin with, there's no need to capture at a high bit rate. Even if it gives you a range of quality settings, none of them are likely to be very good. The software included with the VC500 (and probably any similar device) compresses heavily during capture. So, I capture with virtualdub, then convert with avidemux, with very good results.
Diamond vc500 reviews movie#
This produces enormous files- a 90 minute movie might be 50gb or more- but you can then convert that file to a smaller compressed version, with dramatically better results than compressing during capture. The reason VirtualDub is so important in this equation is because it gives you total control of the video compression, even allowing uncompressed capture. IF you disregard the included software and instead use a free open-source program called VirtualDub. I use a Diamond VC500 USB system, which I think goes for around $40. I've been doing a bit of VHS digitizing in the past couple of years.