Video capture freezing

tim-wood wrote on 3/18/2018, 8:10 PM

Generally, RYV works great, but sometimes when I'm capturing a video tape, it freezes. The preview image area goes black, but the time of the video capture continues to run and the video continues to play on the VCR. If I stop recording, the recording ends at the point that it froze. I don't think it's the tape or the VCR, as I've been able to do a complete capture on a tape that failed previously. Any thoughts on what may be causing this? There is plenty of room to store the recording on the hard drive, so I don't think that's the problem.

Comments

emmrecs wrote on 3/19/2018, 4:56 AM

@tim-wood

Welcome to the Magix forums

Any thoughts on what may be causing this?.

Yes! The successful capture of analogue video recordings in order to digitise them in a computer very much demands a continuous sync pulse signal be present on the original tape and be transmitted by your video player; without this pulse, the receiving software, in your case, Rescue Your Video Tapes, has no reference to enable it to ensure that audio and video are in sync. When the sync pulse "fails", for whatever reason, the capture stops! As you've seen, (by the fact that I've been able to do a complete capture on a tape that failed previously) such "failures" can be completely random.

I transfer VHS, and other analogue formats, to computer for later transfer to DVD for paying clients. Without wishing to sound in any way superior, I use rather more sophisticated hardware and software than RYVT and I, too, meet this problem quite regularly! In my case, I tend to restart the transfer from just before the point at which the stop originally occurred, and then edit together the resulting files in order to create a continuous whole. However, if the transfer keeps stopping, perhaps every few seconds, the only solution I have found which is reasonably certain to keep the transfer running is to use a device called a Time Base Corrector, which sits in the signal line between the video player and the computer and corrects/generates the sync pulse needed by the computer. I'm not sure whether it is possible to insert any type of technology between the output of the player and the input to RYVT? Even if it were, the cost of a TBC is not inconsiderable!

Sorry to not be able to offer more hopeful advice!

Jeff

johnebaker wrote on 3/19/2018, 10:27 AM

@tim-wood

To add to Jeff's comment:

Video tapes are a poor medium for longevity the quality of the signal is affected/influenced by several factors:

sticking and 'print through', especially if they are old and have not be wound / rewound regularly
aging resulting in loss of information recorded on the tape
loss of recorded information if not stored away from magnetic fields, heat sources etc
the heads of the VCR are worn/wearing

Any combination of the above will result in distortion/drops in the video signal and/or loss of sync which can give recording issues as you are experiencing or poor quality recordings.

HTH

John EB