Composite cleans up old VHS better than S-video?

[erikl7]

I'm trying to capture a bunch of grainy old VHS home movies that were dubbed using very low-quality cables and a low quality VCR from Sony 8mm to VHS in the early 1990s. The tapes definitely display some color banding and flickering (flashing rainbow effect), and I'd hoped the ADVC300's "3D Y/C Separation" would help clean this up.

However, the VCR I'm planning to use for playback has S-Video outputs, which, while theoretically higher quality than composite/RCA video, CANNOT make use of the ADVC300's Y/C Separation (because S-Video already carries the Y and C separately).

Here's my question: Would I get better cleaning up of the VHS tapes if I used COMPOSITE instead of S-Video cables?

The Sony 8mm tapes were originally dubbed to VHS using low-quality composite cables, so I'd imagine they suffered a lot of damage as they were written to tape using the low quality VCR.

If by using a composite cable instead of S-Video to transfer the tapes to the ADVC300, would the "3D Y/C Separation" undo some of the damage done by the ORIGINAL composite dubbing?

Thank you.

[antonsvideo]

S-Video will be better because there is no need to split a signal that is already split

if using composite, you need to split and degrade quality

ideally, start shopping for a good TBC with NR

[GrassValley_BH]

The only time to even consider using Composite over S-Video is if the original source recording was stored in a composite manner (this has nothing to do with the original video signal input), for example, a laserdisc, and even then, usually S-Video is still better because of the better signal preservation along the signal path.

[aventhus]

I'm trying to capture a bunch of grainy old VHS home movies that were dubbed using very low-quality cables and a low quality VCR from Sony 8mm to VHS in the early 1990s. The tapes definitely display some color banding and flickering (flashing rainbow effect), and I'd hoped the ADVC300's "3D Y/C Separation" would help clean this up.

However, the VCR I'm planning to use for playback has S-Video outputs, which, while theoretically higher quality than composite/RCA video, CANNOT make use of the ADVC300's Y/C Separation (because S-Video already carries the Y and C separately).

Here's my question: Would I get better cleaning up of the VHS tapes if I used COMPOSITE instead of S-Video cables?

The Sony 8mm tapes were originally dubbed to VHS using low-quality composite cables, so I'd imagine they suffered a lot of damage as they were written to tape using the low quality VCR.

If by using a composite cable instead of S-Video to transfer the tapes to the ADVC300, would the "3D Y/C Separation" undo some of the damage done by the ORIGINAL composite dubbing?

Thank you.

I have done this myself with from a scart (video) to svideo (pc) you just have to make sure you have a two way cable as some are only one way. I got mine from www.thegadgetshop.net it is called the TV KIT.

[JackB]

The only time to even consider using Composite over S-Video is if the original source recording was stored in a composite manner (this has nothing to do with the original video signal input), for example, a laserdisc, and even then, usually S-Video is still better because of the better signal preservation along the signal path.

Can you clarify this for me, as it seems to contradict something I was told on the forums a couple of years ago.

Are you saying that a VHS video tape should be played out on an SVHS player through an S-VIDEO cable to ther ADVC? This will give better quality than composite from a high quality (but not S-VIDEO) player to the ADVC?

In the past I was told to use composite out of the vcr unless I thought the Y/C separation by the VCR was significantly better than that provided by the ADVC?

[GrassValley_BH]

In the past I was told to use composite out of the vcr unless I thought the Y/C separation by the VCR was significantly better than that provided by the ADVC?

That is correct, as long as the recorded signal (on tape, disc or whatever) is not already Y/C separated, then composite is a "straight off the media" signal. If the playback device has a better Y/C separation circuit than the receiver, then it is advantageous to separate on the player and use S-Video, otherwise it is better to let the receiving device do the Y/C separation and use composite.

If the recorded signal is Y/C separated, then S-Video will always provide a better transfer since the signal is not Y/C combined then separated again.

Avoiding any unnecessary combination/separation steps is akin to avoiding any unnecessary compression/decompression steps. The more you can avoid, the better the final signal or image quality, at least from a technical point of view.