VHS to digital hardware questions

[SuperCookie78]

At the moment I am considering converting all of my VHS tapes to digital files. After doing some research I have come to a roadblock. The first is what type of hardware to get. The two main types are usb capture devices and the second dedicated pcie expansion cards.

Spoiler

USB cable

 

 

PCIE Card

 With the USB cables they tend to be cheaper, off brand going for $30-$50 and the elgato going for $65. The PCIE cards go for $150. With the USB ones I often see people complaining about video quality. I really just want to get this right the first time and not have to go through returns. 

My second concern is software. The brands i'm looking at are Elgato, StarTech.com, Diamond, and Hauppauge. With the elgato I know the software will be fine but they are on the expensive side and only have a usb version. With Startech.com and Hauppauge I'm worried that their software will be unusable. 

Spoiler

Links for products:
Hauppauge Colossus 2

StarTech USB S-Video and Composite

StarTech USB 3.0 Device

StarTech PCIE 30fps

StarTech PCIE 60fps

Elgato USB

Diamond VC500 USB 2.0

So my questions.

1. Which type of device should I get?

2. Which brand of the three i mentioned get?

3. Have you used any of the products I have mentioned?

[PlayStation 2]

That Diamond card I've heard works really well, especially for Macrovision-encoded stuff. I mention that because it could make a strange difference for non-Macrovision tapes, namely home videos.

USB capture cards are generally fine, just don't go for shitty EasyCaps.

Word of advice if you want to capture tapes, use VirtualDub. It tends to be pretty good, and allows for you to edit the video and, more importantly, re-render it with frame-doubled deinterlacing if necessary.

[SuperCookie78]

1 hour ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

That Diamond card I've heard works really well, especially for Macrovision-encoded stuff. I mention that because it could make a strange difference for non-Macrovision tapes, namely home videos.

USB capture cards are generally fine, just don't go for shitty EasyCaps.

Word of advice if you want to capture tapes, use VirtualDub. It tends to be pretty good, and allows for you to edit the video and, more importantly, re-render it with frame-doubled deinterlacing if necessary.

Does the Macrovision-encoded stuff include VHS tapes or just DVDs? And is the frame-doubling necessary because VHS tapes are usually recorded at 25 or 30 fps? With the Diamond stuff is the software good? Lastly should i steer clear of the other brands i mentioned (except elgato)?

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, SuperCookie78 said:

Does the Macrovision-encoded stuff include VHS tapes or just DVDs? And is the frame-doubling necessary because VHS tapes are usually recorded at 25 or 30 fps? With the Diamond stuff is the software good? Lastly should i steer clear of the other brands i mentioned (except elgato)?

Just VHS tapes generally.

 

Frame doubling in the context of interlaced context can be used to basically interpolate fields in a more proper fashion as interlaced content (in the NTSC context) is recorded at 59.94 fields per second.

With no deinterlacing (or blend deinterlacing) applied, this will simply become 29.97fps. Certain deinterlacing techniques will interpolate every alternating field to produce a 59.94fps image, not unlike what a CRT television (or a good comb filter on a TV) would show.

 

I've heard the Diamond software is okay. Whether you want to use that or something else is up to you.

 

 

Both the Startech and Hauppauge cards are fine, but unless your VCR (or really, VHS/DVD combo) has a Component output, there's no real point in them.

 

[AshleyAshes]

You should also considder the quality of the VCR that's playing back the tapes.  Something I learned in the film industry: Shit In, Shit Out

So the better you get stuff in in the first place, the better it looks at the end.