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Converting VHS into DVD - questions


Hello guys,

I just got 3 VHSs of mine converted into DVDs.

I have some questions:

1- The 3 VHSs have been recorded in 1994, 1998 and 2001. They depict concerts filmed by a normal, small videocam. The 1998 one looks the worst out of the bunch. How much time does it take for a VHS to decay and be "ruined" by video noise? Just wondering... I'm afraid I converted these way too late. If I did this in 2005, would it be different then? :(

2- The picture quality features discontinued white orizzontal lines and other video noise of different kinds. Is that connected to the tape of the VHS and its natural decay, or the videorecorder used to "read" it?

Thank you so much.

http://evildeadarmyofdarkness.blogspot.com - The BEST Evil Dead Timeline in history.

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It may be that the relatively poor image quality of VHS is just being highlighted by conversion to DVD.
I had VHS tapes for many years which never showed any signs of deterioration.

"Say it with flowers . . . give her a Triffid."

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1- The 3 VHSs have been recorded in 1994, 1998 and 2001. They depict concerts filmed by a normal, small videocam. The 1998 one looks the worst out of the bunch. How much time does it take for a VHS to decay and be "ruined" by video noise? Just wondering... I'm afraid I converted these way too late. If I did this in 2005, would it be different then? :(
A. Well, if you maintained a first class videotape library, with a temperature of 70°F a humidity of 50% and protection from incidental RF energy that might affect the magnetic particles all those years, your prospects would be pretty good, depending on the quality and condition of the original tape stock, and how well you cared for the individual tapes over the decades.

I'm guessing that your tape archival practices fall quite a bit short of this. So if you can't really quantify the various contributing factors, there's really no way that anyone can quantify what you should expect. What you have is what you have, and there's no point in comparing that to what might be.


2- The picture quality features discontinued white orizzontal lines and other video noise of different kinds. Is that connected to the tape of the VHS and its natural decay, or the videorecorder used to "read" it?
I don't know what any of that means. It seems that we have a language barrier. All I can say is that VHS was never intended to have spectacular picture fidelity. If that was important to you, you should have used better gear to begin with. Now it's too late. Sorry.

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2- The picture quality features discontinued white orizzontal lines and other video noise of different kinds. Is that connected to the tape of the VHS and its natural decay, or the videorecorder used to "read" it?

This seems to me proper English. Anyway, I was asking: is video noise caused by the videorecorder used to play/rewatch the tape over the years or by the quality of the tape itself?

I rewatched the digital files. 1994 and 2001 are really fine. Of course, there's no pristine definition and the image looks a bit blurred. All in all, they are good. 1998 is terrible quality, too much blurred. I don't know, maybe it's related to the way the tape has been filmed.

http://evildeadarmyofdarkness.blogspot.com - The BEST Evil Dead Timeline in history.

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It could be the camcorder used and the no doubt poor concert lighting, which caused the camera's electronic gain to ratchet up to max, causing that horrendous grain.

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