CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[nettwerkjohn]

As it says, whats the best scaler for vhs and betamax? I have both plugged into my receiver currently, but it annoyingly drops signal every few minutes, so i'm looking for something to hopefully convert my legacy sources to HDMI, reliably

[wanderer]

It's probably the lack of a TBC that's causing it to lose sync. As for what's the 'best' scaler I don't think anyone will ever agree on that one.

You could have a look at the Retrotink line of scalers. Has a TBC in most of them, is always in development so things can improve where needed. Scaler function can be just to duplicate the pixels in doubling, etc, so no interpolation, so everything does not blur with the interpolation. These scalers have lots of options with them. I'm using a Retrotink 4K on my CRT at the moment.

Lots of demo videos on Youtube - VHS Star Wars trailer on a Retrotink 5X: https://youtu.be/m7Rvfyng7D4?t=174

[virusc]

If you watch a lot of VHS/Beta I would consider getting a pro deck that is in good shape and low hours to then go to a video processor. It says you are from New Zealand. What format are you NTSC/PAL? and what is the power there?

[nettwerkjohn]

I don't watch a lot of material on tape, but last time I tried, my receiver kept losing sync.

Even split of PAL/NTSC.

Just bought a Kramer VP-728 for its time based correction, will use it to feed a 480P signal to my receiver.

Players are Sony ED Beta and Mitsubishi S-VHS. Also have a panasonic DVD writer, so if this works ok I'll transcribe my tape to DVD

I'm currently at sea, so won't get to see how the Kramer performs for about another 4 weeks...

[AnalogRocks]

The Kramer should help considerably if not eliminate the issue entirely.

In lieu of that a simple macrovision decoder box in line off the composite line will go along way to keeping sync.
Although using ED-Beta and SVHS you will likely want to use the S-Video outputs so something like a CT-2000FC GoDV box may be a better choice.

I had sync issues on my Sony D50 through a SONY switcher with the 480P scaler card in it until I put the Macrovision box in line with the VCR.

[AnalogRocks]

The Kramer should help considerably if not eliminate the issue entirely.

In lieu of that a simple macrovision decoder box in line off the composite line will go along way to keeping sync.
Although using ED-Beta and SVHS you will likely want to use the S-Video outputs so something like a CT-2000FC GoDV box may be a better choice.

I had sync issues on my Sony D50 through a SONY switcher with the 480P scaler card in it until I put the Macrovision box in line with the VCR.

[nettwerkjohn]

The Kramer works perfectly.

Watched "Never cry Wolf", had been wanting to see it since it came out. I remember the artwork from the video store I worked in when i was 14 (like nearly 40 years ago).

Then tried my original release of Alien - tracking all over the place so back on the shelf. Then wife and I settled in to Flashdance. All on Beta.

Gotta admit, image not that flash on 120" wide screen, but still watchable.