Recommend a lossless TV capture card

In the near future I'm looking to convert over a few VHS tapes I've had lying around. I've got an SVHS VCR which seems to be producing half decent results, given what it's got to work with. But the Hauppauge card I've got only does MPEG2 compression. Does anyone know of any cards that will let me record in lossless AVI (eg Huffyuv codec)? I don't know whether I can do much to improve the picture but ideally I'd like to be working in a format that gives me the best chance.

I've looked on the likes of videohelp.com/doom9 but the posts are either too old or tailed to the US and just don't seem to have a definitive answer.

Cheers, Asa

Not lossless, but I use one of these and within the options, there's the ability to set the bit rate for MPEG2 recordings to a level that's higher than that which you really need eg 9000kbps. I think at that sort of bitrate, it will be the quality of the recording, tape and player heads which will dictate the output rather than the encoding.

http://www.theidentgallery.com/misc/misc/cenisent.mpg (Recorded from VHS, my SVHS has finally died...)

This HD capture device will output in a lossless format with both HD and SD inputs. It's not cheap, but it's effective. You might want to check up on the specifics, but it seems like it would do the job.

If encoding with a lossless AVI codec is a must, and ideally if your VCR has an RGB Scart Out, using a Sweetspot PDI with the appropriate cable and and capturing in DScaler will do this. I'd take care to make sure you've got enough processing power and aren't running much else in the background. just to be on the safe side and avoid dropped frames.

While that'll definitely allow to you go in, select Huffyuv or any other lossless AVI codec and capture in RGB, it's not exactly cheap. And I would say there are probably better alternatives that, while they may be a little more compressed, will look the same - at least to the human eye.

If your computer has a Firewire input - some have it built-in as standard - you may want to consider taking advantage and encoding to high quality DV, with the single addition of an analog-to-digital convertor box between VCR and computer. This would take the VCR signal and convert to a DV output, which can then be passed to the PC's port (captured with for example WinDV software). This gives a very high bitrate DV file and, from what I've seen, makes for an excellent main copy of material.

Andrew makes some good points. Besides the quality of the original recording on the tape itself (SP or LP mode, and more besides), the playback VCR's build quality and condition could be the most important factor - that's what's dealing directly with the tape, if you will. An SVHS one is a good call indeed - although realistically, even a great VHS format player will simply never get a better picture of an LP mode tape than, say, a decent Betamax could get out one of its standard tapes. What model are you currently using?

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, much appreciated. My ultimate aim is just to be content in my own mind that when I do throw the tapes out, I’ve captured them with as much detail as possible. The actual quality of some of the tapes is pretty ropey – especially ones on LP re-recorded over many times so I’m not expecting miracles. There are some SP tapes from the early 80s which have held themselves up well so it would be nice to do those justice.

I’ve got a USB capturer similar I guess to the StarTech one, but couldn’t get it to work. This is all I get from the output:

http://tvfi.co.uk/usb.jpg

The more expensive suggestions did also lead me to the Canopus ADVC-55 which seems to have had a good write-up, although some saying overpriced. It would at least allow my Firewire port to get some use for the first time ever!

The recorder I’ve got is a JVC HR-S7600 with TBC (which I think helps picture stability?) It’s certainly a noticeable step up from the old cheapo Argos one I had. I had a head cleaning tape somewhere too…wonder if I can find that again. The other alternative is I hook it up to my DVD recorder (Panasonic DMR-EH50) and record at its best setting but that just seems like an extra step and would require me swapping out DVDs every hour.

Whilst on the subject does anyone know what might be causing this picture noise? I only notice it on the blue when not playing a tape – I can’t work out whether it’s affecting the picture when a tape is being played. Could it be the s-video cable? It supposedly is high quality and shielded.

Asa, the Canopus stuff is good, although I've had 2 in the past that have died on me. Totally Firewire powered too, so you don't need any extra adaptor.
For quality, you cannot beat the Canopus stuff.

I'm not sure about the darker spots, but I'm very sure that the finer, high frequency noise over the blue display is normal for its S-Video output and should disappear when playing back video, as I've seen with similar JVC models.

I would agree with Paul above.

I utilised a DV adaptor (Datavideo DAC100) for capturing. I really didn't want to use a device that encoded to a compressed format like MPG2, which is a delivery codec rather than an acquisition one.

I think the DAC100 has been superseded now - I've actually been though two of them now, so I'm in the market for a new one too.

What you lose in terms of your encoded file being large (50mbps, I think?) you gain in having very high quality with the ability to make frame accurate edits. If you can archive on external drives at that quality, great, if not, compress to an MPG format after the edit.

The kit I used was about 200 quid, maybe less. Worth every penny.

Thanks again for all the comments - I snapped up a DAC100 which arrived the other day. The drivers installed automatically and it's showing up in capture software but there's just no picture. AFAIK everything is connected and set up correctly but it may just be a Windows 7 issue. When I get chance I'll install XP on a dual boot and hopefully then it'll just work.