Tweaking the Elgato Video Capture (but it's still crap)

[@JalopyJustin1966]

Thank you for this, my grandparents use this all the time because it's easy for them, so I'm glad to be able to tweak some settings for them, so that they can still record their old videos in better quality.

[@ivok9846]

how old are they?

[@JalopyJustin1966]

@@ivok9846 They are 83 and 87, so keeping the same tech around makes it easier.

[@panda2243]

Can't believe he actually printed out the document and marked it instead of capturing the monitor screen lol, but good job still!

[@tehrobotjesus]

You don't know who you're dealing with here

[@akaJughead]

​@@tehrobotjesusSeriously, he must be new here. 😂

[@610jrod]

He should pin (print) this comment now that it's been ❤️'d

[@panda2243]

I mostly watch his videos about the turntable and the vinyl record stuffs, Interesting for me to see this thing haha

[@jamieross2743]

Mostly people complaining in the comment because he capture his screen. So why not to print 'em instead

[@Landrew0]

I miss the sound of my old dot-matrix printer, but I fear I shall never hear it again.

[@jub8891]

my neighbors would hate it if i had a dot matrix printer again.. but i do miss the one we had, a panasonic color dot matrix

[@andygozzo72]

@@jub8891 modern printers ARE still dot matrix, they form images by an, er, matrix, of dots. what you really mean is IMPACT printer 😉

[@matthewlawrenson3628]

As a teenager, I had a 24-pin dot matrix printer, A Panasonic KXP-1124 it was. I printed thousands of pages with it in my tiny bedroom. I no longer have the printer, but at nearly 49 I do have tinnitus.

[@frankowalker4662]

@@jub8891 My neighbors bought me a new printer two years ago for Christmas and offered to take my Dot Matrix printer to the tip. 🤣 I kept the Matrix printer but I stopped using it.

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

I still use my Commodore 64 and PrintMaster to print my monthly calendars. :)

[@timecage]

Certainly You've earned the reputation of delivering very good quality videos. Thank you!

[@rarbiart]

7:10 i very much like to see the video head switch line at the bottom of the screen. it's essential for the true vhs experience!

[@noapparentfunction]

some Cartoon Network shows on the HBO / Max streaming service have some sort of tape head line visible on the bottom, along with other transfer artifacts. i like it, gives it a "from the vault" appearance.

[@Natervader13]

I always get a kick out of the examples you use, man. Great video as always.

[@NistingurA]

The biggest companies make the worst stuff. Hence why I just use a 10$ Analog to USB no-name adapter, capture my videos with WinDV from my Sony Hi8 cam and throw them through Handbrake for de-interlacing etc. It's more labour intensive, yes, but it gets the job done too!

[@needfortweed8734]

I tried using one of those adapters first, but it dropped frames like crazy. The Elgato was better, but as mr vwestlife has pointed out, the Elgato doesn't deliver stellar image quality...

[@gamagama69]

@@NistingurA i mean, i think a retrotink or similar quality clone and a half decent hdmi capture card would be pretty decent

[@dant5464]

America's Most Winning Cyclist

[@Drmcclung]

The Okidata printout is an especially nice touch to this presentation :)

[@NotIT]

I don't have any Elgato products, but yet I watch. I love the use of the 9-pin printer. I kind of miss those days. Even more so considering our current situation.

[@shrimpforx]

As someone who has an HDMI Elgato card (the HD60s), it's insane they're still pushing this slop card for $80. Modern Elgato cards use the "4k Capture Utility" software and it actually does the opposite of the software featured here: it records at an insanely high 26mbps by default-- and has a slider to increase or decrease it. They really should update the Video Capture to use the new app.. or better yet, release an actually good analog card!! Retro gaming is a massive market, it would slot in perfectly in their product lineup.

[@Toronado1986]

Usually people buy HDMI’s adapters and put it on an elgato, hdmi upscalers are great for that stuff. I agree with you but there’s no way elgato will make a new product for RCA

[@smiths7317]

I know a few transfer companies that use this exact Elgato capture card and swear by it because it works well on Mac and gives customers efficient file sizes.

[@gamagama69]

gross

[@vwestlife]

Yes, and "VHS looks bad anyway" because they've never seen what a good digital capture of it is supposed to look like.

[@eskeletor]

The world if people knew what ffmpeg is and how to use it...

[@BradOlsonBemidji]

@@eskeletor OBS is a frontend for ffmpeg and is an excellent frontend.

[@ArthurPenndragon122]

Can you do some more thrift store adventures​@@vwestlife

[@finchx881]

I have the same capture card and I can confirm that the problem lies in the software. Using other software (such as OBS or AMAREC TV) you can correctly capture the separate fields (AMAREC) or deinterlace directly (OBS)

[@mchenrynick]

Using OBS offer another advantage: It runs in Linux! :)

[@juniorsilvabroadcast]

​@@mchenrynickLinux is crap for usability

[@IvanKowalenko]

But does that solve the issue of variable frame rate?

[@finchx881]

@@IvanKowalenko yes it does.

[@jamieross2743]

Very good tapes selection for the tests

[@GarthBeagle]

These videos on capturing analog video are great!

[@TechGorilla1987]

@5:10 - True story - My ex wife and I moved out to Phoenix from Harrisburg, PA in Oct of 1999. The roads were all clear and dry until we hit Flagstaff. There was about 6" of snow on the roads and we ended up pulling the truck and trailer off the road and waiting a couple of hours for the roads to clear. Just south of Flagstaff and the roads were again clear and dry.

[@atheistonyoutube]

Great video Kevin 👍 I hope got memories and Emerald Coast Digitizing takes notice of this video. Everyone should email them this video and ask them to use something else.

[@DgaDM]

That dot matrix printer noise was an unexpected flashback to my early youth, thank you for that!

[@RealEpikCartfrenYT]

I have two ways of capturing video: First way involves a cheap STK1160 USB capture device hooked up to a computer running OBS with Yadif deinterlacing and exporting video as a 15Mbps MP4 file with 320k audio (yields approx 6GB per hour). This is the easiest route and it's the one I recommend. Second way is more convoluted than it needs to be: VCR is plugged into a Sony DCR-TRV940E, which has a composite IN, and a built-in TBC, however since its FireWire port doesn't work, I need to transfer it to MiniDV tape in SP speed. This involves pausing the VCR every hour and swapping MiniDV tapes as one can only hold 60 minutes of video, while the most common VHS tape is 3 hours long (E180). Then the recorded MiniDV tapes are played back in a JVC GR-DVL140E which does have a working FireWire port, albeit flaky. This gives a slightly better quality video but at the cost of additional labor + dealing with two semi-broken camcorders and a data standard that not a single modern computer has these days, plus the AVI file I get from the Windows Live capture utility needs to be converted and deinterlaced to mp4, requiring the use of three separate pieces of software.

[@aaprods]

The TRV940 has S-Video Out: just record that. Same, if not better quality, than DV and without the hassle of using a tape. Convert the AVI with Handbrake.

[@El-Ritmo]

2:40 - 2:45 - "The best possible quality we can choose is zero". Out of context that seems like a very accurate summation of your review of this product and your scorn for it. You could probably select that one part to make a KZbin Short as a perfect capsule review 😜

[@aaprods]

You are aware that in the real world, video quality is measured with Zero (Placebo, CRF 0) being the best. But let's not let a good yarn get in the way of the facts.

[@El-Ritmo]

@ I am well aware. It was a joke, something I imagine most people in the real world understood.

[@markae0]

2:30 is better start?

[@TheSpiritingPoet]

Can't wait for that one guy to start commenting saying you need to do it through FM with a supercomputer or whatever I saw on Reddit. See, I forgot about that method but OBS and a capture card stays in my mind.

[@RealEpikCartfrenYT]

ah yes the vhs-decode with its software based TBC... And it's a Linux only program it seems... Lovely* (with a whole lot of sarcasm)

[@Alexlfm]

I especially love when those guys start going on about how crap FireWire/DV is and how 4:1:1 subsampling is somehow noticeable with a VHS/Hi8 source.

[@RealEpikCartfrenYT]

@@Alexlfm and here I think FireWire needs to make a comeback

[@ValuedTeamMember]

Ahhhh... The -sound- music of a Dot-Matrix Printer I think I will make that my phone's ring tone. It's already my "you've got mail" sound clip. It was a much simpler time.. (last year). Thank you for the video. Cheers from So.Ca.USA 3rd house on the left (please call ahead before stopping by)

[@alf717]

Thank you, this info will come in handy. I got one of these dirt cheap at a yard sale this year and I made the mistake of thinking I could use one of these to capture footage for older analogue video game consoles and then stream them with OBS. I may revisit this device using this information.

[@griszaowniuk5775]

DAMN THAT HELPED. Please make vid about how to make the best possible quality out of VHSC recordings 🙏🙏🙏

[@GoldSrc_]

Ahh, that combat training video quality brings me back to the early days of youtube when you were lucky to get a couple of good pixels :D.

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

Oh Sweet I waited for months for you testing this Elgato product thanks for making a review.

[@LBJshowedmehisJ]

elguano would've been a better name for this device

[@HandyAndyTechTips]

I got this device when I was a kid (it's been around for 15 years), and even then I thought the quality was crap! It was initially marketed as Mac only but with a bit of research, I worked out that I could use a Windows machine, capturing in VirtualDub to the losslessly compressed HuffYUV codec, and it looked pretty good. Still a bit of instability due to the lack of a timebase corrector, but at least it was proper interlaced 50 field PAL video that I could then convert into H.264 using Handbrake for a MUCH better result than the bundled software allowed.

[@garbagewitch1]

I use a pinnacle studio moviebox for video capture because it has both RCA, S-video and firewire inputs and the video quality is so much better than any other capture devices I’ve used in the past

[@Markimark151]

I’m glad you were able to tweak the settings, even though it’s still a rubbish capture device! The only reason to even use the Elgato is for easily copying VHS tapes with macrovision, because even educational videos have copy protection!

[@jadeia.]

Matrix printer still being used = immediately liked!

[@FinnleysAudioAdventures]

10:28 Feels like I came into a “Best of the Worst” episode

[@Metal_Groove45]

I just got a Retrotink 5x and an Elgato HD60S capture card for VHS ripping, and the results have been very good. Just have to tweak the brightness and contrast on some tapes here and there, and the built in TBC in the Retrotink works very well, but you have to download the driver that includes that for it.

[@jij9972]

Where did you get the Retrotink from ?

[@kumarp3074]

RetroRGB channel has some great videos on how to capture VHS content.

[@BollingHolt]

Oh, man, I miss those Okidata printers. That thing was a tank!

[@AndrewMackoul]

My analog video capture setup I found works great is using a WinTV ATSC TV tuner with analog input (I use S-Video) and OBS which with a powerful CPU and GPU can deinterlace, apply color correction, and encode to h265/hevc at 60fps on the fly.

[@Happytrace13]

I LOST IT when I heard that printer! I felt like I was back in school & need to peel off those wheel holes on the side

[@BOKCThrxns]

i used to use an elgato video capture for my digitizations and absolutely hated it. i ended up saving for a dazzle dvc-100 and i love it way more then the elgato.

[@The_Wayfaring_Smuggler]

While Elgato's other capture devices are excellent, this is not. It's most likely an old no-name Chinese device they got millions of units from the factory and still need to sell off, but they can't just give them away. Hence the premium price for the name only.

[@SockyNoob]

Printing the text file out on a dot matrix printer is an absolute flex that I'd expect only here.

[@rudodejong]

Another difference between the Windows and the Mac software is the AVC Profile and Level. The best I saw in this video under Windows was "High@L3.1" and under Mac "Baseline@L3". A Baseline Profile uses much less advanced encoding than a High Profile does.

[@norcal715]

I personally, cant wait for the next installment of this series.

[@rabiroden]

Hey I have that same "honestech" box. I used it to capture some VHS tapes years ago. I didn't use any software it came with, but capturing with VirtualDub over s-video produced some pretty solid results I think. The colors were a bit washed out maybe, but the picture quality was pretty sharp. I did run into problems with the audio and video desyncing over extended captures though...

[@CharlesShow]

9:32 thanks for the westchester county shoutout

[@Raptor50aus]

I started to twitch when I heard the Dot Matrix printer running. I worked for a service Centre for them back in the day.

[@reverseretro1961]

I have a vidbox device for windows/mac, and the quality isn't terrible. HOWEVER, since it uses switching regulators instead of linear regulators for the lower voltage rails (for the ADCs), it makes the video noisier than it otherwise would be. the brightness and contrast also seem to be finicky to get right. on the bright side, it works well with software like OBS and VirtualDub, so you can record uncompressed video and audio with it. but like basically every other capture device, it has no time base corrector. so I'd guess even the one for Mac will be better than the Elcrapo.

[@ScarletAmethyst]

One note about Elgato is they also make HDMI capture devices which are well known capture devices for gamers although expensive. These are mostly used for capturing consoles such as the PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, but you can also use it to capture computers and other HDMI devices although these usually won't work with devices using HDCP such as Blu-ray players and streaming devices. I think the 320x240 resolution could be used for devices that used 240p/288p such as video game consoles before the Sega Dreamcast (PlayStation and Nintendo 64). Otherwise, the High Resolution would be used for 480i or 576i.

[@sdk77]

I like to see head switching noise in captures. If possible, the teletext too.

[@jarrod1766]

I meed more of that hand to hand combat video

[@nonsuch]

Sometimes you can add strings that aren't listed already. This can be done in a ton of software with config files. For instance, you can try adding "Sharpness" in the Windows txt file and assign it a number using the same formatting as the rest of the file. It doesn't hurt to try.

[@Capturing-Memories]

Using vdub with it is the biggest improvement.

[@arthurpizza]

Last time I did analog video capture, I used OBS to encode into prores. I was able to deinterlace and encode to a decent h265 with ffmpeg.

[@Kylefassbinderful]

I don't use this device specifically but I have another version of it that I got cheap off Amazon and I use it on my imac. I use it with QuickTime and I feel like the quality is actually pretty good.

[@MrCashoos]

What video capture for analogue devices would you recommend that doesn't break the bank? Asking for a friend since I'm broke lol

[@treyhex628]

The honest tech capture device you are planning to look at I would imagine is basically an EZ cap like you can get from Amazon as it is an honest tech product or at least uses the software suite. The issue I found with the honest tech EZ cap is audio desynchronization usually doesn't happen immediately but over time as you are recording it desyncs and you end up with audio delay that is just god awful. I wouldn't mind taking the elgato or the cat software and running it through ghedra and seeing if you could possibly increase the bitrate by changing it in the code and recompiling it in visual studio just an idea but I suspect the bitrate is hard capped in the code so when you launch the software it restored the bitrate value to the hard cap set in the code.

[@techbaffle]

14:57 Looks like a Sony VCR on the cover of the Honestech VIDBOX

[@Nytalite]

I used to use an Elgato Video Capture for my VHS channel. It continued to perform worse and worse until on one capture, it dropped at least 2/3 of the frames. I gave up on it after that.

[@Ts6451]

If I had this device and was trying to digitize videos, I would probably try if it was possible to add settings options from one version of the software to the other, just in case the options actually are supported but the developers just didn't bother adding them since they were just going to leave them at what ever the software defaults to.

[@cocusar]

pretty thorough explanation of how to make this device a little bit better if you chose to use their software. I don't have it, I do have an ezcap and a pci capture card, but neither I'd use their software, so hopefully it helps to someone else.

[@HoneyMike]

I’m using a similar device from a company called I-O Data. I don’t know anything about the company and the box is in Japanese. The quality seems good to me but i have no basis for comparison

[@TooHipChicks]

Okay, the dot matrix printer gave me a chuckle.

[@webinatic216]

Can you disable write on the plist file on mac? Probably won't do anything.

[@Qwertypigeon853]

I still use an OLD PCI compsite ! super video capturd card and its @0000% better than any of the USB solutions I've ever tried. I once saw one for sale that promised 'HDMI upscale input from composite'

[@JonGallon]

1:35 PAL-M? Is this a 'Brazil mentioned' reference? 😁

[@Siger5019]

Instantly ignored that GUI and just used FFmpeg

[@alphabeets]

Even at Cropping setting of 2 there is some switching noise.

[@USOEnjoyer]

The idea of using an external tbc but still using elgato's capture card and software is cursed.

[@PiotrStaszewski]

Printing an XML file on a dot-matrix printer... Right there with browsing the world-wide-web from a C64! And now I'm nerd-sniped for more anachronistic mashup ideas.

[@CSSTPMediaUK]

I used to have the Elgato, but not anymore as capturing VHS tapes direct to my computer is still a pain, even without a TBC. And I didn't know this device came out in 2009 and it's still using outdated software.

[@andlabs]

Huh the song at 12:29 sounds like Belong by REM, which would be an interesting choice if it was, but it isn't... (checks with Shazam) wait it's by Rusted Root? The "Send Me On My Way" from Ice Age guys? Well that's a band I never thought I'd hear another song from other than voluntarily; I was wondering what happened to them the other day

[@ivok9846]

rem never used sitar, i believe. and if they did, it would sound better, without missing notes...heh

[@DoublePlus-Ungood]

Not familiar with Macs but I'm wondering if there is no "read-only" ability to keep the software from reverting the config? Like I know in some PC video games you've got to manually change .ini files and often you then also need to right-click and set it to "read-only" or you're settings don't stick.

[@PaulTheFox1988]

Yeah, you can use the terminal to specify read/write/execute permissions, as underneath the pretty exterior, macs are basically running a Unix-like OS (not exactly, but it still has some of most of the design principles that Unix uses) I believe the command will be something like sudo chmod o-w "/path/to/file" if I've remembered my chmod syntax correctly. For anyone reading this who is looking to remove write permissions from the file or any other, please don't use that command even if you change the path to the file to be modified, I don't want to be responsible for anyone damaging their OS install

[@itogi]

6:52 That's not noise, it's just video that gets skewed because of head switching. If needed, head switching can be moved to VBI zone on some players.

[@KeritechElectronics]

Now it makes me wonder how this piece of hardware will do with OBS under Linux. Maybe a teeny tiny bit less mediocre...

[@dashcamandy2242]

1:45 - I've got an Okidata Microline μ92, it's the BEST dot-matrix printer I've ever owned - as much as I love my ImageWriter II, the Oki blows it out of the water.

[@yisdoge]

Thank you so much for these videos, really helped out. Was in a search for some adapter like that, would probably fall for that stuff.. I ve got a very old PC and a Behold TV PC-tuner, those were both dirt cheap, ($16~ in total). Sadly they dont seem to make new models, but there are plenty in the used market. I think I could recommend those. Also what is pretty funny, you can actually get a very old graphics card with S-video output, instead of having to use any converters at all, and it might be even free, if you are lucky

[@DavidSolimano]

Ha, I never went to a baseball card show at the Westchester County Center, but I went to many a computer show in that basement, and many a coin show upstairs. Never went to the reptile show though.

[@Mrshoujo]

I use a Magnavox MWR10D6 DVD recorder, rip the VOBs from that & process into MP4 with Handbrake. Sometimes I need to do an MKV merge of the VOBs & it concatenates the entire stream.

[@alphabeets]

Great great video. Why in the world would Elgato make their product so much WORSE!?

[@joelcarson4602]

Because of the end user having a potato PC or one that is constipated by bloatware.

[@BatteryCoverMissing]

So they can charge way more for the better quality capture devices they sell?

[@Xyspade]

On the Mac, if you know where that .plist file is, you can open it with TextEdit or whatever your favorite plaintext editor is.

[@vwestlife]

Not in this case. The plist file is compressed and is not ASCII text.

[@TheOriginalCollectorA1303]

At least you tried, the fact you were able to get more quality out of it at all is cool! Still doesn’t make it anywhere near as good as FireWire, but I guess a free overclock is better than nothing.

[@SockyNoob]

It's mind boggling that the default settings are so terrible and can only be changed via a text file. Shame on Elgato.

[@610jrod]

The Elgato logo isn't actually a sine wave, its your lower intestines and beyond

[@yanks1fan09]

Wow Mel Allen on the VHS video voice of the Yankees.

[@alexatkin]

I wouldn't use cropping at all, unless "preserve source format" respects this. Though the point is likely moot given its doing such a bad capture to begin with, not even preserving interlacing is infuriating given it can be done far better in post production.

[@lincoln3x7]

I have a vhs/dvd player burner with S and componet video in and hdmi out (that can upscale) Ive converted a few laserdiscs this way, then I use handbrake to rip the vob to an mpeg. Pretty easy process and you end up with dvd back up of anything you want to convert. Anyone else gone down this path? Wondering if its actually better quality than some of these capture devices? It can burn dvds at 720x480.... so it should do a decent job of any media/tech that came before dvd... vhs, laserdisc and mini dv are the main things I have converted so far.

[@RafaelZeratai]

Do you have any video of equipment recommended for digitizing hi8 tapes? I use elgatovideo capture with s video, but I’m not finding any way to get best quiality.

[@joelcarson4602]

In regards to the message of the picture for the video headline, as my dear, departed, country girl mother often opined " The more you stir an old t***, the worse it stinks."

[@a1white]

I have old Elgato DVB TV decoder, I got for my Mac in the mid 2000’s (living in the UK) the inbuilt aerial wasn’t great but when you got it to work you could record DVB tv from it. Now everything is streamed there’s no need for devices like that

[@AttilaSVK]

I bought a Panasonic DVD recorder to do analog video transfers, becasue it was far the cheapest thing to have a time base corrector. This is the result from an SVHS tape: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4fZXnahiK2Vo7s

[@PrankZabba]

I hate it when software and hardware do this. I recently found out that a bunch of stuff I did up ended up cramming a 16:9 into a 4:3 frame. So it was a total waste of time.

[@MakarovFox]

why they didn't put all this setting is the interface under a advanced section

[@keithfulkerson]

You'd think they would make it a little easier to change the options. It's weird that they would willingly tarnish their brand by selling this.

[@gg_vard]

Excellent use of the printer. It sounds amazing

[@StephanS]

What happens if you use the Elgato with a different software? If even possible...?

[@vwestlife]

See my initial review of it.

[@swiftsilver]

I have had this crap lying around for a while... Highly appreciate it.

[@connorshepard888]

What would you suggest other than elgato?

[@FranklyPeetoons]

Can the prefs file be set to read-only on a Mac for further testing? That's how I deal with stubborn configuration files, such as those for Firefox and Thunderbird formatting, on Windows. Otherwise they get automatically re-set to defaults. I use a Canopus ADVC100 for analog video capture. It's twenty years old. It creates huge .DV files, which are essentially the equivalent of RAW photographs. They're a bit involved to deal with, but all the 60i info is there to manipulate as needed. Even though it also lacks a TBC, results have been very stable.

[@DeathInTheSnow]

10:21 Why is Wesley Snipes fighting a Chuckle Brother?

[@juxxtapoz]

I got suckered into buying one of these. What is a better option to cheaply digitize VHS tapes?

[@Daijyobanai]

@1:44 > i laughed audibly. Chunky Thinkpad + dot-matrix equals a win.

[@MiladyRebelle10]

personally I use the BlackMagic Design Intensity Shuttle to record my Wii. A passthrough was absolutely necessary for me to be able to properly play because the Wii has enough input lag on its own. Bonus point is that it also offers an HDMI capture option so I don't have to buy another card, although it's not HDMI 2.0