DataPath E1-S S-Video?

[—dash]

Hey all,

I’ve got a DataPath E1-S and an old Sony Handicam from which I’d like to backup some old Hi8 footage, and I was curious anyone knew whether this card supports Y/C.

I assume it does, but I can’t seem to find it mentioner directlybin their documentation (much less a pin-out for wiring up to the DVI-I connector).

The Handicam outputs S-Video out of its side, but would there be a better alternative in terms of playback quality? I’d like to be able to deinterlace in software rather than rely on something like a scan converter if at all possible

I realize this isn’t strictly shmup-related, but I figured you guys may be able to point me in the right direction.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated

[Unseen]

The Handicam outputs S-Video out of its side, but would there be a better alternative in terms of playback quality?

At least in theory Firewire/iLink/IEEE1394 would result in the best quality for miniDV because you'll get exactly the digital video data that is stored on the tape. I don't have any advice about hardware/software for that though.

[—dash]

The Handicam outputs S-Video out of its side, but would there be a better alternative in terms of playback quality?

At least in theory Firewire/iLink/IEEE1394 would result in the best quality for miniDV because you'll get exactly the digital video data that is stored on the tape. I don't have any advice about hardware/software for that though.

Oops, these are Hi8 tapes, not MiniDV! Totally analog

[kitty666cats]

If you can find the pin-out, it may have a non-standard pinout and you could get a 5-BNC to DVI-I cable - I assume luma would go on the green cable, and chroma would go on the red or blue. You’d just need something like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/155783499725

And some RCA to BNC adapters.


Now, don’t quote me on this - I have no idea if this DataPath does indeed take S-Video… this is simply my best guess. Hopefully if you try it, it ends up working / hopefully you can find the pinout beforehand. If you can’t find the pinout, this is the best help I can give.

I’ve also seen Svid to 2RCA adapters on Amazon, you could look around for one of those and try that instead - they have a good no questions asked return policy. IDK if those cables are indeed wired for luma-chroma or if they’re just Chinese junk that doesn’t actually work. I think they all use male Svid connectors so you’d probably need a F to F Svid coupler as well.

Good luck, hopefully you find the pinout, or my suggestion ends up working!

[Austin]

Worst case you run the cam into a scaler that can output VGA or DVI, that then routes into the E1-S.

[NewSchoolBoxer]

I mean, the E1-S is Component and RGB only and there is no clean way to go Composite or S-Video to one of those since they're fundamentally different formats. You pay a quality loss to convert, however minor. Better to capture in the native format. Composite and S-Video are encoded in NTSC, PAL or SECAM which don't exist in the other two formats.

A very popular Composite + S-Video and audio USB capture device I have is the I-O Data GV-USB2 Video. There are some websites that show how to set it up since it's a Japanese product but installs in English just fine. Doesn't need USB-3 blue port since we're talking Standard Definition video.

For video deinterlacing, it lets you choose from high motion, low motion, weave or bob. You may want to choose weave, which is basically 30 Hz NTSC or 25 Hz PAL passthrough by combining 2 frames into one. You may get visual artifacts. Then you can use OBS or whatever other deinterlacing software you want. OBS deinterlacing has Yadif which is motion adaptive but also a Retro option that this video sets up with GV-USB2. I never played around with the differences.

GV-USB2 has options for NTSC-M (non-Japan), NTSC-J (Japan), NTSC at PAL's 4.43 MHz and PAL-B. I think its high motion deinterlacing meant for video games looks good and what I've used for streaming. S-Video looks appreciably better than Composite over Twitch. Just for audio that E1-S doesn't capture, if you care a great deal about audio, there are audio-specific USB and card devices.