Hi guys, Im after recording my old VHS tapes to DVD. I have a panasonic DVD recorder that im pleased with. I have a few questions please: How much better is S-video compared to composite for this kind of work?? Does anyone know if I can buy an S-video VHS player (in the UK) so I can link the VHS player to the DVD recorder?? I tried to use my S-video cable using a scart adapter plugged into my VHS player, (because the VHS player doesnt have a s-video socket) but all I got was a monochrome display. Any ideas what this is about please?????? How much better will the image be if I use gold plated composite cables??? At the moment im just using the ones that came with the dvd recorder. Many thanks in advance!!
DVD stores a component video signal in digital format. Since this is the native video format that is stored on DVD, this is also the best format to use to display the picture, if your equipment is capable of dealing with this type of signal. Many DVD players are capable of converting their native component signal to an RGB signal, but this varies on a player-by-player basis. DVD stores its video information in the component form, but unfortunately the great majority of us cannot take advantage of this format. The designers of the DVD format anticipated this, and made allowances for it in the specification. All DVD players are capable of downconverting a component video signal into a more suitable format for display on the current generation of consumer display devices. The first such downconversion step is to S-Video, which is a connector that will always be found on any DVD player. The S-Video connection keeps the all-important black and white information separate, and combines the color difference signals into a single color signal. Instead of three separate signals going to the display device, there are now two separate signals. Composite video signals have a number of unavoidable image problems because of inherent limitations of the PAL and NTSC systems. The problem is, once the color and the black and white information have been put together, they can no longer be perfectly separated due to fundamental design limitations of the two systems. I don't know about the UK, but here in the USofA the only VCR machines that I've seen with S-Video outputs are the Super VHS models. Hopefully, this has been of some help to you.
