Confused: good pointers for capturing VHS footage?
Hello, everyone!
I had been doing some research on capturing video cassette tape footage. Mostly for transferring old family recordings. To be honest, I hesitated for a while to post a question on any forum. I caved, though, when I saw a post from [lordsmurf] on one of the forums I was looking at. Which is why I'm here. So far, there are four videos that I have looked at which seemed to be a bit trustworthy. I am having second thoughts about them, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hudU0uVHJPc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn2NWJzxS6k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn_TDa9zY1c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC5Zr3NC2PY My current "good" VCR is a Sony SLV-775HF (without its original remote). I have AV to HDMI converters, as well as two capture devices. One is a knock-off EasyCAP, the other a cheap HDMI capture card. Also currently have both VirtualDub2 and OBS installed. Some tapes have white spots on the edges. I assumed that they were moldy, but one comment somewhere said that it could potentially be lubricant. I don't know if those tapes can still be saved. Some sources say to not clean the tape before capture, some do. Some say to use specific concentrations of isopropanol, others say to not use any at all, or to use a different thing. For cleaning, some use expensive chamois sticks, others use microfibre cloths or foam pieces. Some use the VCR's rewind function, others use a VHS rewinder, still others do it by hand... The list goes on and on. All that I want are a good set of tips for capturing VHS tape footage at a decent quality. Something that is of a good enough quality. I'm just hoping that doing this isn't as confusing as I've seen thus far. |
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- The 'little weird" guy is an idiot. He doesn't know much about video (his video-related videos are littered with myths and nonsense), and his method is bunk. As I wrote elsewhere, he's literally the "fake news" of video conversion. He knows less than you do. - The "60p" guy is fumbling around, mixing terms, wrong settings, and using cheap Easycaps, quality sucks. The main flaw of the mold videos is in NOT telling you do do the work outside, in a garage, etc -- and NOT in your house. Mold can be toxic, and you can have unforeseen severe allergic reactions to molds. To handle mold, you need PPE: masks, gloves. And well vented area NOT IN YOUR HOME. ("The Oldskool PC" does at least have that warning in the video text.) Quote:
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- not good capture card - never use HD anything for SD video (VHS,etc) - not VirtualDub2, but VirtualDub - never OBS, it's not an analog capture software, but streaming screen record software Quote:
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Others work well, just tedious. But video is tedious already, so deal with it. ;) Quote:
There a recipe for capture: VCR > TBC > capture card Follow it. Good VCR, some form of TBC is required (not optional), good capture card. Realize your idea of "good" may be way off. Ideally, line+frame TBC. You can attempt shortcuts, but each level down (added shortcut) will harm both quality and ability to capture whatsoever. No TBC = no chance at getting quality capture, or any capture. Quote:
The main hurdle is funding. Some stubborn people don't want to buy the tools needed, so they attempt cockamamie methods that still don't work well, or at all. If you have an adequate budget to buy what's needed, this can be quite easy. |
About all of that mould focus...
Thank you for the very detailed reply!
Sorry about how most of my post seemed to be about cleaning the tape; that was the part that threw me for a loop the most. I'm guessing that, with capture devices, something like an Elgato or higher is better than a cheap EasyCAP knock-off? Also, for clarification (because my perception of VHS quality may be hilariously off-base), when I'm talking about a "good quality" VHS capture, I was willing to accept some fuzziness, noise, or a flicker here or there. Because you have more experience than me, my "good enough" may actually be shockingly horrendous. :oops: I'm just very scared of doing something very wrong, I suppose. |
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Tim. |
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Elgato earned the nickname Elcrapo. Both are bottom-barrel lousy capture cards. And the "grabbers" are right there with too, total garbage cheap Chinese USB cards. Quote:
"Noise" is a broad term. Some noises are inherent to the format, and some tapes have damage that reates noise. But other noises are the fault of cheap VCRs and capture cards, and should not happen. For example, bad VCRs have not just tracking issues, but image wiggles, dropouts, bad contrast, bad oversharpening, etc. That all looks bad in a tiny preview window, and unacceptable on a large modern HDTVs where you may wish to enjoy these. Bad capture cards further damage, with unacceptable flicker and motion noise, ruined colors and over/underexposure of the image that was fine on the tape. I hate the term "good enough" because it's generally used as an excuse to dismiss awful quality. Quote:
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About those pictures of the tapes...
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Hello, everyone!
Sorry about not posting for a while. Life got in the way, and I wasn't able to take pictures of the moldy tapes. I just got the chance to, though! They are attached to this post. These are personal recordings with names on them, so I blacked those out. Also attached is a video capture sample out of my current set-up. The one with the HDMI upscaler and OBS. I am aware that this is not a good capture system. I am also aware that this is not a good capture. I guess I'm just curious as to how bad it truly is, being a bit of a newbie and all. This set-up might be good for those "v h s _ a e s t h e t i c"-type art videos, but not for something of good quality. If I made a mistake in posting, I will be willing to delete this. I am sort of "necro-ing" this thread... Sorry about that... :oops: |
It's not just "not good", but outright bad.
- Video is resized wrong, has aspect problems and aliasing issues (badly deinterlaced). - The colors are screwed with. Values are over/underexposed. - Any lack-of-TBC flaws are baked in. - The entire video has all sorts of issues: contrast, bright, color issues, alias jaggies, etc. The video is raped, butchered. It's not some nuance like "good" vs. "excellent". No, this is like dog food vs. hamburger or steak. So which would you prefer to eat? (For the vegans out there, sewer algae vs. leafy lettuce.) Yes, the method is nice and cheap. So is a can of Alpo ($1), or sewer sludge ($FREE). I don't know how to make this any clearer to folks. OBS is streaming recording software. Using it for analog capture is like whacking a screw with a hammer, or banging a nail with a screwdriver. Wrong tool for the task. The thread isn't that old. You're not necroposting. :) |
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Dogs are dumb and eat poop, rocks, etc. Cats rule. Dogs drool. :laugh: |
RE: The LotR Tape, and a few other things
Funnily enough, that tape I used for that "video sample" came with a different VCR, a $4 thrift store Hitachi (which is probably okay to make it FUBAR for cleaning purposes). I only really use it to test stuff out; never really intended to transfer it in high quality :laugh:. I didn't want to use a tape that I actually cared about, so... (Besides, I can get a beautiful high-quality version of Fellowship of the Ring through other means.)
Basically what I currently have is a glorified "analog-looking" video filter/crapifier (I have it hooked up to my PC as a sort-of "second monitor", so...). Okay for making silly video projects/livestream gags, terrible for actually getting quality captures. So... I'm guessing that the tapes with what looked like mould can still be cleaned carefully? I could probably look into a hand-operated contraption that I can make to spin the reels slowly. Helping me with cleaning the tape meticulously. Outside, of course. Also, I had an idea for that cheap Hitachi VCR. Admittedly this is a bit :screwy: of me, but... Is it possible to make a system that introduces air into the VCR? Something like a couple of computer fans that sucks up mold and other crud from the inside and blows them out? I'm certain that there is a lot of problems with this idea; I'm just making sure that I don't waste $30 on computer fans and solder :wink2:. |
Mold cannot be sucked out by fans, it needs to be physically removed from the tape, Just get a crappy VCR and open the top cover, put a tape in, use surgical gussets wet with alcohol wrapped around two pencils, Touch the two sides of the tape with the gusset wraps and fast forward and rewind, boom you're done. It's good to cleanup the cassette shell before you do this.
What you should be worried about is the capture part. |
What you should REALLY be worried about it the mold spores. You never want to deal with mold indoors, nor without PPE (face mask, gloves).
I once had an anaphylactic shock to mold I'd never been exposed to, from a state I've rarely been to. Mold spores were spewed from the fans of a device when first plugged in, bought from eBay used ("working" and "tested", which was BS, hadn't be plugged in for ages). I had to be rushed to the nearest emergency facility with extreme breathing issues. So that kind of situation happens. Learn from my experience, don't do something stupid. Mold must be cleaned, and controlled. In recent years, members here were looking at certain UV lights to kill the spores (if alive), then ways to carefully clean and remove. NEVER BLOW IT AROUND WITH A FAN! The cassette should probably be outright tossed in some situations, donor clamshell for cleaned tape in reels. Sometimes the reels even have to be replaced, tape spooled onto new good reels during the cleaning process. Lots of people on Youtube do dumb stuff with mold. They're morons. So beware. You're risking your health here. |
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From the face you can recognize that he is dumb and dont know anything about conversion The card that he is using as already lordsmurf mentioned is the classic chinese easycrap video usb card These tutorial should be banned from existence |
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