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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.
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Welcome.
[QUOTE=learningToRestore;75417
I am having second thoughts about them, though.
[/QUOTE]
Each of those Youtube videos is terrible advice.
- 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.)
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My current "good" VCR is a Sony SLV-775HF (without its original remote).
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Not great. Many better, many worse.
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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.
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You're going down the wrong path here. Wrong tools.
- 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
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Some tapes have white spots on the edges. I assumed that they were moldy,
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Maybe. Attach photos.
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but one comment somewhere said that it could potentially be lubricant.
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Where was that? Unlikely.
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I don't know if those tapes can still be saved.
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Saved? Sure, probably.
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Some sources say to not clean the tape before capture, some do.
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Depends on what needs to be "cleaned", and why.
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Some say to use specific concentrations of isopropanol,
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90%+ is the usual go-to. Just realize IPA is a solvent, and factors can make it not desired.
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others say to not use any at all, or to use a different thing.
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Advice like this is usually parroted by morons, so tread carefully, vet sources carefully. "use nothing at all" is clueless, while "other stuff" really depends.
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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...
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REW/rewinders are out, too fast.
Others work well, just tedious. But video is tedious already, so deal with it.
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All that I want are a good set of tips for capturing VHS tape footage at a decent quality.
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So .... huh? Most of this post focused on mold removal. That's really separate from quality capture.
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.
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I'm just hoping that doing this isn't as confusing as I've seen thus far.
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It's really not.
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.