Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Brown
Hi there,
I'm a retro gaming enthusiast who is now branching out into VHS capture and wondering if the same equipmentit I use for upscaling 240p, 480p outputs could be put to good use.
I've just picked up a Panasonic NV SF2000 from a charity shop (may the AV Gods have mercy and bless me with a functional device).
Any feedback would be gratefuly received.
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Never, ever, put your VHS (or VHS-C) tapes into a camcorder for playback. Not now, not in the 2020s. It's more likely to eat the tape than not. And unlike a VCR, you cannot easily remove the tape without incurring further major damage.
Realize that retro gaming capture has
nothing in common with videotape capturing. Retro/console video game capture is fun, nifty, unique, etc, in its own way. Enjoy it for what it is, but don't try to translate it elsewhere. OSSC may be fine for retro gaming capture, but that's not going to work for VHS sources.
Do not upscale videotapes before/during capture, you will lose massive quality.
VHS is 480i -- not 480p, not 240p.
After capturing the 480i, you can QTGMC deinterlace in software, and then upscale with Avisynth, Vapoursynth, or a few others if absolutely needed. Not crapware Topaz GUI "AI" junk, which just butchers SD videotape sources.
So that's the quick version to address what you wrote.
There's more to it. For starts, to convert videotapes, you need a standard workflow.
At minimum, that means
- a quality VCR (not your random idea of what "good" means, but vetted quality gear)
- some form of TBC (ideally both line+frame, which is really needed)
- a quality capture cards for videotapes -- not a gamer card, cheap card from
Amazon/eBay, not some crap suggested by a clueless Youtuber -- actual quality cards, again as vetted by others known for video advice
Video conversion cannot be done on a lunch budget, not for the cost of a cheeseburger. A good/sensible video gear budget will match the proce of a nice desktop of laptop computer (not a Chinese tablet, or Chromebook). You can do a gamer/Mac budget, best gear, enjoyable experience. Or a Buy Best "blue plate special" budget, and get minimal budget gear (that isn't perfect, or even necessarily good), but it will minimally suffice.
These are tools for tasks. Video games and videotapes may both have "video" in the name, but so does video fluoroscopy, and that's about as divorced from games/tapes as it gets. Get the right tool, for the right task.
So there's some more info to chew on.