Unless a class action lawsuit is filed against them, Individuals cannot go after corporations, The rich elite here in the US lobbied for it and made it impossible to go after them without losing an arm and leg in legal fees, You can file a small claim case as long as the damages are under $5000 but they keep appealing it until you give up, Just the days you take time off from work to show up in court burning your time off will exceed what you are claiming, So people would just give up.
So before 2016 LB hooked up a tape deck to a FUNAI DVD recorder then burned straight to DVD then ripped those DVDs in a batch processor and then made a 2 MBPs MP4 of the DVD rip. (Pic 1 Tape deck to DVD recorder)
After 2016 LB resource and development department came up with a way to have 16 transfers going simultaneously off of one computer. They got a software designed through the company Bespoke that would allow them to do this. There's no official name for there software it's proprietary and made for there system.
They connected each VCR to an HD PVR 2 capture card then 4 of those to each ANKR USB hub then they had 4 ANKR USB hubs connected to 1 Sonnet USB 3 PCLE card inside of a Mac Pro (G5) Intel model for there capture computer fpr a total of 16 captures. They're not a G5 but the "cheese grater" models. Dual Xeons with NVMe drives and a bank of 8TB drives for storage. No NAS. The monitor for that computer is a composite only security system monitor which is the size of a normal computer screen it just has a grid of 4 boxes by 4 boxes for preview. Then they had another computer and monitor for converting and that made up one rack. (Pic 2 and 3 one rack) One employee controlled 1 POD which consisted of 5 racks plus one DVD burning computer that converts the MP4 files to mpeg 2 and those get dumped to DVD. So that's 16 captures per rack and 5 racks for a total of 80 captures that one tech is watching. Each POD has its own VPN and network switch so that all the computers in the POD work together and see each other when they dump to Chinese flash drives. There's around 40 PODS at a warehouse. Some PODS have 8mm, VHS, Beta etc. Things got worse as my sources were leaving. They were trending towards having each person do a lot more transfers at once.
They had 4 people doing repairs and 3,200 machines running 8 hours a day. The eject button on this deck was soo worn down that someone had to melt the plastic and put the record switch in its place and patch it to the circuit board. (pic 4 VCR worn eject) Here's some of the wear on one of the drums. (pic 5 drum wear) The repair techs there didn't believe the "damage" stickers that were put on the machines sometimes because they had a test tape they used and if it worked then they'd pull off the sticker. Issue was it was an SP tape and they have a stronger signal strength than an SLP tape, that machine would still be in operation and record a poor quality recording.
They got those Haugpauge HD PVR 2s (pic 6 Haugpauge) cheap since They bought in bulk and they only bought the power cord, pig tail and unit. They had pallets of those at a time since 16 were needed her rack and 80 per POD. They were building around 12 PODS per 6 months. They're possible to be decent quality since they can do S-video and such but their export is where they suffered.
They have an average of 400 VHS-C adapters at the ready at any given time.
They order used decks off of eBay and some of them showed up looking like this. (pic 7 used deck) A VCR usually last about 4 months up there until it's trashed.
I messed up on part of the workflow above but in my defense m not used to seeing a security system in a digitizing workflow.
The workflow is VCR to USB splitter (MT-VIKI 4 Way 3 RCA Splitter Composite Video Audio Distribution (1 in 4 Out)). Then
Output 1 goes to the security system box which then takes all 16 signals to the security monitor for previewing all 16 signals on one monitor.
Output 2 goes to the Hauppauge HD PVR 2 capture card then ANKR USB hub then to the capture computer.
1 computer for capture, Surviellance system monitor for multi view preview, 2nd computer for archive
This means that the signal is weakened by the splitter before capture and it also means that the preview the tech is seeing isn’t from the output of the capture card but from a split output of the VCR fed into a security system that was meant for composite.
My source said sometimes the splitter would act up and it would hinder the video and audio of the recording.
That’s a big deal. Some newbies may not get why that preview part matters soo much though. Just because you can see something on a system designed for analog doesn’t mean you can capture it on a capture card. Every preview I have heard of besides this goes off of the output of your capture card.
Last edited by Gary34; 04-27-2024 at 11:18 PM.
Reason: Fat fingered because of typing on phone.
Figuring out that they are viewing there preview through a composite security system from the VCR and not the capture card makes me think of the OPs comment about he could view all of the tapes he got back on his TV. Well they viewed them the same way. They could see them also. No one views the digitized result until you view it at your house.
The system they created doesn't allow for editing blue screens. The files transferred to a flash drive and DVD are split into 2 hour increments. If the video had 2 hour and 30 minutes of stuff, then there would be 30 minutes of blue screen at the end of the clip.
I know I'm responding to my own post now so i'll stop but figuring out this crazy Legacy Box workflow has been eye opening. I knew it was bad but I didn't expect this. I didn't expect the signal split before the card and the way the tech is flying blind as far as the preview and other things.
Okay this is the last thing. Here’s a video on the company that Legacy Box hired to make the software that is specifically for Legacy Box’s system for their switch to digital around 2016. https://youtu.be/NquPjE60toA?si=LIO2dtQRFTDC1Oif The company is a jack of all trades company.
It didn't strike me as a joke. He seems like a pretty genuine type of guy.
I'm not following conversations very intently right now. Busy, health, pain, PT/rehab.
However, two facts to consider:
1. Emerald Coast Digitizing is using garbage gear: low-end VHS VCRs, no TBCs, and Elgato cards with H.264 delivered.
2. It's possible to both be nice, and an idiot, at the same time. It's very common, in fact.
Based on quick looks, I bet this is the case:
1. He knows better.
2. He's being (or at least has been in the past) a cheap ass anyway, and charging high prices for low-quality work.
3. He's now feeling pressure to improve his crap, for fear of being outed. That's a good thing.
I'm not making any judgments at this time, those are just my quick observations.
