Looking for the best easy capture workflow?
It all started when I just wanted to digitize a couple VHS and fell down this very deep rabbit hole. I' starting to lose my mind and need help finding an easy and "good enough" solution here.
Project objectives:
What I would like: A workflow to capture without too much of hassle while getting some quality. Ideally I would capture with something I won't need to transcode afterward (unless I need to edit), be lossless or not. Disk space is not really a problem but still, I don't want to end up with ridiculously big files. What do you suggest? |
If you're aiming for "good enough", what don't you like about the results you're getting now?
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Some additional questions include:
- How much money are you willing to spend up front (some can be recovered by reselling any additional gear you buy). - How much time are you willing to invest in the project? - How many tapes do you have? (If it is a small number consider hiring it out to a known quality producer.) - What distribution format/media do you inntend to use for the final product? - Do you have any additional gear/software, including computers and operating systems? - What sort of flaws do you encounter with what you are capturing now? The simplest work flow for reasonable quality (but not for restoration would be): - A S-VHS VCR (with internal line TBC) - An external full frame TBC (will be needed for stable, reliable playback some tapes) - A DVD recorder to dump the playback to a video DVD. The record pause feature of the DVD recorder could be used to do simple cuts editing. [I've used this method to do simple VHS dump-to-DVD for unsophisticated (from a video quality standpoint) friends and they have been happy with the result - it met their needs. Their focus was on content, not image beauty.] The audio could be fed through a graphic equalizer to filter out some tape hiss, line frequency hum, and low frequency wind/HVAC noise. |
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Tip: Don't be lazy and cheap, your family will not be forgiving (even if they're at first nice, later it'll bite you in the ass for doing a shoddy job. So don't do a shoddy job! Quote:
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- The cheapest not-junk card you can get is a Dazzle DVC-100. Not greatest quality, it may be fussy, but it's an upgrade for you. Well under $50. - REMEMBER: Buy it, use it, resell it. You'll most of the costs back, especially for the ES10/15. Avoid eBay fees, sell it here in the marketplace. - If you don't want to cheap out on the capture card, get something better -- and again, buy it, use it, resell it -- then see the marketplace forum here. Good cards can be had for at/under $150. That's really not a big expense, either. - Learn Hybrid, ask questions here. You can QTGMC, mask/crop, 4:2:2 H.264 encode all in one nice app. |
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Great post, LS! That's what the newbys want; succinct and to the point. Those Dazzle-100s are pretty cheap! My 200 had better be good! :D |
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Edit: Is there a place here I could see some videos of the kind of result I could achieve? |
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These cards have the same low-end eMPIA video+audio+bridge as the Easycraps, but contain an authentic SAA7113 chip. The Easycaps all use reverse-engineered knockoff (KO) SAA7113 chips, which makes it that much worse. Think like this: What do you want for dinner? - turd = Easycap - cricket = Dazzle - hash/spam (canned meat) = ATI 600 USB, clone - hamburger = certain Pinnacle cards - steak = ATI AIW I like a good steak, gladly eat hamburger, and even hash makes a good easy/cheap meal sometimes. But I'd have to desperate to eat a cricket. No way I'm eating a turd/feces. |
Lol! You sure have a descriptive visual way to put it. Can't be clearer.
And yes I'd be very interested to look at the menu in term of clips sample, if it's not too much trouble. Apart from the crap which I think I've tasted already :laugh: |
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