My unfinished current setup

POrwig · #1 06-08-2023, 09:52 PM

This is the physical equipment I have at this moment.

I purchased a JVC HR-S9600U Super VHS S-VHS ET Professional VCR on ebay, yes I know not the best place to buy good stuff. But at the time of the purchase, I did not read the complete forum of this site "Digitalfaq" to learn where to purchase equipment in the "Marketplace". The person who sold this to me, also gave me a lot of old VHS tapes you can no longer buy anywhere. Is this VCR good enough based on the list I saw on this site of VCR's?

I purchased an ATI AIW All-in-wonder Radeon 7500 64MB DDR AGP 2/4 Video Card from Amazon, I have not tested this card to see "how well" it works. I looked on this site for drivers for this card and downloaded drivers I thought closely matched this one. Is this a good enough capture card?

I know I need an external TBC of some sort to complete my current setup.
I want to preserve the best quality possible of VHS tapes I have, these are not manufactured VHS of movies that Hollywood made, no; these are VHS tapes that I recorded using an old JVC or JC Penny VHS camcorder back in the late 80's to early 90's. These are personal home movies that my brother and I did back in the day, so there is no way I would be willing to send these to people to have them do it for us. These are the original tapes that have not been played in a VCR for nearly 30 years.

I can build PC's, I have been doing this for over 15 years. I also have been collecting old graphics cards for the last 15 years as well, I have an old Reveal VE500 Editor card, I am not sure if this is worth anything as far as what I want to do now. I know it both has both video composite in and out as well as S-Video in and out. If it is an external TBC that I need will any TBC mentioned on this site be the best or are they listed based on the best to worse?

lordsmurf · #2 06-08-2023, 10:17 PM

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Originally Posted by POrwig

This is the physical equipment I have at this moment.

Alright, let's see how you did.

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I purchased a JVC HR-S9600U Super VHS S-VHS ET Professional VCR on ebay, yes I know not the best place to buy good stuff. But at the time of the purchase, I did not read the complete forum of this site "Digitalfaq" to learn where to purchase equipment in the "Marketplace". The person who sold this to me, also gave me a lot of old VHS tapes you can no longer buy anywhere. Is this VCR good enough based on the list I saw on this site of VCR's?

As always, this depends on factors.

Condition matters. So ... how is it doing for you?

When did you get it from eBay?

eBay was actually a pretty decent place to get gear into the early 2010s. Starting about 2015, it really shifted to a 50/50 situation, coin flip to get good gear. It quickly got worse in 17-18, then really bad in 19-20, and it's mostly overpriced junk (literally e-waste) now.

In 2015, my spider-sense was tingling in a bad way, so I started to acquire, refurb, and stash away gear for myself -- and discussing it on the forum. Then came requests for me to do the same for others. And here we are.

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I purchased an ATI AIW All-in-wonder Radeon 7500 64MB DDR AGP 2/4 Video Card from Amazon, I have not tested this card to see "how well" it works. I looked on this site for drivers for this card and downloaded drivers I thought closely matched this one. Is this a good enough capture card?

Excellent card. Pair it (marry) with the TBSC for audio, and splurge on a good Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 board. I think there are some other Asrock boards, but more stripped.

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I know I need an external TBC of some sort to complete my current setup.
I want to preserve the best quality possible of VHS tapes I have, these are not manufactured VHS of movies that Hollywood made, no; these are VHS tapes that I recorded using an old JVC or JC Penny VHS camcorder back in the late 80's to early 90's. These are personal home movies that my brother and I did back in the day, so there is no way I would be willing to send these to people to have them do it for us.

A very admirable goal (caring about your/family memories to give them the conversion treatment deserved). And an easily possible goal, as long as you're not overly pinching pennies. I help people reach that goal all the time. You have fairly common wants and needs here. So let's proceed...

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These are the original tapes that have not been played in a VCR for nearly 30 years.

I really hope those are not oxide shedding, molding, etc. Physically check them sometimes.

Tapes from the 80s are not doing well now, we have the same issue in the family. Many tapes are one-and-done now. I'm seeing it more and more with client tapes as well. This means getting the right hardware in place is so important. The next play of those tapes may literally be the last. When I first ran into that on our tapes, I wasn't as lucky for the first 15 or so minutes of footage.

I can build PC's, I have been doing this for over 15 years. I also have been collecting old graphics cards for the last 15 years as well,

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I have an old Reveal VE500 Editor card, I am not sure if this is worth anything as far as what I want to do now. I know it both has both video composite in and out as well as S-Video in and out.

Nah, that's mostly a piece for a museum now, or personal nostalgia. A different era of video. I was there, I remember it. Isn't that an ISA card anyway? I almost wish I'd have kept my Pro Audio ISA cards, some ISA SCSI devices.

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If it is an external TBC that I need will any TBC mentioned on this site be the best or are they listed based on the best to worse?

Well, best is relative to a few factors. For example, best for PAL isn't often best for NTSC. Best for one format, isn't best for the other. Some are "best overall", while others can be best at certain sources, or with certain other hardware in the workflow (such as JVC, AIW).

And then there's budget. Contrary to what some folks think, I'm not a used car salesman. "Yes, buy this model for one meeeellion dollars!" No, that's silly.

However, generally speaking, almost all decent TBCs, for all SD consumer analog sources, are DataVideo/Cypress type, along with some clones, rebadges, reverse engineers.

So are we talking NTSC here, aka North America VHS tapes?

Overall, assuming the hardware is actually in decent condition, you're off to a good start.

POrwig · #3 06-09-2023, 03:35 PM

The VCR was purchased on June 8, 2021 from ebay.
As for the condition, it was well packaged when it shipped to me, I can tell whoever owned it did take care of it. I have not taken the cover off to see what the insides look like (you know, incase it was in someone's storage shed outside) I planned to do this. I read here where I would need to "clean" the VCR heads the right way by using copy paper and solution I can not at the moment think of and stay away from cotton swabs etc which I would agree to. I could not find an exact match when it came to downloading the manual on this site, mine does not have SCART feature, but the person I bought this from sent the SCART plug with the VCR. I already looked on the backside and check the model number on the sticker. The reason for noting starting on this project yet is, I want to make sure I have everything to start cleaned and working before proceeding.

I am in North America, Oklahoma to be exact. So NTSC for me.

Based on what you have said, I think the external TBC is all I need.
When I say best, I want to get the best visual, clarity and sound from the tape.

My main goal is this and maybe someone can tell me the proper way to do this.
Overall I want to burn this to Bluray as a main back up so, I want to capture the video because there were several takes and edit them to make a home movie and then burn for either DVD playback with menu's etc and burn it to bluray for archival purposes. So if capturing the uncompressed lossless version to hard drive is #1 then making a copy of this digital capture to bluray for archiving and then finally another copy to "edit" to DVD then this is the route I would like to take if it is the correct way.

lordsmurf · #4 06-11-2023, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by POrwig

The VCR was purchased on June 8, 2021 from ebay.
As for the condition, it was well packaged when it shipped to me, I can tell whoever owned it did take care of it. I have not taken the cover off to see what the insides look like (you know, incase it was in someone's storage shed outside) I planned to do this.

I've seen well-packed decks that didn't function whatsoever. Ditto for cosmetically perfect decks. Neither are useful to ascertaining condition and performance. You essentially bought it at the wrong place, at the wrong time. But I'm hoping it works out for you.

But I am strongly urging you to approach it with the attitude that something is wrong, and it's your job to find out what it is. Like a good detective. Repeat after me: "I am Batman!"

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I read here where I would need to "clean" the VCR heads the right way by using copy paper

Correct.

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and solution I can not at the moment think of

Not "solution". Simple 91% (or better) isopropyl alcohol aka "rubbing alcohol". Walmart, in medical/drug/vitamin aisles, about $3 for a bottle.

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and stay away from cotton swabs etc which I would agree to.

Correct.

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I could not find an exact match when it came to downloading the manual on this site,

Match?

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mine does not have SCART feature, but the person I bought this from sent the SCART plug with the VCR.
I am in North America, Oklahoma to be exact. So NTSC for me.

Huh? NTSC decks do not have SCART. That's a Europe/PAL deck input/output.

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Based on what you have said, I think the external TBC is all I need.
When I say best, I want to get the best visual, clarity and sound from the tape.

Yes.

But noting the wrong TBC will add problems, so again you really need to avoid eBay. Those eBay buys are getting bad now, and you'll pay another $500 to get it to truly work. Either that, or you'll blow some weekends on DIY electronics repair, hoping not to brick a ~$2k item.

Quote:

My main goal is this and maybe someone can tell me the proper way to do this.
Overall I want to burn this to Bluray as a main back up so, I want to capture the video because there were several takes and edit them to make a home movie and then burn for either DVD playback with menu's etc and burn it to bluray for archival purposes. So if capturing the uncompressed lossless version to hard drive is #1 then making a copy of this digital capture to bluray for archiving and then finally another copy to "edit" to DVD then this is the route I would like to take if it is the correct way.

That works fine.

But just noting most people are leaving discs behind now. Blu-ray really never caught on,a nd most people do not have BD players. They skipped from DVD to streaming. In our home, we no longer any DVD players, only Chromecast and smart TVs. I mostly maintain a single BD player for testing needs, and the DVD recorders are part of the capture setups.

Most stuff is archived lossless, then down-converted to deinterlaced H.264 streaming for watching on DLNA/streaming.

I've not made a DVD menu since before 2020, and not created a BD since 2017 or so.