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Originally Posted by foreverlikethis
I'd love to hear thoughts and comments, and if there's anything in particular you feel really needs correcting, I'd be more than happy to update it.
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I get busy, I get sidetracked -- mostly with family, my health, and family health. But I do always try to circle back to conversations where my input is sought. You took time to write that, then ask for feedback here. So I'll take the time to read it, and give the feedback requested. But this wasn't an urgent matter, so it's been in an open tab for these past few months, hence the delay.
What I'll do here is quote your piece, and reply in-line as I read it (again).
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Do you know what VHS really stands for, traveler? It’s: “Various Hurdles and Suffering”.
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I don't know about suffereing. More like "
VHS is
Hardly
Simple". It's just a task that takes time, reading, patience, and tools. In other words, not much different from anything else worth doing. The problem is that everything thinks they know everything about videotapes (or cars, or cooking, or whatever), and botch it all in the process. So you get the attitude of "Ugh, I gotta read? I gotta buy stuff? The horrors!"
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To his surprise, they’d been covered in mold and when he took the matter to a repair shop they told him he’d lost everything, including the player, and that he should throw it all away;
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That person was an idiot. No need to dress that in soft language. Moron, dumbass, clueless, a sorry excuse for a "repair shop" if ever there was one.
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Where a person is more likely to watch (and accept!) the first video YouTube excretes from its algorithmic anus, than to do any of there own godforsaken research on a topic.
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Yes, yes, yes. Love it. I need to put that on a T-shirt.
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They want to produce over-rushed CON-tent, with minimal effort, for their profit, at your irrelevant expense.
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Yep. "Blah blah, videotapes ... and now a word from our sponsor!!!"
Furthermore, "Technology Connections" on Youtube is a complete numbnuts when it comes to video. He's proclaimed himself an expert at everything technology, but anybody that knows anything about what he covers knows that he's a fraud. He makes clickbait ********* nothing more.
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He's good --- but that's because he clearly learned video from this site.
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In other words, I strongly advise A LOT of reading. To start: The Digital FAQ.com is an invaluable repository of information. Lead by the most fearsome entity in this community: lordsmurf.֎ This person, for various reasons, is worthy of your attention; even if solely for their sheer commitment to the cause.
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I'm humbled, thank you.
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But as much as we seek authority, I believe it worthwhile to acknowledge criticism in hopes of realizing more tempered perceptions:
Meme - Average DigitalFAQ Forum Thread
VHS - S-Video Capture Or VHS_Decode?
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I don't really see that as necessary. For example, I never say "__ is my favorite MLB team ... but other people hate them for this reason" (with links to people saying my team sucks). That seems odd to me. Reddit especially tends to get as toxic as Twitter at times, and I generally don't link to either one of them for that reason.
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It’s Complicated
We’re talking about an issue that involves:
Priceless memories, along with the heated emotions they invoke
Capitalistic greed
A convenience worshipping public
Technology long past its prime
And plenty of opinions
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Nah, that's not really complicated.
The only real complex aspect is/was the "capitalistic greed", due to devices not performing as claimed. To some degree, you have to already know about video and the devices to know when those companies were full of BS. But with VHS ingest/capture, it's almost entirely in the rearview. Many of the companies don't even exist anymore. At this late date, the 2020s, many of us (the video community) know which companies were lying, or which made great hardware/software (including freeware, not just payware). But, of course, to know the score, you'll have to read up, find those communities, connect with those people.
But then the next problem is
(1) people not verifying sources, then reading/comprehending those sources
(2) other people who say stuff, but in actuality know nothing, and should keep their yap shut, in order to not confuse the newbies --- aka all the "content creators" on Youtube.
I'm not as concerned about "convenience" (nice way of saying "lazy"), the older tech, or the importance of the memories. All of that stuff just is what it is.
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Especially when it can feel like a race against the clock.
There are certainly no shortage of vultures (scammers) whose marketing preys on such fears: Legacybox, among others. They undoubtedly benefit from inciting your rush
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That's it. Those hucksters pre-date digital.
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To speak plainly: be patiently studious. Yes, you probably should’ve done this ~10 (~20?) years ago, but panicking now ain’t gonna solve nothin’. Especially if your tackling this as I did, with absolutely zero knowledge on the subject. Taking the time to get the lay of the land will pay off in spades. Even if you ultimately decide not to do this yourself, you will assuredly have developed some discernment / assessment ability. Which you’ll need… lotta shifty folk in these waters, sadly.
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This is excellent advice, and what I've said for many years now. -- although I do somewhat instill some sense of urgency when it comes to late 70s and early 80s tapes, because those are legit failing now en masse. Not mold, which is correctable(ish), but outright oxide shedding (total loss).
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On the other end of this spectrum are the ‘perfectionists’. Those who will always be lingering about to ensure your efforts feel… “inadequate”. To satiate them comes at a price
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The problem here is that some people refer to basic quality as "perfection". It's too often used as an excuse to accept crap conversion work.
A true perfectionist sits in Avisynth, DaVinci, Premiere, and others, in order to tweak every pixel. That's insane -- unless I'm getting paid $$$,$$$ by a movie studio, in order to show it on a 100' movie screen.
No, what I advocate is simply clean video, as it exists on the tape. Not butchered due to cheap/garbage equipment, lazy methods, etc. Don't show me some wiggly video, distorted aspect ratio, the image overexposed, and out of sync. Too often, over the decades, people use the total BS term "VHS quality" in reference to their own poor work. That's not VHS, that's them sucking at capturing VHS.
To acquire the clean video, you need basic video tools. Not "basic" to the understanding of somebody that knows nothing about video. But rather "basic" in the video world.
That means
- TBCs in use,
- a capture card that doesn't crush/compress the signal,
- and a VCR that faithfully(ish) plays the audio/video.
That's NOT a big ask. It's not perfection in any way.
Perfection is
- the nuance between JVC and Panasonic brand S-VHS VCRs
- the nuance between DataVideo, Cypress, and other known-good TBCs
- the nuance between lossless capturing codecs, or even MPEG capturing at post-DVD bitrates
I gladly discuss nuance, but even some of the "perfectionist" topics bores me. For example, Avisynth'ing everything pixel on every frame, tweaking sharpening, upscaling, etc. It's great to have a place for those discussions, but it's not the bread-and-butter of the capture task at hand (or even the post-processing).
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Capturing Essence
Perspective can make all the difference, reader. Instead of thinking “I should’ve done this a long time ago.”, consider “In doing this now, I am blessed that an abundance of knowledge and advice has been explored, amassed and curated.” Likewise, instead of nitpicking at the imperfections of the medium or your transfers, consider that those very flaws imbue your work with soul; with something that, in our modern culture, is seemingly being sought after.
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Yep.
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I dove headfirst into this nonsense with the express purpose of finally being free of this archaic burden… But I came out with a deep respect, understanding and reverence for something I myself had been culturally psy-oped to look down on. If you let it, this is a journey that can go far beyond its initial premise, to provide value independent of the fruits of your labour…
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Yep, and still a lot of tape collectors out there, for this reason! Nostalgia is eternal, but "our" nostalgia will die when we do. Just imagine the younger generations that will cherish pre-AI internet searching, or perhaps even the quaintness of holding a phone to talk to somebody elsewhere in the world.
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Cutting Room Floor
Without mistakes (and better circumstances), this project could’ve cost me less than $1k USD. But I rushed at the start, and it cost me another $1k USD. Don’t be like me: DON’T RUSH.
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Nah, $1k is a good budget. When you're done, just resell it. That $1k investment could turn into only a few hundred lost, or break-even, or even a profit (that you can use to take your parents out for a nice steak dinner!)
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Hardware I Used:
JVC HR-S7500U
Old (i.e. runs Windows XP natively) Dell Desktop
I-O Data GV-USB2
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- VCR is good
- XP box was probably fine.
- GV-USB2 not the best, but you can easily do worse, and maybe a half-dozen better choices
What you lack is frame TBC, and that can present in ugly ways, especially for audio sync. To use a crass analogy, not having TBCs is like barebacking with a hooker. You risk STDs, or even crotch goblins. TBCs are protection from bad things that can happen when working with videotapes. The 7500U should have a line TBC, so you did have some protection, but it wasn't 99-100%, more like 50%. You took risks, not sure if it worked (having not seen the end results).
Overall, I think you blog entry was quite good.
I laughed, I nodded, I cocked my head.
I appreciated the quality of the writing -- the use of
bold, punctuation, metaphor, the thesaurus.
Kudos.
That was worth my time.
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Originally Posted by foreverlikethis
As I was working on the project some friends were asking: "is this some audiophile-tier stuff?" I'd reply that I didn't think so, a lot of it seemed practical and reasonable and understandable, to a point, I think. Though I can't really say, I've never been audiophile either. But that's why I also felt it was important to find charm in the imperfections, though that too only to a certain degree.
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Audiophiles are nuts, and believe in the craziest stuff. I put audiophiles in the same box with anti-vaxxers and anarchists. Hmmm.... funny how those all start with "A".
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Originally Posted by Gary34
there are tools
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That really distills video capture to a phrase. It's just a task, and you need proper tools.
People that whine about it are the same people who wall-mount without a stud finder (tool), then get all mad that their TV fell on the floor and smashed to pieces. They tend to be lazy, uneducated, and proud of it. They'd rather watch TikTok, or play a video game, instead of learning stuff.
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Originally Posted by foreverlikethis
I'm afraid I don't have enough experience or knowledge to agree or disagree on this front. I'm a tad skeptical though.
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Skepticism is a fine line between wisdom and stupidity. Proceed with caution.
Again, good blog, I approve.
