Hello, and welcome to digitalfaq.
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Originally Posted by diaenima
Several years ago I took into possession a collection of 550-600 VHS tapes.
These tapes were used to record televised news reports, documentaries and films between the late 1980s and early 2000s. Some tapes were used to record multiple programs. As such, each tapes contains anywhere between 60m and upwards of recorded content that needs to be transferred to a digital format.
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The majority of readers here are involved in similar projects, although I guess I'm fortunate to have started with only about 300 tapes.
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Originally Posted by diaenima
I have had no prior experience with such projects and I am hoping to gain some advice on what equipment will be suitable for the task.
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Except for the pros who manage this forum, almost everyone here arrived as a newbie. If you haven't done so, spend some time in the forum's capture and restoration guides:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video.htm. Some of the hardware mentioned has changed over time, but the methods and principles for decent analog to digital transfer and restoration have never changed.
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Originally Posted by diaenima
Unfortunately, I only have access to either a 2012 MacBook Pro or a 2008 iMac for the digital transfer process and as such I am looking for OS appropriate recommendations for hardware and software.
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With all due affection for Mac users, that's unfortunate for doing what you propose. A few things are possible with a Mac, but it won't meet most of your pressing needs. If you browse this forum for earlier posts you'll see that the subject has been approached many times, with the same conclusions. A few examples:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post37312
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post29118
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post32614
Quote:
Originally Posted by diaenima
I intend to purchase OS appropriate hardware and software for the project as well as a recommended VCR.
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Here is a recent list of recommended VCRs for VHS capture:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...ing-guide.html. If any of your tapes were recorded at slow 6-hour or 4-hour speeds, we do not recommend JVC players for those tapes.
XP still offers the best platform and hardware availability for analog capture. Vista and Windows 7 have more limitations for capture, but are often preferred for after-capture post processing and encoding (which can be done with XP also, of course). Windows 8 and 10 or disasters for capture and restoration.
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Originally Posted by diaenima
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Frame size aside, that's the wrong tool for VHS,
Quote:
Originally Posted by diaenima
but the video resolution it records at is 640×480. Is this the best possible resolution I can expect from VHS-Digital transfer? For instance, is the 640x480 resolution a consequence of prohibitive file-sizes? If not, what other options might be recommended in order to obtain a higher resolution from the transfer process.
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VHS is usually captured to lossless media as a YUY2 colorspace at 720x480 NTSC (720x576 PAL), using lossless codecs such as
huffyuv, Lagarith, or UT Video. Many capture at 640x480, but keep in mind the intended final delivery format after capture and cleanup. DVD is the most universal media, but one can also encode lossless VHS source as standard definition BluRay at higher bitrates than DVD. Lossless media can be carried forward into any format you want without altering the original capture.
If by higher resolution you refer to HD, you're in for a disappointment. High
definition isn't based on big frame sizes, it's based on source
resolution. Low resolution VHS in big frames looks nothing like HD, it just looks like low-definition blown up into big blurry frames with serious scaling artifacts. Even if you do decide on the upscaling routine (we'd advise against it), noisy analog defects and tape problems have to be cleaned up before any kind of resizing, or the results will be borked. One of many factors to be aware of is that VHS is interlaced, but the documentaries and movies you mention are progressive film-based video with hard telecine embedded. Video with those frame structures cannot be resized as-is. There are prescribed methods handling these sorts things, but they're among some tricks you will have to learn about.
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Originally Posted by diaenima
Another aspect of this project relates to the VHS collection itself as it has not been stored in an appropriately climate controlled environment. The tapes could have suffered some damage from excessive heat and cold. Any advice for checking for, mitigating or amending such possible damage is welcomed.
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Video correction and repair are referred to as
restoration. Good players, line-level and frame-level timebase correction, and decent capture devices are essential for aged and/or damaged sources. Without a good start, restoration is severely limited if not impossible. Post-processing with lossless media, Avisynth, and
VirtualDub are the prime restoration tools we recommend, short of spending 7 figures for the huge computers and custom software used by the likes of Disney. Avisynth,
VirtualDub and similar repair tools are not available for Macs.
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Originally Posted by diaenima
I feel that this is a substantial project for a non-professional to undertake with content that may not be recoverable if not conducted correctly. Any advice that can be furnished will be greatly appreciated.
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Yes, indeed, this undertaking is indeed a
project, for pros and hobbyists alike. The first advice we can offer is that learning and patience are prime requisites. The quality you get depends on what you put into it, which isn't always measurable in terms of $$$. Yes, the hardware isn't free. but most of the software we recommend is free.
This is a big subject (like,
really big). Hundreds of taps is not a quickie summer project. You might want to consider a DVD recorder (using high bitrates) for some of the cleaner tapes, which alone will save months of worth. That isn't a good method for damaged or discolored tapes, however.
