Best VHS-to-digital workflow for my mac and capture device?

[americano_br]

Hello, everyone!

My name is Rafael and I am new to the forum.

I’ve been reading up for a while now many of the posts here pertaining VHS-to-digital conversion, as well as some of the guides on the main site. To be very honest, this has been the most resourceful and accessible place to find clear and straightforward information about VHS conversion I’ve ever come across. So, very happy to have found this website/forum.

For some time now I’ve been meaning to digitize my family’s 30+ year-old collection of home recordings, with a view of preserving their content from the erosions of time, as well as distributing those clips around to family-members.

Set upon pursuing that project I purchased online a capturing device (Canopus ADVC-110) and a cheap VCR (Toshiba model X798).

Now, I’ve come to know, thanks to a guide posted on this website, that a competent VHS-conversion workflow should necessarily include one decent VCR and a Time Base Corrector, an equipment I don’t think I had known to exist before reading about it on this site.

Fair enough. However, at this time, I cannot afford the TBC or a better VCR unit. And yet I still would like to create some digital files from those VHS tapes.

What to do??

My computer is a macbook pro mid-2012 with the latest MacOS Catalina. I have imovie, final cut pro and FFMPEG installed on this machine.

I intended to follow the instructions from this youtube tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn_TDa9zY1c&t=798s - even digitized a couple of tapes based upon it - but I’ve come across some serious disapproval of this youtube guide in this forum. Just for my knowledge, what are the most egregious faults with what is being suggested up there?

Thank you for this for this forum and, in advance, for your advice. I wish you all the best in these times.

[jwillis84]

Since you have an ADVC 110 and you are likely capturing PAL, be sure to study whether that is your best option.

Although ADVC 110 captures PAL to the DV format, it does so in a better color format.

[Winsordawson]

I used to use a Canopus ADVC-110 as a quick solution to convert my tapes before I could send them to a professional (like the one who owns this site ). As it only exports to DV, the quality suffers, but it is a quick and dirty solution that is better than nothing. However, I was using a Mac with iMovie HD 6. When I was forced to install a newer Mac OS, this version of iMovie became unusable, and the newer iMovie would not work with Canopus, so beware. Things may have changed since that time.

Any capture is better than nothing, so if I were you I would capture what you can and then send them to a professional when you have the money. You can also buy a Windows and the necessary setup for proper converting (which you can find on this site), but it comes down to whether you value time over money. For me, I did not have the time to become a VCR technician, and probably would not do as good as a job as someone who has done it for twenty years. You can change your own oil, but do you want to change your own transmission?

[americano_br]

Thanks fot the feedback. I'm actually capturing from a NTSC source.

[americano_br]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winsordawson

I used to use a Canopus ADVC-110 as a quick solution to convert my tapes before I could send them to a professional (like the one who owns this site ). As it only exports to DV, the quality suffers, but it is a quick and dirty solution that is better than nothing. However, I was using a Mac with iMovie HD 6. When I was forced to install a newer Mac OS, this version of iMovie became unusable, and the newer iMovie would not work with Canopus, so beware. Things may have changed since that time.

Any capture is better than nothing, so if I were you I would capture what you can and then send them to a professional when you have the money. You can also buy a Windows and the necessary setup for proper converting (which you can find on this site), but it comes down to whether you value time over money. For me, I did not have the time to become a VCR technician, and probably would not do as good as a job as someone who has done it for twenty years. You can change your own oil, but do you want to change your own transmission?

I take your point.

I also don't intend to become an expert. My immediate concern is to ensure the archive is preserved, even if the output quality is not 100% what it can be. In addition it will be cool to share memories from 20, 25, 30 years ago with relatives in whatsapp.

Hopefully in the near-future I'll send the material for a professional to work his/her magic.