Quick summary:
Mother in different state decided to digitalise VHS tapes. I researched several local services nearby and found reasonable places specialising in film restoration as well as clean and recover damaged tapes. The incompetent and rude shop owner tells mum to leave tapes with him for a few hours while he sits on his ass and presses the record button. When she picked up the digital files on a hard drive I assumed everything was fine as she told me the format ProRes 422 (for compatibility with her MAC). Almost 6 months later we meet up and I discover the files are not what I asked for to obtain HQ masters. Worst still the exorbitantly expensive larger video was recorded in progressive (with no deinterlacing) which is an amateur mistake.
Extra details
Prior to this project I researched these forums for gear. My parents are retired and don't have a lot of money and my income is very unsteady. I certainly don't have the spare cash to spend on gear, even if it continues to inflate in prices. I considered sending the tapes across the world to lordsmurf or whoever does the services on this site. However, my mother refused as she didn't want to lose the tapes.
After discovering the tapes had been incorrectly formatted I rung up the store and spoke to the owner. I asked what software (final cut), TBC line (he can't remember), VCR model (it's not important). His attitude immediately changed when I stated my background in VFX, suddenly he became aggressive and deflected the blame. He said VHS quality is so bad that it doesn't matter if he used a TBC, a prosumer VCR, cleaned the tapes or forgot to switch off progressive mode. I stated you can't polish a turd and remained calm suggesting to simply redo the tapes correctly and then I would forgive the AU$300 my mother was charged (yes you read that right). He said it wasn't worth his time and hung up.
Below are the 3 videos meta info summarised. The first file seems mediocre although I'm pretty confident he didn't use a line or frame TBC. I'll share some screenshots as the second video has a copy of the same footage on a separate tape.
Video 1 - Christening
Code:
Format: ProRes
Bit rate mode: Variable
Bit rate : 61.8 Mb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Clean aperture width: 703 pixels
Height: 576 pixels
Clean aperture height: 576 pixels
File size: 10.2 GiB
Duration: 22 min 57 s
Overall bit rate mode: Variable
Overall bit rate: 63.3 Mb/s
Display aspect ratio: 4:3
Clean aperture display aspect ratio: 4:3
Frame rate mode: Constant
Frame rate: 25.000 FPS
Standard: PAL
Colour space: YUV
Chroma subsampling: 4:2:2
Scan type: Interlaced
Scan type, store method: Interleaved fields
Scan order: Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 5.958
Colour primaries: BT.601 PAL
Transfer characteristics: BT.709
Matrix coefficients: BT.601
Audio Format: PCM
Bit rate: 768 kb/s
Videos 2 & 3 - Home Videos
Code:
Format: ProRes
Bit rate mode: Variable
Bit rate : 59.4 Mb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height: 576 pixels
File size: 76.6 GiB
Duration: 22 min 57 s
Overall bit rate mode: Variable
Overall bit rate: 63.3 Mb/s
Display aspect ratio: 5:4
Clean aperture display aspect ratio: 4:3
Frame rate mode: Constant
Frame rate: 25.000 FPS
Standard: PAL
Colour space: YUV
Chroma subsampling: 4:2:2
Scan type: Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 5.724
Colour primaries: BT.601 PAL
Transfer characteristics: BT.709
Matrix coefficients: BT.601
Audio Format: PCM
Bit rate: 1 536 kb/s
I would love to name and shame the shop in Launceston Tasmania however we have laws here to protect criminals from slander. After that terrible experience, I was too upset to continue so the files remained in a folder called SQ baby videos. 6 months later, I'm willing to consider one more attempt with a local service near me where I can go in and find out what gear they use and how it will be set up.
-- merged --
Here is a still frame of the same content on two separate tapes. I understand that tapes deteriorate and there might be an issue with how it was transferred originally from my grandfather's video camera.
Third attached image is also from the second tape that was scanned progressive. The shop owner claimed I could just deinterlace it and there would be no artifacts as it's just tagged wrong. I'm not so sure about that as it appears kind of choppy on 50fps footage with QTGMC.