Could this digitize workflow work? Red flags?
 

So of course like others, I am trying to find the best quality/time efficient workflow for digitizing old media (VHS, MiniDV, High8, etc).

I currently run VHS players through AD converter to capture via firewire and then very long encoding process.

Here is my idea of new process:
I have my eyes on the ClearClick Video2USB upscaler.
With it supporting all my inputs, resolution options, and (not sure if it is a true A-to-D converter), but using this device directly into OBS and using their de-interlacing feature when needed. Would this work just as good as the "older" methods, would the quality be as good? Am I losing important data / quality by doing this?

I would LOVE to eliminate the encoding process and capture directly to MP4.
Any help I would GREATLY appreciate, thank you.:D

It might work but not as good as the traditional capture workflow, De-interlacing on the fly and using OBS is never recommended in these forums, It opens up a giant can of worms, the baked in artifacts are hard to fix down the line, Capturing analog video is not one task, it's a process, If you don't have the patience and want quality find someone to do it for you.

Welcome. :)

No, that's an infamous garbage device, not at all worth your money.

This is a red flag. There should be no "options". When consumer analog video (VHS, Hi8, etc) is more/less than 720x480 (or x576 PAL), or the 352/704 variants, quality is butchered by bad internal processing. It should never be more (HD,etc), or less.

Butchered video, 50%+ of quality is destroyed. Both motion/intraframe and in-frame.

What is the exact "older method" you refer to? (Note that it'll be hard to butcher video worse than the ClearClick/OBS method.)

No.

Massive quality loss.

There is no way around this, while still keeping any degree of quality.

Fast
Cheap
Good

Pick 1.
Yes, 1, not 2.

"MP4" is just a wrapper, and you probably mean H.264. But H.264 is a delivery/final format, not a capture format. When you capture to MP4/H.264, the quality is garbage. The H.264 GOP-based encoding is not made for on-the-fly realtime processing like that.

I think that's far too kind. If you're watching/hearing the output on a tiny cell phone screen, sure, "it works". If you have any hopes of retaining quality, then it doesn't even remotely work.

^ This.

... but also noting that "someone to do it for you" needs to be vetted. You don't want some clown to also use cheap devices, bad methods, etc, then charge you money for bad work.

Or acquire the quality gear to get the quality results. Buy it, use it, resell it. Quality gear holds value, junk is yours to keep (unless you find a sucker, hot potato).