I'm sure someone on here has done this, and there are probably a few experts in the house. I've been procrastinating long enough and want to get this done. I have a lot of old VHS, 8mm and MiniDV tapes of the kids, family events, racing, etc. There are services out there that do it, but that cost can really add up. I have some time this winter, and this will allow me to review the content and maybe even just junk a lot of it if it's not worth saving. I'm borrowing a simple EasyCAP dongle that are pretty common and cost under $20. I don't have any software for it yet. So my questions for others who have done this: - what format should I convert to? (mp4, mpeg, raw, ??) file size might be a consideration, also the ability to playback on PC - what settings are best? I don't even know what settings I need to worry about yet? (frame rate, resolution, size, etc) - what software is good? are there options to enhance picture/sound, create separate files at each break? - should I get something else instead of this EasyCAP thing? - VHS & 8MM are analog, MiniDV is digital right? Do these need to be handled differently? - any other tips?
wish I could help but I just paid Costco to convert mine. They did a great job even though one VHS tape failed (broke) during the process.
The best result will entail adding a used Frame Sync with Time Base Corrector to the system, say an old DPS 475 or 575 which are available on Ebay and used TV production gear sites. example from this morning's search on Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...acat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=dps+575 A time base corrector (TBC) will clean up the playback of the tapes and limit or even remove the fuzzy flutter in the color that comes from the playback tape deck having small variances in speed (from the absolute speed the tape was recorded at) while playing a tape. A Frame Sync will also allow you to adjust brightness, contrast, color saturation and hue to "adjust" for poorly recorded tapes. It can't make a diamond from a lump of coal, but if the recordings were decent once, the TBC/Frame Sync will make a huge difference in the quality of the digitized video. As for enhancements, less is more. The DPS 575 may have the noise reduction option installed, and that would be good to use. I'd try to reproduce the tape as closely as possible to it's original appearance, and then digitize it. Manuiplating the video after it is digitized is easier, and you can always go back to the original if you really muck it up. The 8mm tapes may have a firewire or DV port to move the output as digital, but finding devices with a compatible input may be difficult. 8mm was an analog recording, like VHS. It provided about the same quality on a smaller tape. DPS575 had an optional DV input, but finding a unit with that option installed is difficult. You won't lose much, if any, quality using the NTSC analog output from a 8mm deck. Digitize at the same resolution it was created. For American (NTSC) tapes, that is Standard Definition (720x480 or 704x480 at 30 frames/sec [actually 29.97 F/s]). This is another area where making changes in the digital arena is much better than trying to do it in the conversion from analog to digital. The compression standard you use will affect file size to a huge extent. Raw uncompressed SD video generates digitized at 8 bits 4:2:2 color sampling (full color quality) plus another 3Mb/s for stereo audio. That works out to about 55-60GB/hr of raw data before file overhead. You can reduce that some by reducing color resolution 30% (approximates the best quality on the VHS tape) and cut that about 25% Using Motion JPEG (MJPEG) compression will give you about a 10:1 or 15:1 reduction in file size compared to uncompressed while being nearly visually lossless. Higher compression will give smaller file size with attendant video quality loss. MPEG1 is also out there, but I'd stay away from it, as MPEG2 and MPEG4 are so much better and not significantly more expensive. Using MPEG2 or MPEG4 will provide excellent results (usually better than MJPEG) with a much smaller file size. usually 1/20th to 1/40th that of a uncompressed recording. Many MPEG encoders allow you to set "quality" which affects file size in addition to the final picture and sound quality. For a given compression technique, the smaller the file, the more compromises are made to video quality. The determination of how to record is driven by how you want to use the digitized media. Is it for viewing, or are you going to extensively edit it and create new videos. If you are editing or doing post-production with the video, record at the highest quality you can. If you are just going to play it and watch, then either MPEG2 or MPEG4 will be fine. MPEG4 will make files with the same video quality as MPEG2 at about half the file size.
That answers some of my questions, thanks. Yeah this will be just converting for playback, no editing or fancy use for it later. Using a TBC takes this project to another level for me, not sure how that all ties together, but it's something worth learning about. Gracias.
A TBC/Frame sync has video in/out connectors on BNC connectors. You get some BNC to RCA adapters and just plug the video into the TBC/FS and out of the unit to the encoder. If you want to run audio through the TBC/FS (that's optional), you may have some more complicated wiring and setup. But the video is essentially plug and play. You can choose to plug the audio directly from the tape playback to the encoder. In case it doesn't show, I have worked in professional and broadcast video my entire career, and spent 8 years starting in 1995 exclusively teaching digital video and the transition from analog to digital to TV engineers and executives.
Yeah I'd say that makes you an expert. Thanks for the info. Do you have any recommendation for software to work with? Let me clarify that question by saying that a free download would be most preferred ha ha.
I've not used any consumer level software for video conversion in about 15 years now. I can't make any recommendation of current software. I used Roxio back in the day. It wasn't free, but worked relatively well. Not even sure if the company is still around. Looking at the B&H photo site (www.bhphotovideo.com) it appears there are several bundled packages of encoders (USB hardware) and software for less than $200. Lookingat the site, the Elgado will make MPEG4 (H.264) files. These can't be written to DVD and played in a standard DVD player, but will play on computers and tablets, etc. It doesn't appear to come with software, so you'd need a free download to use this. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...ystems_10020840_Video_Capture_USB_Analog.html The Roxio comes with software and capture device and makes MPEG2 video compatible with writing to a DVD and playing on Mac/PC/tablets. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/913789-REG/corel_251000_easy_vhs_to_dvd.html
