My old VHS to DVD mixed

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WOA76
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My old VHS to DVD mixed

Post by WOA76 »

I friend gave old VHS to a DVDR recorder I am copying the stuff off
I am from Canada so a lot stuff from MuchMusic from the late 80s to the late 90s there are a lot of tracking issues and audio drops out cause had crappy VHS and ages tape


I record full VHS what software be good edit with and what format I am on Windows 7-10-11


let me know, please
I just put 1st VHS and there
MuchMusic Spotlight - The Beatles
Ringo interview Johnny Carson 1995
Mccartney in Chicago from Entertainment Tonight clip
Unknow show talking about Feb 7th 1964 - Interview Sid man talked to Brian
Beatles cartoon taped over Paul Opening Art gallery with Heather on Prime Time News




Also, I have a copy of The Beatles Anthology from an ABC broadcast my AV Teacher set the timers and taped it I don't think I played this back since it was taped when aired ill be copy this this DVDS also
Chris
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Re: My old VHS to DVD mixed

Post by Hitachi »

Hoping you have the following in decent quality from when George did some promotions in Toronto in March 1988:
CFTO News TV News 88.03.29-
Canada AM TV News 88.03.29+
Much Music - Special Live Presentation Interview 88.03.29
Spot The Looney Interview 88.03.29 broadcast on Oct 8 1988

There just doesn't seem to be any good quality copies of these around even from Canada!
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Re: My old VHS to DVD mixed

Post by B-ED »

I used this software in the past with great results, check it out here..........

hxxps://www.diamondmm.com/product/diamond-vc500 ... it-stream/

xx=tt
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Re: My old VHS to DVD mixed

Post by joguema »

A few years ago I found the following tutorial on another board and was able to transfer a lot of my old VHS-tapes to my PC. For recording I used 'Open Broadcaster Software' instead of VLC or Windows Movie Maker:



YYY is right. This is the key right here, and I learned this the hard way. Like ABC said at the top of this thread, what you really want to do is to import your VHS video in a "raw" format. That is, an uncompressed format. That is, lossless.

All external devices I have seen are USB devices, almost all of them USB 2.0. And USB 2.0 is not fast enough to deliver lossless video. Instead, they deliver compressed video, that is, lossy. And because this compression is done "on the fly", it can/does lead to dropped frames, pixelation, and sync issues.

Most USB devices don't come right out and say that the video file they create is lossy. Instead, it will say something like "Uses the H.264 video format" or "creates a DVD-ready mpg file" both of which are lossy. That means, even before you've touched the file that's been created on your desktop, there's already data loss. And I know how much we hate that kind of thing :)

Firewire doesn't have the same problem as USB because firewire's transfer rate is much faster than USB 2.0. Firewire was essentially designed to transfer video. So, at least on an iMac, once you plug a device into your Firewire input, the device basically takes over your computer's resources while you're importing video. Even if you wanted to, your computer's not going to let you do much else while the video is being imported.

Unfortunately, firewire is not standard on Windows computers (and I'm a loyal Windows user, so this sucked for me). So, if you want to use Windows, you'll need to install an internal firewire card on your desktop, like this. If all you have is a Windows laptop, you're out of luck.

It's easier to use a desktop Mac, though, instead of Windows because a firewire input comes standard on all desktop iMacs. Not on Mac laptops, only on desktops. (Recently, firewire has been replaced by its successor "thunderbolt" but the two are compatible. You just need a firewire-to-thunderbolt cord.)

Now, once you have a firewire connection on your computer, you need a way to connect it to a VHS player. For me, the cheapest way I found to do this was to buy a used Sony Mini DV Handycam. They don't make them anymore, but you can find them all over eBay for under $100. All Sony Mini DV Handycams have an RCA input, like you see on the back of a VCR, like these. And the Sony Mini DV Handycam also has a firewire output.

So, you connect the VHS player to the Sony Handycam using an RCA cable. You then connect the Handycam to your computer using a firewire cable. Both cables should already come with the Handycam, if the used one you're buying has all the original accessories.

You will also need to change one single setting on the screen of the Handycam. On some models, this requires a working remote control. On others, the Handycam has a touchscreen so you don't need the remote. There's instructions on the internet on how to change the setting, but it says something like "A/V-->DV Output" like seen in this video.

Now that you have everything connected and the "A/V-->DV Output" setting activated, on your computer, open up iMovie if you're using a Mac. On Windows, open up VLC or perhaps Windows Movie Maker.

Press "Play" on your VHS player. You'll see the video playing in iMovie. There will be a big "Record" button in iMovie. Press "Record" and it will start recording the video from your VHS player, compression-free. Completely lossless. (If using VLC or Windows Movie Maker, the button to record isn't so obvious. I didn't use those, so if you do, you'll want to look up instructions on how to use those apps to import video.)

Since the new file being created is lossless video, the file will be big. The transfer rate to deliver lossless video is at least 50MB/sec, so an hour-long video is going to come out as a 10GB file. But it will look exactly as it does on your VHS player. No pixelation, no sync issues, no dropped frames.

Now that you have your lossless video on your desktop, it's suggested you save it as-is somewhere for posterity. For portability, you can then use a free app like Handbrake to compress the video (not on the fly, so the results will be much better) to make a copy of your original file as large or as small as you want.

That's what I learned when I converted all my home videos last year, after buying a USB device that was junk. I didn't use a TBC because these tapes weren't in bad shape at all, though that certainly would have given better results. I think the main issue, though, is to import your video losslessly, and the easiest way to do that in this day and age is using firewire.

There are other products out there that might work. There are a couple external USB 3.0 devices that promise to deliver lossless video, but they all have bad reviews for the exact same reason as earlier USB devices did--dropped frames, pixelation, sync issues.

There are also video capture cards that take an analog input (like RCA cables) directly. However, the ones that I have seen only import the video, which means you have to plug the audio into your sound card, so the audio and video get imported as two separate files. Which means it's going to take more work than it would to just use firewire.

And again, I say this all as a loyal Windows user. I can't vouch for how well this method works on Windows with an interal firewire card, since I didn't go that route. I had access to an old iMac, so I used it. And I can say that it works perfectly on an iMac desktop. So if you have access to an iMac desktop, I highly recommend using the above method. Because once you're done with the Sony Handycam, you can then re-sell it on eBay. I sold mine at about a $15 loss, but hey. I got all of my old family home movies into digital format, all lossless, all saved for posterity, for $15. Way cheaper than taking them into Costco, with more control, too.

One other thing: Sony still makes Handycams, but they are no longer Mini DV. Now, they save video onto an SD Card. But you need the Mini DV version of the Handycam, because those are the only ones that have RCA inputs, which allow you to connect it to a VCR. Newer Handycams do not have RCA inputs, so are useless to do this. Most other Mini DV camcorders also have RCA inputs, but not all of them. That's why I recommend Handycams because they're well known and it's easy to find instructions on the internet to use the above method. That said, if you already have an old Mini DV camera in your closet, I'd start by seeing if that one will work for you.

And just to be clear: Don't even bother with any USB devices to do this. It will be junk and you will be disappointed, if you care about the video quality at all.

I am sure there are other methods to deliver lossless video to your desktop that work just as well. I thought I'd write this up in case anybody here has interest in doing it. If anybody here does try this method and has questions, feel free to drop me a line and I'll try my best to help.

=====================================================================================

I also forgot to mention.....the results of your efforts is also dependant on the software you use to process the video.

There is a huge difference in quality between using something cheap or "built in" like Microsoft Movie Maker as compared to Adobe Premiere or other such programs.

Usually "built in" programs are designed for novice users to create a dvd from their home video captures from a cell phone or laying out a spread of pictures and adding music.

The more robust the software is, the more options you have for capturing and processing video. I know from experience that Adobe Premiere can process video in a number of different ways and formats....everything from lossless to lossy, from PAL to NTSC, from 4:3 to 16:9......and also has a lot of really nice tools for fixing any issues you may run into after the transfer has been made "post production" type tools.

=====================================================================================
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Lord Reith
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Re: My old VHS to DVD mixed

Post by Lord Reith »

I used an RCA to USB dongle back in around 2005 and captured to AVI with the lossless huffyuv codec. Even on my old windows xp I had no trouble with dropped frames or anything. The trick was to optimize your pc for video capture, which meant switching off all the things that would interrupt the process. Then i would convert the lossless file to mpeg2.

When i found that my dongle had been left in storage years later and I needed to capture some vhs, I tried to buy something similar and found it was impossible. Nothing like that existed anymore except really cheap and nasty things that tried to convert on the fly to h264 like you said. I bought one and it was useless. Eventually I just managed to get back the one I had stored, but otherwise I just would have bought an old dvd recorder and done it that way.

You can also buy devices which capture h264 on the fly to an internal hard drive in fantastic quality. They use them for gaming to record gameplay. But you need a HDMI input, which vhs machines don't have so some sort of convertor would be required.
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Re: My old VHS to DVD mixed

Post by chrisp »

I am not a technical person but I have used OBS various dongles to convert VHS to digital. Good results were obtained using OBS but it was a lot of effort to get it right and results varied from tape to tape. I now use an old Pioneer DVD hard disk recorder I bought on ebay. I connect the VHS and it does the job reliably and to my eyes is as good as using OBS but so much easier and quicker. The recorder seems to iron out any frame problems on the VHS tape. The Pioneer can do basic editing and when i'm happy I then burn a dvd. If its a keeper I convert to mkv and add it my hard disk connected to my TV. Good luck.
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Re: My old VHS to DVD mixed

Post by maccafan1 »

I have a Sony VHS that have had since new but with very little use hooked up by Scart to a Sony HD/DVD machine and improves the VHS signal slightly am sure, as BEd knows I still have a lot of new to me VHS to work through but have sort of ground to a halt doing this.

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Re: My old VHS to DVD mixed

Post by Sid Burnsteen »

Very useful info for capturing video - thanks for that excellent tutorial!! But wasn't WOA76 only asking about editing software for Windows? For 20+ years I've been happy with the following, though it is somewhat expensive (there are surely similar products around, but I haven't tried them): https://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tvmw7.html
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Re: My old VHS to DVD mixed

Post by WOA76 »

thanks all replay help

sorry delay my mom fell and broke her neck need surgery and very bad she not make it doctor said but wosrt case glad got everyone here for suport

but i will keep u all updated
Chris
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WOA76
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Re: My old VHS to DVD mixed

Post by WOA76 »

Hitachi wrote: Sun Jan 28, 2024 6:20 am Hoping you have the following in decent quality from when George did some promotions in Toronto in March 1988:
CFTO News TV News 88.03.29-
Canada AM TV News 88.03.29+
Much Music - Special Live Presentation Interview 88.03.29
Spot The Looney Interview 88.03.29 broadcast on Oct 8 1988

There just doesn't seem to be any good quality copies of these around even from Canada!


who knows one this tape hell i found stuff I didn't know i had

I have making Sgt Peper off MuchMuisc BUT SADLY power went out and lost few mins it taped on SP and OMG wow looks great even after 40 years

Same Linda McCartney Story I have all but again lighting storm and never able find it again not see it since
Chris
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