Video Tape to Digital

[tvcollector]

Within the last 12 years I've attempted to transfer my old Beta and VHS tapes to digital, and really everything I've tried doesn't record the exact quality.. Either compresses the file to much, or adds video error or discolor into the file.. I've tried multiple capture cards over the years, and pinnacle dazzle which drops frames, on a very fast computer... Now I just bought a ClearClick Video to Digital Converter 2.0 which doesn't even need a computer, and of course it adds audio noise from video tapes and I think it compresses the mp4 files a bit too much.. Only other thing I can think of is to buy professional equipment, that will record the files either RAW or not too compressed, and hopefully can stretch the image out to 720 or 1080p still at 4:3 and not stretch it out to 16:9... And also not depend on the computer as it processes the audio/video on it's own.. Anyone know of any equipment to buy that will do all this without loss of quality and frame dropping?

I'm looking at this product: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ....html/overview

[mgross0]

Some years ago I had a Toshiba RD-KX50 dvd and hdd recorder and it made perfect copies. I just plugged the VCR into it (a Hitachi Ultravision ), and it came out fine. I have never found a PC based option that worked worth a darn, and I have tried a few. That old Toshiba is the best dvd recorder I have ever found, and I wish I still had it.

[tvcollector]

That DVD recorder probably recorded them into 480x360.. I'm looking for something that will stretch them to at least 720x480, 1080x720 4:3 preferred, I can always use editing software to convert to 16:9 by inserting the video tape media in the middle and adding effects to the sides.. Looking for something that will write to a file instead of burning onto a DVD disk... Hard drive space these days is alot cheaper so I'm wanting something that doesn't compress them or compress them too much.. I like that clearclick device, it writes directly to flash drive or SD card to MP4 format.. And all you do is plug it to the VCR, don't even need to hook the VCR to anything else as it has it's own monitor.. I love the concept, but its not great quality..

[Electronic M]

If you get a DVD RW recorder you can record the files to a single DVD RW and when it fills copy it's data to your hard disc, erase the DVD RW and reuse it.

Another option would be an older digital 8 camcorder with analog input/output and FireWire....many of those camcorders could record video off the 1/8" AV in/out connector, had good A to D converters and the digital recording could be transferred to a PC over the FireWire cable.

I have heard good things about the analog recording capability of my HDML cloner box, but I only have used mine for HDMI capture this far so I haven't seen it for myself...It's also super finnicky about which brand and model of USB thumb drive it will record onto without corrupting it a few times and eventually bricking the thumb drive.

Few things things produce a good digitization of all analog sources. Analog video has varying amounts of noise and detail. Too much detail and noisy sources look terrible, too little detail and low noise sources look blurry. Analog video rarely looks good on modern HD sets.

[old_tv_nut]

I have had several VHS/DVD recorder combos, and the video quality of the transfers from VHS to DVD was OK except that there was a distance limit that the motion estimator in the MPEG II encoder could handle, so things that moved quickly across the width of the picture would develop multiple images.

The other killer is that all these devices over-stressed the writing laser diode, and failed within a few years. The last one I had started reporting bad media, but it was obvious when every disc reported bad that it was the hardware. So, if you have thoughts of buying a used one, either get assurance that it's working or find a source for replacement parts.

[tvcollector]

Looks like the best cloner box out there is the ClonerAlliance Pro Box.. At least from the results I've been pulling up from Google.. I guess $159 isn't too bad as long as it captures the exact quality.. The clearclick device is ok, but they need to update the audio chips as the eBay seller said that's going to happen in October and I can return and exchange it..

[beat_truck]

I have an ancient Hauppauge PVR150 analog TV tuner PCI card, and a more recent Hauppauge Live USB 2 capture dongle. They make pretty darn good video captures... just not with the software supplied from Hauppauge. It is garbage. It only saves in one file format (.mpg I think?) that either produces HUGE but just OK looking files or smaller files that look like total crap.

I can't use the supplied software anyhow since I switched to Linux, but the hardware drivers are baked into the kernel. I've found that I can use VLC media player to record from either capture device, and it has multiple options for file formats and sizes, etc. It also can deinterlace the video as it captures and can apply some other filters as it captures, too.

They don't seem to care about macrovision BS either, which is a plus.

I also had an ATI TV Wonder (Pro 200 I think) back in the early 2000s. It seemed to produce good results, but I didn't really use it much before I got fed up with the computer it was in and gave it away.

[Eric H]

I have an old (close to 20 years?) Sony 8mm Digital Camcorder, it has analog inputs so you can copy tapes.
It's the best transfer option I've ever used, quality is very close to the original source, it also has a digital output (Firewire) that connects to the computer to copy the digital file.

Downside is the tape only holds 1 hour at a time so I have to split it up if it's longer, there might be longer tapes, i've never checked.

The specific model is a TRV-120 There are probably new models that can do the same thing, not sure if an Analog input would still be included?

[tvcollector]

I don't have an old 8mm camcorder, and besides I want to stay away from any device that relies on the computer to record..

I've tried Hauppauge WinTV many years ago, I remember buying it and installing the card in the PC.. I remember the quality of the video compression was good and smooth, but it added horizontal bars and the horizontal hold seem to go out of wack when there was shaky video, and home videos that pretty much was a no go route for me.. I still had the card and the box.. I just moved out of a house ive been living for 18 years, and I saw it sitting around in the pile of stuff I took down from the attic, long story short it didn't go with me lol.. I'm staying away from those USB devices and PC cards.. Too much trouble and than they are worth, and a waste of money, and I've yet to see any of them produce good results...

I also tried this, many years ago too: https://www.amazon.com/Turtle-Beach-...2Aentries%2A=0

It also gave video issues, flickering color on the screen, almost thought i was gonna have a seizure.... Not sure what the technical term would be as I'm terrible with that.. There's already enough noise on VHS/Beta tapes and those capture cards added more conflicting issues...

I think I'm going with that ClonerAlliance Pro Box.. I've been reading reviews about it, and most are very positive..

[Popester]

I have another philosophy. Since I repair things for a living. I have never made one technology try to become another. What I mean. I have all the super 8 films I shot still around on 400ft reels. Also have my Betamax and VHS movies that I purchased. Each technology was of its time. If I want to see an old Super 8 film I made, I have a projector that is for that purpose. If I want to watch a Betamax movie, I have operating SL 2000 and SL2500 machines I can watch them on. If they break I repair or get another one off eBay. Currently don’t watch HDTV as my newest TV is 25 years old, it’s a CRT. I could of made Super 8 film into VHS, than I would need to transfer them into DVD, than whatever the next technology came along I would have to transfer them again. I guess my long rant point is that I have never wanted to keep up with the fast changing technology because we can’t. It will continue to change. I’ll tell you one thing. Super 8 sure had better color rendition and resolution than any video camera format available at that time (Betamovie, VHS-C, or umbilical camera and recorded combinations.) Anybody remember Kodakchrome? Best slide film Kodak ever made. And you know what? Kodak brought back Ektachrome film this year. Who would of thought slide film would ever make an entrance again.

[Hawkwind]

No mention of a Laserdisc player?..

[centralradio]

I just use my Panasonic DVD recorder.I have had the computer attachments and that dont work good on old computers..

On my old 20 year old computer i have Hauppauge WinTV which worked great at the time but it limited .

[MIPS]

If you are just trying to capture a raw SD video why not something from the likes of Canopus, Elgato or Blackmagic?
Pinnacle Micro, ATI and Hauppauge are kinda shitty. Mainly consumer products and 480i at 30fps uncompressed is hard to push over USB 2.0, hence why for quite a while the professional end still used firewire until flash recording became popular, or USB 3.

Canopus ADVC's are still on the cheaper end and lack internal TBC but they are considerably better. Supposedly Startech has good products as well but I can't vouch for them.

Edited: Stupid me didn't see the link at the bottom of the post. Yes that Blackmagic pod will work fine but IMHO I like to work with as little compression as possible prior to the final render (to a modern compression standard like h.265, or again none at all if the output is part of a larger project) because once its added it's a lot of manual work to restore the video.

[mr_rye89]

I watched a youtube video where a guy (technology connections?) used an analog video to HDMI scaler plugged into a box that recorded video from HDMI (like what they use to record gameplay from video game consoles). worked great. I might be trying this soon as I have an excellent Monoprice composite/s-video to HDMI scaler already.

I use a JVC SR-VS30 SVHS/MiniDV dual deck to a standalone DVD recorder or Linux PC via FireWire/iLink. The dual deck VCR also passes thru video from the inputs so you can use it to capture Beta/LaserDisc/whatever with a PC. Said Linux PC has a PCI-E Firewire 400/800 card with a Texas Instruments chipset.

[Outland]

Originally Posted by Eric H

I have an old (close to 20 years?) Sony 8mm Digital Camcorder, it has analog inputs so you can copy tapes.
It's the best transfer option I've ever used, quality is very close to the original source, it also has a digital output (Firewire) that connects to the computer to copy the digital file.

Downside is the tape only holds 1 hour at a time so I have to split it up if it's longer, there might be longer tapes, i've never checked.

The specific model is a TRV-120 There are probably new models that can do the same thing, not sure if an Analog input would still be included?

I've used this setup with great results. In my case, I used a Panasonic DV camcorder that passed AV in directly to the computer via firewire, no tapes required.

I transferred some old LDs that weren't released in any other format back in 2011, and they came out great.