[Hidden-tech] VHS Transfer options?

Wed Feb 9 16:41:29 UTC 2022

Thank you Michael for such a detailed account of your experience and process!
It's way too big a topic to dive deep, but I have to emphasize that the digitizing process is most effectively dealt with using professional hardware. From playback, to processing (time base correction/stabilizing, chroma/noise filtering, de-interlacing--or not, etc) to digitizing, to encoding) you will benefit greatly from a clean hardware signal chain. The investment in all of that is generally not cost-effective, for most folks, but a good DIY choice in my opinion would be one of the Canopus AVDC units not made since about 2010, but come up on Ebay. These are Firewire units, so you may need to modify your computer--sorry. All of the processing happens in the box, and you capture a DV stream, which retains the interlacing and is an intraframe codec, ideal for editing. File sizes are ~12.5 GB/hr. You'll like want/need to edit and re-encode to create a more modern format with lower bitrate/file size, so you'll have to deal with that, but results should be very good.
Using one of those rinky-dink usb converters that you started out with sounds easy, but if even if it works, you'll find that it's a usb 2 device typically with very limited dynamic range and very high compression, so it bakes in the noise and loss of detail in light and dark areas, especially when using the typically provided software. One way many of those devices lowers the bitrate is to de-interlace by capturing every other field and scaling it from 240p to 480p. This YouTube video describes a process to instead capture the native interlaced signal with no compression using VirtualDub (Windows only) then doing all sorts of processing to create finished files. 
How to convert VHS videotape to 60p digital video (NTSC)

| 
| 
| 
|  |  |

 |

 |
| 
|  | 
How to convert VHS videotape to 60p digital video (NTSC)

 |

 |

 |

The method described is all very sound, but extremely time-consuming and I have to wonder about the image quality from the outset. It's way more efficient to deal with the processing he mentions in real time using professional hardware when possible.

One other thing that's often overlooked is how important it is to assess different needs of different collections and end users/uses so that a sensible and efficient approach is taken on a case-by-case basis, since needs and wants can vary so much among different recordings.

Steve Unkles, Production Manager
    Audio-Visual Archives
 Media Production and Preservation
     www.MakeHistory.tv

    On Tuesday, February 8, 2022, 08:51:07 PM EST, Michael Lynch via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:  

 I had a negative experience with EverPresent.

They tried to bill me for products I never requested, and they tried to charge me a different amount than they quoted me. I had to dig up the email proving that they quoted me a different rate before they refunded the difference.

They were also storing customer data insecurely, making it possible to access all of their customers' captured videos and photos. To their credit, they took it seriously when I reported it to them and escalated it to the owner, but it took them six months to fix the issue, and they never notified their customers.

When I discovered the issue, I also requested that they delete all copies of my data, but they left my data online and exposed insecurely for several weeks until I asked them again to remove it.

But back to the topic of digitizing VHS tapes, I spent a long time on a digitizing project, and I wrote a guide explaining how I did it:

https://mtlynch.io/digitizing-1/
Thanks,
Michael Lynch
On Fri, Feb 4, 2022, at 11:18 AM, Tom Adams ~ Reelife Productions & Folktography via Hidden-discuss wrote:

I've had very good experiences with Boston based(?) Everpresent

Regards,

Tom Adams, Director/Owner

Reelife Documentary Productions • Folktography by Tom
Cool Media Production...Not Boring or Dumb.
Educating, Entertaining & Enlightening since 1996
(413) 575-9707
 • Williamsburg, MA

On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 11:13 AM fsaronson--- via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:

I have a friend who has some particular needs in terms of transferring VHS to a digital format.  He’s transferred other tapes via commercial companies, but there are some sensitive issues with the current tapes that might require more specialized attention:

   - They don’t track properly in a VCR, so need someone with the tech to adjust for that   

   - They are quite dark, so need adjusting for that also, if possible.   

   - One tape may contain politically incorrect material (not blue, per se, but something that more modern sensibilities wouldn’t approve of.  But it’s a family tape, so they want to preserve them).   

He’d like a local and/or small concern who may be able to assist.  Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Frank Aronson

_______________________________________________
 Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net
 Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net

 You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list.
 If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members
 page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
 http://www.hidden-tech.net/members

_______________________________________________
Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net
Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net

You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list.
If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members
page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
http://www.hidden-tech.net/members

_______________________________________________
Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net
Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net

You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list.
If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members
page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
http://www.hidden-tech.net/members

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20220209/ae3593a1/attachment-0001.html>