Digitizing my old Video 8 and VHS cassettes but how?

Format _C:

Format _C:

2[H]4U
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Jun 12, 2001
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I need to get my old Video 8 MM and a few VHS cassettes onto a modern (for now LoL) format I have a cheap AV2HDMI and also a HDMI to USB capture "card" I have OBS-Studio installed but I'm wondering what settings I should use as this is a real time deal (AKA a full 2 hour cassette would take 2 hours to convert) so I only want to do this once as I have like 15 tapes (14 8MM and 1 VHS) not all of the tapes are full and the VHS is a "second generation" copy which was originally from an 8MM video cassette of which I no longer have :( , just the copy!

Also I have a few analog TV tuner cards but those are not good as I need a Time Base Corrector AKA TBC but those cost a lot of money.

Basically I'm asking what are the best settings to use in OBS-Studio or another free capture program if anyone knows of a better one?

I'm going to use my Ryzen 9 5900X PC so I can encode on-the-fly and hopefully not drop frames!

Thanks
 
You could buy a old used VTR. Some are S-VHS and 8mm capable. They have TBC built in and you could pump that signal into even the cheapest capture card and have good results. That old equipment has a wide price range on ebay depending on rather it is 'collector grade' so just watch for some ugly but functional stuff.
 
I've used USB attached Hauppauge units that had composite input and my old VCR. Left you with an mpeg2 file. I then could create DVDs (or now), just put the files on my Plex server.

Might be hard to get a reasonably working newish VHS or 8mm deck, but you'll find tons in throwaway or garage sales and such.

I chunked my VHS unit after I converted everything. But still have those old Hauppauge USB attached units (they were also NTSC tuners, not that that does any good anymore).
 
cjcox said:
I've used USB attached Hauppauge units that had composite input and my old VCR. Left you with an mpeg2 file. I then could create DVDs (or now), just put the files on my Plex server.

Might be hard to get a reasonably working newish VHS or 8mm deck, but you'll find tons in throwaway or garage sales and such.

I chunked my VHS unit after I converted everything. But still have those old Hauppauge USB attached units (they were also NTSC tuners, not that that does any good anymore).
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My dad used a VHS player and some adapter -- forget whether it was usb or firewire -- which turned out some pretty good quality video. The important thing is it has clean heads and the tracking is adjusted correctly.

He also had a firewire pcmcia card which he used to capture video from a sony handycam. The Microsoft driver recognized the cam and it "Just Worked," was pretty cool. Not really applicable here, but thought I'd mention it for anyone who has one.
 
cjcox said:
VHS or 8mm deck
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I already have both of these, I just need good settings on how to encode using OBS-Studio or other free program.
My AV2HDMI can up-convert to 720P or 1080P it also somewhat cleans up the video should I capture it like this or down sample it to the VHS or 8MM native resolution?
I don't think I have ever seen a working standalone 8MM deck for under $250 in like 10 years but I still have my old Canon ES190! standard 8MM with mono audio but that is all 15 year old Peter could afford in 1999 LoL!
It has a 3.5MM jack it came with cable with 2 RCA plugs (Yellow/Video and white/Audio) on the other end
 
Format _C: said:
I already have both of these, I just need good settings on how to encode using OBS-Studio or other free program.
My AV2HDMI can up-convert to 720P or 1080P it also somewhat cleans up the video should I capture it like this or down sample it to the VHS or 8MM native resolution?
I don't think I have ever seen a working standalone 8MM deck for under $250 in like 10 years but I still have my old Canon ES190! standard 8MM with mono audio but that is all 15 year old Peter could afford in 1999 LoL!
It has a 3.5MM jack it came with cable with 2 RCA plugs (Yellow/Video and white/Audio) on the other end
Click to expand...
Save it in a lossless format. The files will be big, but not huge, since the source is pretty low resolution anyway. After you have the video saved, you can do post-processing, including any up-scaling or clean-up you want to do. And if you don't like how it turns out, you can do it again since you have the lossless files still.
 
I agree with Nobu. Lossless in the current resolution to preserve original quality. You can then process those to whatever format and resolution that you require.

But based on the source, the quality is going to suck anyway. Anything VHS related is not going to look good after you have become accustomed to looking at HD material. The biggest hurdle and cost is the playback device. And that hardware isn't getting any cheaper. Even when it was abundant, there were only a handlful of recommended players. Hence the recommendation to at least price a professional service.
 
Krispy Kritter said:
The biggest hurdle and cost is the playback device
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for most people probably, but I still have my camcorder as well as a working VHS VCR I just need software help.

I found a cheap TBC "hack" which is sketchy but works I use a AV2HDMI and then a HDMI2AV adapter and then connect to my Hauppauge HVR-2250 TV card and it seems to be working OK no streched picture like the HDMI to USB did and no random picture glitches like I had without those 2 mini-converters in-between!
One minus is the HVR-2250 does not seem to work with OBS-Studio so I have to use their "WinTV" software to capture it to an *.TS file

cjcox said:
It's not going to look good if you're used to SD material (DVD). Just saying.
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Well I'm just in this to save the memories that I had as a kid/teen and to remember people who are no longer alive :( as hard as watching that is sometimes but I want to save them before the cassettes become unplayable and they don't seem to be far off from that.
 
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