Capture basics for video tape

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PERSONAL MEDIA By Will Fastie Video tape was introduced to the US consumer market nearly 50 years ago, in 1976. It created a consumer boom, but the ma
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Jim Stone, Lees7676, AlexEiffel, windbg, SueW, WSGeo, fisher75, teuhasn2, DLivesInTexas, rbailin, abbodi86

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Thanks for the article, Will.  The history part is great and including what tools you use is very informative.  The Elgato Video Capture device that you mentioned came out in 2009.  Is there a more recent video capture device that you could recommend?  It would seem that the technology would have advanced quite a bit since then.

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rbailin, Will Fastie

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funhitman wrote:

Thanks for the article, Will.  The history part is great and including what tools you use is very informative.  The Elgato Video Capture device that you mentioned came out in 2009.  Is there a more recent video capture device that you could recommend?  It would seem that the technology would have advanced quite a bit since then.

Elgato is infamous in the analog video capture community for being of particularly low quality. It should be avoided at all costs. It will result in dropped frames, A/V synchronization issues, and an overall desaturated and soft picture. The Dazzle DVD Recorder, Diamond VC500 USB, and the ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB are all far superior choices for analog video capture. For capture software make sure to use VirtualDub.

One would think that better devices would have hit the market for analog video capture, but the truth is that the best hardware for the task was released in the early to mid 2000s. Unless you’re willing to try a new technique called Direct RF capture, the best and most easily accessible tools for the task come from the past.

For guidance on how to get the most out of your analog video captures I highly recommend visiting the forums and guides at https://www.digitalfaq.com/ and https://www.videohelp.com/

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teuhasn2

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For those of us using laptops, is there a 1394 to USB converter on the market that works with the video capture programs you mention?

Also, are there write-protect tabs or sliders on the various format cassettes that should be used before starting playback?

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Will Fastie

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This works for me.  I’m using a 3 year old laptop with USB-C and Thunderbolt inputs.  With this external device kit, I can use my 1394 Nikon Scanner and Sony Camcorders.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Thunderbolt-Firewire-Adapter-Enclosure-DisplayPort/dp/B079RNFD4S

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funhitman wrote:

Is there a more recent video capture device that you could recommend?

Not really, although I haven’t looked that hard. There was Canopus, a company later acquired by Grass Valley, that made a series of converters, from consumer to pro. I have one; the Elgato does the same job at the same or better quality. (I haven’t been able to use the Canopus device since Windows 7 – I couldn’t get a driver for Win10 and I have no PCI slots in my current build.) Grass Valley no longer offers such products.

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rbailin wrote:

For those of us using laptops, is there a 1394 to USB converter

Yes, but Knarr’s article makes it clear that these do not work for video and audio transfers. Worse, he reports that damage has been seen to camcorders connected to such devices. He also explains why USB and Firewire are fundamentally incompatible.

If you have a lot of this older media, consider buying a very low-cost PC and a 1394 card. The PC need not be particularly powerful. Use it as a single-purpose device. When you’re done, sell it as a package to someone else who wants to convert their videos.

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JPMedia wrote:

Elgato is infamous in the analog video capture community for being of particularly low quality.

I found no evidence of this in the first batch of tapes I converted.

JPMedia wrote:

Diamond VC500 USB

As far as I know, Diamond uses the same electronics as the Elgato.

JPMedia wrote:

Dazzle DVD Recorder

I have an older Dazzle. It never worked particularly well and tech support was miserable. I considered it when I bought the Elgato and rejected it.

JPMedia wrote:

ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB

A Diamond brand. No longer available.

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rbailin wrote:

Are there write-protect tabs or sliders on the various format cassettes that should be used before starting playback?

Yes. For VHS, it’s a break-off tab; you can tape it off if you want to record on it again. For the other formats, there is a little slider.

As to whether to use it, it’s obviously safest to make all tapes read-only. Good suggestion.

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My Uncle used Roxio’s Easy VHS to DVD to convert some old VHS tapes (high school graduations. weddings, etc.) to digital video and it worked well with no apparent loss of video/audio quality; other than the fact the tapes were very old.

I then used some of my video editing S/W to clean up the video/audio quite a bit before he burned them onto DVDs.

The main hurtle he faced was his VHS player had stopped working (wouldn’t even load the tapes) and, since no one sells them anymore, he had a heck of a time finding another one that still worked!

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WSGeo

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n0ads wrote:

He had a heck of a time finding another one that still worked!

When I pulled my VCR out of the closet after over two years, it was DOA. I bought two at Goodwill, my local thrift store, for a total of $17. Neither was working, but cleaning the head on the first brought it back to life. I haven’t yet tackled the second one.

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It’s worth mentioning one other tape format – Sony’s Digital8. I recall this being quite popular, at least in the UK, in the early 2000s (we had a whole set of D8 camcorders at the school where I worked at the time; they were much cheaper than equivalent MiniDV ones and possibly more robust due to the larger tape transport).

They used cassettes the same size as Video8/Hi8 (and, indeed, the AIT data backup system – Sony got a lot of value out of their 8mm helical-scan tape transports) but recorded the video digitally like MiniDV.

Digital8 camcorders also connect to the PC via FireWire/IEEE1394, except that Sony called it iLink (Apple missed a trick there!) so many people don’t realise that it’s the same thing.

The video is returned to the PC in standard DV format, the same as with a MiniDV camcorder.

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Will Fastie

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molletts wrote:

Sony’s Digital8

I’m aware of the format, but I’ve never seen a tape or a camcorder. My own experience is that they were not very widespread and that the smaller MiniDV format was more desirable.

In any case, what I wrote about MiniDV should apply to Digital8.

molletts wrote:

possibly more robust

In my experience, MiniDV was quite robust. Both my MiniDV camcorders are still working and the transports show no signs of defeat.

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Will, the original commercial recorders used 2″ video tape and a transverse head assembly with 4 heads. Ampex was the major builder
https://www.historyofrecording.com/ampexvrx1000aniv.html

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Will Fastie

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Good discussion. I really need to do this with all the old family videos, although since none of us have watched them in decades, I’m not sure investing time in preserving them will pay off in the future. I also think many of today’s digital file formats may become difficult to read even a couple or more decades into the future.

Besides that, the biggest issue for me is that on today’s high-resolution monitors and TVs, the old video seems to look even worse than it did back when. YouTube videos of old TV material illustrate the point well. I’m not sure whether that’s because we’re now so used to high-resolution that low-resolution doesn’t hold up well by comparison, or because when we upscale low-resolution material, introduced artifacts stand out more. We no longer have 1980s displays around.

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Will Fastie

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teuhasn2 wrote:

I also think many of today’s digital file formats may become difficult to read even a couple or more decades into the future.

The digital formats have the advantage that they will not deteriorate with age – because they are not physical. I think the digital formats will survive for a long time because they are backed by important and respected standards groups.

In addition, the US National Archives designated AVI, invented by Microsoft 32 years ago, as the official format for preserving video. So that format is almost guaranteed a very long life, and I think the same thing applies to MP4 and H.264. My video editors can import every past video format.

teuhasn2 wrote:

I’m not sure investing time in preserving them will pay off in the future.

Would you like to have a photo of your great-great grandparents? Maybe you have one, but it’s only because someone in a previous generation preserved it. You’re not preserving for yourself, you’re preserving for posterity.

teuhasn2 wrote:

the old video seems to look even worse than it did back when

That’s right. If I play one of those old tapes on a modern FHD TV, it will look horrible compared to what we’re used to watching today.

However, we already have video editors that know how to clean up video. Although I haven’t tried it, it may be possible to upscale a video just as a Blu-Ray player upscales DVDs. But without the digital files, no improvement is possible at all.

Digitization is the starting point.

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teuhasn2

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Will Fastie wrote:

Although I haven’t tried it, it may be possible to upscale a video just as a Blu-Ray player upscales DVDs.

While HD TVs and blu-ray players do a really good job at upscaling DVD video, there’s a BIG gotcha for home users trying to do the same thing.

HD TVs and blu-ray players use special dedicated hardware for the upscale and the available S/W options for PC’s (except for “extremely expensive” commercial grade stuff) is nowhere near that good!

That said, it is possible to clean up VHS video to the point where, when played at DVD resolution on HD TV or blu-ray, it does look better than it ever did in “analog” VHS tape format.

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teuhasn2

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molletts wrote:

It’s worth mentioning one other tape format – Sony’s Digital8. […snipped…] They used cassettes the same size as Video8/Hi8 […] but recorded the video digitally like MiniDV. Digital8 camcorders also connect to the PC via FireWire/IEEE1394, […] The video is returned to the PC in standard DV format, the same as with a MiniDV camcorder.

Will Fastie wrote:

I’m aware of the format, but I’ve never seen a tape or a camcorder. […] In any case, what I wrote about MiniDV should apply to Digital8.

Not to be overlooked, one key feature of Digital8 is it was backward compatible with Sony’s batteries and Video8/Hi8 tapes. I was able to use the same batteries and tapes for both my Hi8 and Digital8 camcorders.

The Digital8 camcorder can record or play back both analog and digital. That means one can use a Digital8 camcorder to convert analog Video8/Hi8 tapes to digital and output via firewire, without the requirement of additional A-to-D converter hardware, as I mentioned in this topic last year.

I added an inexpensive firewire card to an old Dell desktop, and converted all my old Video8 analog, Hi8 analog, and Hi8 digital tapes using the same Sony TRV-240 camcorder connected directly to the computer. Then I converted all my miniDV tapes using my TRV-11 miniDV camcorder connected to the same firewire card. Only my VHS tapes required additional conversion hardware.

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n0ads wrote:

special dedicated hardware

All my video editing apps see my big new graphics card and promise to use it.

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The problem is not all video editing apps can actually use the built upscaling hardware in those cards.

To do so requires special codecs designed to interface with the specific graphic card (i.e. cuda for NVIDIA cards) and the card has to be configured properly (i.e. enable “Super resolution” for NVIDIA RTX cards).

Even then, it can still be very tricky to get all the format settings just right to maximize the gains without making the video look over-enhanced (BTDT.)

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Is there any software/hardware for accomplishing this transfer available for Apple ecosystem?

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bilduval wrote:

Is there any software/hardware for accomplishing this transfer available for Apple ecosystem?

Elgato or equivalent for Mac for analog tapes. Nothing for MiniDV.

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HI Will, Just one quick correction

 

That would be 91% Rubbing Alcohol, I may not get out much at my age but I’ve yet to see a bottle of 93% 🙂
Great article, I have been digitizing 40 live shows that I engineered/mixed for CBS at our local rock club in the late ’70s, early ’80s. They were live broadcast on our local 50,000 Watt FM rocker.  I recorded them on TDK SA-C90 cassettes which have held up amazingly well.
I play them on an Aiwa deck and use a standard RCA to 1/8th ” stereo adapter, line in to my PC recording with Cool Edit Pro (the predecessor of Adobe Audition).
Good bands, George Thorogood, Jeff Lorber, Gentle Giant etc. The only issue I’ve run into was a mystery hum that turned out to be the heads in the Aiwa picking up the monster transformer in the Marantz I had set it on top of. Elevate 8″, problem solved.
Thanks again for the fine article

Kevin G

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Much appreciate this excellent and nostalgic round-up, Will. These things may be surpassed now, but it’s hard to underestimate how cool it was to record great movies off the premium cable, and have them available ANY time. On demand- BOO!

You may have given a lead on my biggest problem currently, too. I’m getting NO output from my old VCR/DVD combo. Was just about to buy another at a flea market or borrow from a relative. Maybe it’s dirty heads. I’ll try that. Thank you so much.

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Will Fastie

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WSGeo wrote:

I’m getting NO output from my old VCR/DVD combo.

No output is deceptive. That confused me because I thought it was failed electronics. One tip Calvin gave me was the one about the VCR displaying “No Signal” or even nothing when the heads were very dirty. It’s possible that my VCR coming out of the box could have been saved.

When I was taking the second failed VCR to the dump (er, recycling center), I saw several others already in the box. I was sorely tempted to grab a couple to see if I could resurrect them, but unfortunately that is illegal in my jurisdiction.

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WSGeo

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Kevin Patrick Garrity wrote:

That would be 91% Rubbing Alcohol, I may not get out much at my age but I’ve yet to see a bottle of 93%

Yes, I did, in fact, use 91%. However, I used to have 93% specifically to clean electronics. That was some time ago. You’re right – I can’t find it any longer.

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Dear sir,

Read you interesting history of video recorders with interest, noted there was no mention of one system I used to use, Sony Micro MV I think it was called, it had one annoying quirk, on the pause setting, it froze for about half a second, which was most annoying.otherwise it seemed an excellent machine, I saw that a second model came out later, never followed that one up to see if it was any improvement. I now use two Panasonic HDC TM900 recorders , several years old, but still going strong, as they accept the Panasonic 3D lens attachment  so I hope they don’t “die” on me.

Carl Watson New Zealand.

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Many thanx for a thoroughly researched article. The author did seem to overlook one important bit of recording history – the 2″ video tape that came on the scene circa 1959. It changed much for those of us in the TV industry used to dealing with the awful, low quality kinescope recordings (TV to film) that are the only remnants of many early TV shows.
The 2″ tape machine, about the size of a refrigerator on its side, used reels that weighed about 15 pounds for a 60 minute show. The tapes were expensive (I don’t know for certain,but I recall $400 or $500 for 60 minutes and that was in dollars of the 1960’s).
For those of us in the news business, there were thankfully short-lived “portable” two-inch machines in a suitcase that weighed about 70-90 lbs and used reels containing about three minutes of recording time. The good old days of innovation.

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funhitman, Will Fastie

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I have been trying to install the Elgato Video Capture software on my Windows 11 PC for a week now. Running into all kinds of issues with Windows XML Core Services. Going back and forth with their tech support. You would think if they are still selling this that they would have updated the software by now. Still haven’t gotten the Elgato software to run.

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pmruzicka wrote:

Still haven’t gotten the Elgato software to run.

Yes, it took some time for me to work out my issues. But support stuck with it and eventually the software ran. As I mentioned, I felt the support was very good.

Did support ask you to run a program on the computer and send the result to them? I did that and I think it made a difference.

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Based on this article, I bought the Elgato. It worked fine on my Win 10 PC. On my Win 11 24H2 PC, I needed to work with their excellent customer service to update the drivers and edit Elgato’s XML setup file to get the app to run. Also before you install, make sure you have .NET Framework 3.5 installed on your Win 11 PC, as the app needs it, and Microsoft has moved its download location to where the Elgato app installer can’t find it.

I’ve got a bunch of old* VHS videos to convert, so Will’s article was the motivation and direction I needed to get this done.

*Is there a VHS video that isn’t old? LOL.

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windbg, Will Fastie

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