OT Converting VHS videos to digital on Linux

[leen...@yahoo.co.uk]

Hi all

I have a load of old VHS videos (cassettes and camera tapes) which I am looking to digitise. Amazingly the old camera and VHS recorder still work and I have an old tuner / video capture card which still works. Anyone had any experience of doing this recently and any recommendations on what software to use and any pitfalls? Recording these at normal speed will take many hours so wanted to get it right from the start 🙂

Thanks

Lee

[NY]

"leen...@yahoo.co.uk" <leen...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:5e73eb9b-b173-4163...@googlegroups.com...

Having done this for TV programmes that I had recorded on VHS or for home
movies on Hi8 camcorder, I found one problem that I needed to guard against.
It may have been a peculiarity of the card and/or software that I was using,
but it had a habit of sometimes synchronising with the wrong field of the TV
frame, which gave rise to blurry double-image motion if anything (including
the camera) moved.

It happened probably about 50% of the time, and it meant that you got the
odd field of one TV frame and the even field of the next TV frame in the
same frame of the digital MPEG version. If there was movement between the
two that meant you got a double image.

So I got into the habit of starting the recording to MPEG a bit early and
checking the results as the recording was running. If I detected a
"crossfire" I stopped and restarted (and checked again). If it looked OK, I
let it continue.


I did my recording on a Windows XP PC, because I happened to acquire one
with a TV card and software installed. The results are a lot better than a
USB digital converter that I bought, which was liable to give crosshatch
patterning on strong colours. I used VideoReDo software (unfortunately it's
not free) to edit out any unwanted bits such as continuity announcements,
adverts etc.

You're using Linux. I've not come across an equivalent package for Linux (eg
Raspbian, Ubuntu). There are some editing programs which claim to allow you
to edit out unwanted bits (without recoding everything else which takes
ages) but they produce horrible glitches at the edit points because they
don't preserve the stream of key frames and intermediate difference frames
that MPEG compression makes, which is incredibly naive.


The other thing to be aware of is that some packages can't handle video
files that are larger than 4 GB. The one I use on my Windows XP computer is
like this. It starts a new file every time the current one grows beyond 4
GB, which is about 90 minutes recording time so it is not uncommon. And
there is always a gap of a couple of seconds between the end of one file and
the start of the next. The solution is the watch the file growing and stop
recording as it is about to exceed 4GB, then wind the tape back a bit and
start recording again to a new file (checking for the dreaded "crossfire"!).
Join the two recordings together and use VideoReDo to take out the
duplicated bit, cutting at a change in shot which can be accurately located
in the first and second copy of the video. Of course, if the recording
software you use doesn't have this problem, you don't need to faff around
doing this ;-)


One final tip. Analogue (eg VHS) recordings contain quite a bit of
electronic noise (slight snow on the picture and/or wiggly vertical lines).
This does not compress well with MPEG. So even if the recordings you
generate are large files compared with what you'd record in an off-air TV
programme, don't be tempted to use software to compress the MPEG files to a
smaller size which is comparable with a TV recording, because you'll get
some horrible compression artefacts. Even the BBC uses a higher bit rate
(larger recording files) for broadcasting old analogue programmes from the
archives: an hour of (for example) Morecambe and Wise will generate a
significantly larger recording file than an hour of a modern programme made
and edited on digital equipment rather than PAL videotape.

[Cursitor Doom]

On Fri, 22 Oct 2021 09:10:49 -0700 (PDT), "leen...@yahoo.co.uk"
<leen...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>Hi all
>

>I have a load of old VHS videos (cassettes and camera tapes) which I am looking to digitise. Amazingly the old camera and VHS recorder still work and I have an old tuner / video capture card which still works. Anyone had any experience of doing this recently and any recommendations on what software to use and any pitfalls? Recording these at normal speed will take many hours so wanted to get it right from the start ?
>
>Thanks
>
>Lee

https://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2018/206/Tutorials-FFmpeg
--

"In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement
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[leen...@yahoo.co.uk]

Thanks very much NY. Which file format would you recommend I use? For video editing on Ubuntu, I have previously used kdenlive which is very good but only on digital files so far. Will let you know how well it works on these files.

[leen...@yahoo.co.uk]

Thanks. From what i can see, that will allow you to manipulate the video once it is in a digital format. What I am trying to do is play the video on the normal player and "recrod" it in digital format on my PC via the tuner/ capture card. I have heard VLC will do this but at the moment can't seem to get the video stream to work with it.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I spent months trying to capture video out of a VHS player.
Far better to spend money on a VHS and DVD recorder which will in theory
allow a cross recording to digital format. these still exist on Ebay
under £200
Once you have a digital file in Linux the tools I use are handbrake for
correcting aspect ratio and adding metadata, and openshot for
removing/splicing sections.



--
"Corbyn talks about equality, justice, opportunity, health care, peace,
community, compassion, investment, security, housing...."
"What kind of person is not interested in those things?"

"Jeremy Corbyn?"

[leen...@yahoo.co.uk]

Thanks... The additional challenge I have is that I also have old video camera tapes which can''t be played through a VHS recorder.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Yes and the image sharpening causes problems on the edges of captions too
and this can be an issue I'm told.
Another thing is that if they are commercial videos the copy protection by
Macrovision can be a pain to deal with. This causes juddering and other
effects.

Brian

--

This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
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Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"NY" <m...@privacy.invalid> wrote in message
news:skv4nv$dj2$1...@dont-email.me...

> "leen...@yahoo.co.uk" <leen...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:5e73eb9b-b173-4163...@googlegroups.com...
>> Hi all
>>
>> I have a load of old VHS videos (cassettes and camera tapes) which I am
>> looking to digitise. Amazingly the old camera and VHS recorder still
>> work and I have an old tuner / video capture card which still works.
>> Anyone had any experience of doing this recently and any recommendations
>> on what software to use and any pitfalls? Recording these at normal speed

>> will take many hours so wanted to get it right from the start ??

[Adrian Caspersz]

On 23/10/2021 09:23, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> On 23/10/2021 08:53, leen...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

>> Thanks.  From what i can see, that will allow you to manipulate the
>> video once it is in a digital format.  What I am trying to do is play
>> the video on the normal player and "recrod" it in digital format on my
>> PC via the tuner/ capture card.  I have heard VLC will do this but at
>> the moment can't seem to get the video stream to work with it.
>>
> I spent months trying to capture video out of a VHS player.
> Far better to spend money on a VHS and DVD recorder which will in theory
> allow a cross recording to digital format. these still exist on Ebay
> under £200

FWIW, another low cost method without using a PC to capture:

Use a composite to HDMI Video Audio Converter Adapter Upscaler


https://www.amazon.co.uk/YCTC-Composite-Converter-Adapter-Upscaler-Black/dp/B077XNQ7GH

And pipe the HDMI output of that to a Game Capture Recorder recording to
a USB stick.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/1080P-YPBPR-Capture-Video-Recorder/dp/B07HQFFHKJ

However, no direct experience of these above, and they are not the exact
devices in this technology connections video.

The Best Easy Way to Capture Analog Video (it's a little weird)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC5Zr3NC2PY

--
Adrian C

[Max Demian]

On 22/10/2021 17:10, leen...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I have a load of old VHS videos (cassettes and camera tapes) which I am looking to digitise. Amazingly the old camera and VHS recorder still work and I have an old tuner / video capture card which still works. Anyone had any experience of doing this recently and any recommendations on what software to use and any pitfalls? Recording these at normal speed will take many hours so wanted to get it right from the start 🙂

I used to do it by copying from VHS to DVD and then ripping the DVD on a
PC, but I realise that there aren't many DVD recorders around that can
take a SCART (or indeed, any) input. (I used to have one.)

--
Max Demian

[Paul]

On 10/23/2021 4:35 AM, leen...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

>
> Thanks... The additional challenge I have is that I also have old video camera tapes which can''t be played through a VHS recorder.

I would concentrate on one project at a time.

You would be surprised, how much time it takes to make
a quality recording.

Sometimes, you can't even walk away from the equipment
while the capture happens. For one tape, I had to manually
adjust the heads (with the Up/Down buttons on the VCR)
due to a tape cassette mechanical issue, as the tape played.

If Linux has a driver for your video tuner/capture card, it should
bring output to a standard interface (like V4L).

https://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Bttv

Next, you flip over to your VLC window and see
if the "Capture Device" has showed up. If something
registers in /dev, then VLC may find it.

This is not the right recipe, and this page shows
some approximate pictures to show that VLC has more
than movie player capabilities. In Linux, it can even
play TV channels off your digital tuner card.

https://www.vlchelp.com/how-to-record-webcam-video-using-vlc-media-player/

For modern USB capture devices with Composite input connector
on them, be aware that some of the Linux drivers for those,
may leave a lot to be desired. A modern device doesn't
make this easier on the Linux side. And because the capture
industry is a dying industry, you don't even want to be
shopping for capture hardware at this point.

*******

One of the biggest issues with any hardware capture purchase,
is the "no software" issue. *Do not* buy hardware, without verifying
there is sufficient software to make it work. If there is a common
theme on the purchase page customer comment section, it will be
"the included software SUCKS". This includes crashing, quality issues
(tinted output) and so on. One of the reasons I make a reference to
BTTV above (BT848/BT878 capture cards), is those are simple enough
in hardware, you can hardly screw it up. But BT878 has four input
channels and there are around 30 different card formulations, and
the PNP (Plug And Play) is arcane for that subsystem. To do a proper
driver for that card type, means encoding at least 30 card detections
into your driver.

I used to hang out in a Mac forum. A guy there said "I've written
a BT878 driver for Mac, but... I haven't done the 30 card detection
part yet". I said great. I got the binary from him, and of course
the default config it was using was wrong. There was snow on the
screen. But, because this was the old MacOS (like 9.04), you could
do Peek and Poke of memory locations. You could still access hardware
addresses in those days. And using the datasheet, I found the register
for the multiplexer selection. And... was rewarded with a TV picture
on my Mac, using a WinTV card :-) Ah, the good old days, when the
user "was in control" :-) Like a car with a manual choke control.

*******

For camcorder tapes, some camcorders have a Firewire output. And
a lot of PCs in the last decade or two, have a VIA Firewire chip
on them.

Run the camera off the battery during playback. You don't want
any potential issues with grounding.

For Firewire capture, you start the capture software first, then
click the Play button on the camcorder. The applicable standards
number, is 61883, and you sometimes see that mentioned in driver
notes. Firewire supports multiple protocols. It has a networking
protocol (a protocol removed from modern Windows). But it also has
some storage standard (whose name I've forgotten), plus the
camcorder capture via 61883 stack.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_61883

More modern camcorder-like devices have HDMI output. A video camera
with HDMI out, won't be using HDCP, so most HDMI capture devices should
work. All that you have to ascertain in that case, is that
the resolution and capture frame rate are within spec. For
example, there is one device that is about 4x the price of some
of the others, it does 4K @ 60p capture. But it's only allowed
to do that, if there is no HDCP link encryption, as the capture
device has no HDCP keys. Otherwise, people would be "stealing"
BluRay movies with it :-)

They've stopped putting Firewire connectors on new PCs, so
don't throw away all your old PCs until the camcorder videos
are transferred. Otherwise, two capture cards, a tuner with a
DIN connector for analog, and an HDMI capture card for HDMI
cases, should cover it. HDMI capture is one of the things
I don't own, and I haven't played with one. I think my
point and shoot video camera, has an HDMI out on it, if
I needed a stimulus for test.

My newest computer motherboard has no PCI slot, which means
I can't fit a BT878 card, nor could the machine have a
Firewire chip (as the Firewire chips are PCI generation
devices and if the machine has no PCI slot, it also
can't be doing onboard PCI either). Tape conversion
projects should have been started around ten years ago,
as back then you could still pick up useful items at
that time. Now, it's harder, and especially hard if
you're one of those people who throw away all the old PCs.

Paul