VHS Archiving - How do I do it right for a reasonable price?

[eatler]

I’m retarted and keep not buying the Star Wars vhs trilogy, last time I saw it though it was 30 bucks. That was the last instance of original Star Wars before George stuck his dick in it.

 

[TVB]

I’m retarted and keep not buying the Star Wars vhs trilogy, last time I saw it though it was 30 bucks. That was the last instance of original Star Wars before George stuck his dick in it.

Which one? Because either the 1987 or 1995 prints of the original trilogy (the latter released two years before the Special Editions shit) are still available on VHS tapes and laserdiscs in places like eBay as well as thrift stores or pawn shops

 

[eatler]

Which one? Because either the 1987 or 1995 prints of the original trilogy (the latter released two years before the Special Editions shit) are still available on VHS tapes and laserdiscs in places like eBay as well as thrift stores or pawn shops

1995, yeah I just don’t have a lot of money and they still charge a lot. I was just looking and some were 50 bucks and up. I don’t have laser disk, don’t have a lot of room in my apartment for it but I do appreciate it.

 

[Judge Dredd]

There's the Star Wars despecialized edition on the internet which is basically a HD restoration of the original movie as it was when it was first released. There's a documentry about it on YouTube, but you might have to dig to find it.

 

[TVB]

1995, yeah I just don’t have a lot of money and they still charge a lot. I was just looking and some were 50 bucks and up. I don’t have laser disk, don’t have a lot of room in my apartment for it but I do appreciate it.Ver archivo adjunto 5731268

If you by any chance do happen to see these tapes at your local thrift store, especially the ones nearby you, you'll be happy to know that they are dirt cheap at around $1-2, even with or without needed tax.

Sadly, this cannot be the same for other pre-1997 prints. One big example being the 1982 original VHS copy of Star Wars that, according to its Etsy listing, is priced around $450 (at least as of the time I'm typing this out)

 

[eatler]

If judge dredd is still looking for a capture card. Apparently it was not worth the hype.

 

[itogi]

A new contender in the fight for being the worst VHS digitizer, Protis DVD recorder (aka, shitty Android media box with EasyCrap and DVD burner)

 

[Judge Dredd]

Decided to looking into this again.

Three "new" options came up. One was this.

Pro tip: conventional capturing is dead. You either use the cheap methods and get shit, or you invest in some serious hardware for thousands of dollars.

What you need instead is vhs-decode.

now called Domesday Duplicator.

A capture device from the 90s. The Sony DVMC.

And the other is surprisingly jank but viable. VHS>HDMI>PC


The DVMC didn't have a pal compatible version. So that's out. Supposedly various cameras, specifically "digital 8" cameras have the same feature. The problem is, at least according to the comments, as soon as the quality of DVMC was made public via a YouTube video, the prices of these went from $20 to $300. Digital 8 cameras in the UK are used for about £150.

The major downside is the output is firewire, requiring specialist devices or hardware. Firewire>USB converters don't work. So you're looking at mid triple digits to get a working set up.


The Domesday Duplicator is, itself, a $300 board with a bunch of homebrew/DIY required. It seems to be more of a tinkerers toy than something intended to be used.


The jank option is interesting. It involves a composite>HDMI box, and then a HDMI>PC capture card. I haven't priced this option up yet, but it's strange in that it supposedly give decent enough results. What I'm guessing is happening is what I expected to happen with OBS but didn't. That being all the weird timing and sync issues are handled by the composite to HDMI box, intended to be displayed as-is on a TV. Then the HDMI capture card grabs those as the TV would.

 

[oh no its pipkun]

There's the Star Wars despecialized edition on the internet which is basically a HD restoration of the original movie as it was when it was first released. There's a documentry about it on YouTube, but you might have to dig to find it.

720p and it looks good but this was one of the first attempts. haven't looked at the various 2.xx editions.

if you're going from PAL >> NTSC you'll have to do some kind of PITA 3:2 pulldown to get rid of sync issues. been a while since i had to futz with conversions given everything adapts to frame rates.

 

[itogi]

now called Domesday Duplicator.

1. vhs-decode is still called vhs-decode. Domesday Duplicator is a device originally made for decoding LaserDiscs as a part of ld-decode.
2. Domesday Duplicator is more for decoding multiplexed video and audio in RF signal (NTSC Betamax, LaserDisc, Video8, Hi8 ). For VHS, it's better to use CX Cards (cheaper, but need modifications for them to work to their full potential, PCI-e) or MISRC (more expensive, singular device, USB 3.0) workflows.