Digitizing VHS & Hi8 Tapes: How Professionals Do It 

Many thanks for this interesting video! Some time ago I went and took over 25 old Video 8 and Hi8 tapes and converted them into MP4. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to work with an AJA Kona so I read about other methods and ended up with the following workflow, maybe it's of help for someone: Playback source was my trusty old Sony CCD TRV 208E camcorder with which I recorded most of the stuff 20 years ago. Beforehand I had it cleaned properly with a cleaning tape. The camcorder was then plugged into an old DVD Recorder from Panasonic via S-Video. This is very important! Hi8 is capable of seperating chroma and luminance, something that the S-Video connection does as well, as Griffen described. The normal oldschool RCA plug in yellow can NOT do that - it mixes chroma and luminance into one signal, worsening the image quality in the process. The reason for using a mid 2000s DVD recorder from Panasonic is that these models had the best jitter and time base correction on the market. Basically there A/D converters were constructed for the bad quality and unstable signals amateur analog camcorders produced and converted them into the best possible digital signal. The digital signal (576i resolution) was then fed through an HDMI splitter (to get rid of HDCP)via HDMI into my PC's Blackmagic capture card. The audio went straight from the camcorder via mono RCA into the capture card as well. With the Blackmagic card suite I then recorded raw *.avi files. These files are insanely HUGE as they're uncompressed (1 hour = 100 Gbyte even in 576i). I then took to avidemux, did some slight cropping (the recorded signal always shows greenish borders which CRTs didn't show back then due to overscan). Also I deinterlaced the videos with the YADIF 2x filter and used a very slight blur to make them look a bit softer. Then they were compressed and archived in H.265 MP4 files (5000-6000 kbits bitrate). This is a very complicated workflow, I am aware, but apart from using professional video restauration equipment for 1000s of dollars it will give you the best possible results. All the stuff I just touched here is written down in great detail by AlexG in the German Hifi Forum. If you're interested you can run it through google translate and have a look: www.hifi-forum.de/index.php?action=browseT&forum_id=54&thread=17166&back=1&sort=lpost&z=1

Wait... I was expecting a Part 2 to this where you took the captured content on the computer and then moved it to a new computer and applied up-scaling and other enhancements. Come on man! You can't stop now!

Great video - this is almost the exact same setup I put together (after hours of research). Running a 2006 Mac Pro (10.6.8) and a Kona LSe. I've been capturing uncompressed 8-bit Hi8 and VHS through S-Video and never had a single dropped frame or crash -- about 22MB/sec. which any SATA drive easily will handle. You can actually find S-Video to BNC cables for connection for the camcoder/VCR to breakout cable and 3.5 inch stereo mini to XLR for the breakout cable for audio.

Excellent presentation

Really enjoyed the introduction

Hey where did you source the s-video to rca cables?

my question is, do these tape conversion places do a decent job at digitizing? they must if they have been in business for 5 or 10 years. I asked one place if they use high-end VCR's to do the conversions, and the person said no. Very interesting that they don't use JVC's with Time Base Corrector.

Can you please give more information about the specific computer and capture card used in this video? Together, they're available used for only $50??

If you’re transferring old camcorder digital tapes to a laptop, is the upscaler still needed

Does that card have a TBC on board cheers.

@griffensander Is there a specific reason to use a Mac G5? Does it work better with the old tech workflow and nuances of VHS? Or would any Mac Pro with a PCIe slot work with an AJA Kona LHe? Also, would an LHi work even better? Which machines could/should support LHe and LHi?

Do you restore vhs? And if ever, how much do you charge?

I use an Aver media game capture with the component/ RGb inputcard with a DVD recorder in between plus 16 megabits it looks really good😊

It’s kinda funny how the hallmarks of “sleaze” from 150 years prior become, through the distance of history, a fun setting to put productions on mimicking the styles (with the saloon mistress, the cabaret dancers, etc)

RF capture directly from the test points in the VCR or Camera is probably the way to go. This method of capture creates direct copy of the tape in it true form. Then using VHS-Decode to create a the video from it. Also storing it in this form allows better video to be created from it as tech improves without worrying about the original tapes degrading. This is the method that was developed to preserve laser disc and has since been expanded to VCR and other magnetic tape media.

I only have a M2 macbook pro - so no video card to install….. is there a work around. My option 2 would definitely have to add a TBC - Time Base Controller- the amazon capture sustems are way to jumpy… any work arounds for just having a m2 pro ? Thanks

My mini dv canon camcorders has a svideo in to record from analog to mini dv tape. From the camcorder, I would then FireWire to the computer in avi format. The avi format uses about 15 gb per hour in SD format. Problem now a days is mini dv and FireWire are getting rare.

@griffinsander great videos 👍🏼 was wondering if you provide help 1 on 1 for those that really need your help… i have 2 cases of vhs as well as vhsc and dig 8 to convert and would love some support . Wasn’t sure if u provided that at all ?

Wouldn’t you want a professional hi8 player? Is the footage coming out of the camcorder the best it can be?

I have a PC with a Happuage Collossus 2 capture card

PC. PC not Mac options what’s available?

What about firewire and D8 Camcorders? ;)

I use my Clear Click to transfer my old tapes.

The AJA card wouldn't be good enough (timebase) for me to write "How Professionals Do It".

My handycam doesnt have s-video :c

I use a standalone Dvd Rrecorder and a digital 8 camcorder thru firewire input on the dvd recorder Record it in highest quality 10mbps, aboit 60 minites a dvd. You make it way too hard for yourself.

Your video is great everything proven people like myself are fixing broken vhs movies with Scotch tape it starts playing again with out no problem's everything proven vhs tapes don't lock up at all like internet does everything proven damage blue ray disc movies doesn't play at all like vhs movies does

Is this video just a flex? You have access to this stuff so congrats I guess??

Consumer analog tape formats are not the same as professional tape formats, The recording system is mediocre which uses a chroma under scheme to convert chroma to a lower frequency, the recording/playback mechanisms are not of high precision which causes timing errors in the signal, You can probably get away with a high end S-VHS deck and a Hi8 camcorder with built in line TBC that use better tape transports, but you could still be out of luck for badly recorded or worn out tapes, This is why I use stand alone professional analog capture devices that are built in TBC and use the PC for just digital SDI ingest, the capturing or conversion from analog to digital and timing/synchronization is done inside the stand alone device, this way even bad tapes are tolerated to a certain degree.

As others have pointed out, vhsdecode will give better results, but more importantly, the deinterlacing being performed by your video editor is atrocious. It's just throwing out half the fields, effectively halving the vertical resolution.

theres also another method for vhs, and that is to get a vhs player with hdmi output and use a hdmi capture card

People like myself are buying VCR players cleaning tapes vhs movies offline now days everything proven there not hard finding online

Your video looks washed out. There are better so.utions for digitizing.