Thanks for the video, it did help me. Don't mind on comments that are non constructive. People prefer to complain than see the good side that you are doing this for free to help others. Appreciate it. Thanks! 😊
I would love to get this. I have some tapes like our wedding on VHS that I want to make digital. I didn't understand half of what you were talking about though. I guess it shows my age! Lol May Jesus continue to bless you and your family
Well the good news is everything is under $20 so if you can't seem to figure it out, you're not broke and defeated. Feel free to ask more questions here or you can email me from my profile page: www.youtube.com/@DIWHYDOTLIFE (click the more link in the channel description).
While it "works," the quality is obviously not up to par with other methods out there for a little more expense (or it could be that the test tape you have there is just very poor I suppose as VHS can and should look a lot better than that in most cases. Would agree with others that you get what you pay for here. My suggestion would be following this tutorial here with one of their recommended capture cards, either the Startech or Datavideo options: ruclips.net/video/tk-n7IlrXI4/видео.html I'd watch a followup video where you compare the results you got with that capture setup to what's recommended Oldskool PC's video. I'm not saying his method is the best possible way either, but it's probably decent for the budget involved. Next upgrade beyond that would be using a VCR with built in line TBC or adding a DMR-ES10 or ES15, or you might also try the DV capture method via DV camcorder passthrough or using something like the ADVC-100/110. All are decent budget options that should blow the quality of this out of the water and are worth seeing for yourself.
My original plan was to use my minidv camcorder and do video pass-thru but I made the mistake of opening the tape door and now it’s stuck in an endless loop trying to open the tape carriage. I’m not that confident I can repair it but I’ll give it a shot.
I would recommend to set a higher resolution. Pal Secam was 525 lines, and not 480. To choose 480 literally means: to make compromises in quality. Sure, i know, that those 525 very likely get distorted by the analog nature of the VHS. But still. That distortion, plus 480p are additional levels of quality loss. Its not necessery to put as much quality-loss-levels as possible on each other. Espescially when the connection isnt S-Video.
One thing I kinda wish OBS could do is pause recording instead of simply stopping. I mistakingly stopped recording thinking the tape was done but it wasn’t so now I have multiple videos instead of one complete file. I used to have a free MPEG utility that could merge them together, I’ll try to find it again and try to merge them.
Would it be better to use a vcr with hdmi output and use a hdmi capture card? Those hdmi output vcr upscales the vhs tape to 1080p. This seems to be better for modern displays.
@@JoshOsRocks I didn’t know there was such a thing. Upscaling an SD signal off of VHS isn’t going to improve the image, it will simply make the videos larger in size and file size. If you can find a cheap VCR with HDMI output, it would be a more future-proof way to go as HDMI isn’t going to fade away anytime soon, so from that standpoint it does make sense.
@@JoshOsRocks I’m also not sure how it would handle 4:3 video. It may add black bars to the sides to maintain widescreen format which may not be ideal.
There is a device out there that upscales to 1080p at 60fps... It's called Cloner Alliance Pro.. It's going to be much more than $15.. These cheap dongles like the one in this video isn't going to properly transfer video tapes without adding artifacts and dropping frames..
@@vintageceilingfansBelieve me, I’m very skeptical about stuff like this but it hasn’t disappointed me yet. I chose it based on the positive reviews and figured it was worth a try. I was willing to spend 10X but I just couldn’t find anything from Blackmagic or some other reputable brand.
While DVDs are not a great way to archive data (shelf life of about 10-15 years), you certainly could burn the .mp4 files to a DVD which can be played on a computer, some newer DVD players and PS3, PS4, and PS5. I wouldn’t recommend making a video DVD due to limited authoring software options. I did recently find DVD Styler which looks dated but sufficient for Mac and PC: www.dvdstyler.org/en/
If you'd like to make a DVD-Video disc (the kind that you put into a DVD set-top box and it just plays) then you will need MPEG-2 video files instead. But more and more people have smart TVs where you can insert a USB drive and it will play the MP4 files.
Possibly. Let’s backup a bit. Mac or PC? Are you using a similar capture device? Are you using OBS? I’m assuming you’ve already tried restarting the computer and running any updates?
‼️Step 1: place VHS into JVC VCR Step 2: connect the FireWire port from the VCR to your Mac Step 3: use the capture software of your choice and press play on the VCR Wow. Way easier and better quality.
A DV25 digitization can outperform a mediocre SD capture device. However, I recommend a better SD capture device that saves to a lossless codec like HuffYUV or Lagarith. I wouldn't recommend digitizing directly to MP4.
Putting your laptop in front of what you’re doing is not very helpful - we need to see what you’re doing with cables and your right hand covers a lot of what you’re doing in the side view
So sorry about that, I’ll try to be a bit tighter next time. Luckily it’s pretty easy, yellow one is video and white is audio. Thanks for the suggestion 👍
Less than 15 bucks? You get what you paid for.. Which means this video is useless.. A $15 device isn't going to properly convert video tapes to MP4 without glitches and frame drops..
So far no issues, just concerned it make brick itself at any moment. One of my tapes was 2 hours and the video is great, sometimes these cheap devices can get the audio and video out of sync especially during long captures, but nothing negative to report yet. I have like 6 more tapes to record so I’ll report back 🤞
Thanks for the video, it did help me. Don't mind on comments that are non constructive. People prefer to complain than see the good side that you are doing this for free to help others. Appreciate it. Thanks! 😊
@@rrpiva thank you, right?
I would love to get this. I have some tapes like our wedding on VHS that I want to make digital. I didn't understand half of what you were talking about though. I guess it shows my age! Lol May Jesus continue to bless you and your family
Well the good news is everything is under $20 so if you can't seem to figure it out, you're not broke and defeated. Feel free to ask more questions here or you can email me from my profile page: www.youtube.com/@DIWHYDOTLIFE (click the more link in the channel description).
@DIWHYDOTLIFE thanks. I think I will order it. You might regret offering your help! 😆
How much would you charge me to put mine on DVDS
@ shoot me an email:
diwhydotlife@gmail.com
I would not.. .. at $15 you get what you paid for..
While it "works," the quality is obviously not up to par with other methods out there for a little more expense (or it could be that the test tape you have there is just very poor I suppose as VHS can and should look a lot better than that in most cases. Would agree with others that you get what you pay for here. My suggestion would be following this tutorial here with one of their recommended capture cards, either the Startech or Datavideo options: ruclips.net/video/tk-n7IlrXI4/видео.html I'd watch a followup video where you compare the results you got with that capture setup to what's recommended Oldskool PC's video. I'm not saying his method is the best possible way either, but it's probably decent for the budget involved. Next upgrade beyond that would be using a VCR with built in line TBC or adding a DMR-ES10 or ES15, or you might also try the DV capture method via DV camcorder passthrough or using something like the ADVC-100/110. All are decent budget options that should blow the quality of this out of the water and are worth seeing for yourself.
Great suggestions, I would enjoy doing a side by side…
My original plan was to use my minidv camcorder and do video pass-thru but I made the mistake of opening the tape door and now it’s stuck in an endless loop trying to open the tape carriage. I’m not that confident I can repair it but I’ll give it a shot.
I would recommend to set a higher resolution. Pal Secam was 525 lines, and not 480. To choose 480 literally means: to make compromises in quality. Sure, i know, that those 525 very likely get distorted by the analog nature of the VHS. But still. That distortion, plus 480p are additional levels of quality loss. Its not necessery to put as much quality-loss-levels as possible on each other. Espescially when the connection isnt S-Video.
Very useful video. My only problem is that I only get the sound, not the image. Any suggestion? I bought the same convertor.
@@hectoraltamirano1455 did you add the USB device as a video input in OBS?
One thing I kinda wish OBS could do is pause recording instead of simply stopping. I mistakingly stopped recording thinking the tape was done but it wasn’t so now I have multiple videos instead of one complete file. I used to have a free MPEG utility that could merge them together, I’ll try to find it again and try to merge them.
Mpg2Cut2 can help with that.
Would it be better to use a vcr with hdmi output and use a hdmi capture card? Those hdmi output vcr upscales the vhs tape to 1080p. This seems to be better for modern displays.
@@JoshOsRocks I didn’t know there was such a thing. Upscaling an SD signal off of VHS isn’t going to improve the image, it will simply make the videos larger in size and file size. If you can find a cheap VCR with HDMI output, it would be a more future-proof way to go as HDMI isn’t going to fade away anytime soon, so from that standpoint it does make sense.
@@JoshOsRocks I’m also not sure how it would handle 4:3 video. It may add black bars to the sides to maintain widescreen format which may not be ideal.
There is a device out there that upscales to 1080p at 60fps... It's called Cloner Alliance Pro.. It's going to be much more than $15.. These cheap dongles like the one in this video isn't going to properly transfer video tapes without adding artifacts and dropping frames..
@@vintageceilingfansBelieve me, I’m very skeptical about stuff like this but it hasn’t disappointed me yet. I chose it based on the positive reviews and figured it was worth a try. I was willing to spend 10X but I just couldn’t find anything from Blackmagic or some other reputable brand.
@vintageceilingfans The Cloner Alliance Pro looks pretty good. I’ll get it if this cheap thing starts to disappoint me. 👍
Great video, one question, unless I missed something, once the mp4 files are in my PC, can I burn to a DVD ? Thanks so much . KB
While DVDs are not a great way to archive data (shelf life of about 10-15 years), you certainly could burn the .mp4 files to a DVD which can be played on a computer, some newer DVD players and PS3, PS4, and PS5. I wouldn’t recommend making a video DVD due to limited authoring software options. I did recently find DVD Styler which looks dated but sufficient for Mac and PC: www.dvdstyler.org/en/
If you'd like to make a DVD-Video disc (the kind that you put into a DVD set-top box and it just plays) then you will need MPEG-2 video files instead. But more and more people have smart TVs where you can insert a USB drive and it will play the MP4 files.
Hi. I am tearing my hair out here. My USB device or anything I have installed wont show up in my menu. Can you help ?
Possibly. Let’s backup a bit. Mac or PC? Are you using a similar capture device? Are you using OBS? I’m assuming you’ve already tried restarting the computer and running any updates?
‼️Step 1: place VHS into JVC VCR
Step 2: connect the FireWire port from the VCR to your Mac
Step 3: use the capture software of your choice and press play on the VCR
Wow. Way easier and better quality.
A DV25 digitization can outperform a mediocre SD capture device. However, I recommend a better SD capture device that saves to a lossless codec like HuffYUV or Lagarith. I wouldn't recommend digitizing directly to MP4.
Putting your laptop in front of what you’re doing is not very helpful - we need to see what you’re doing with cables and your right hand covers a lot of what you’re doing in the side view
So sorry about that, I’ll try to be a bit tighter next time. Luckily it’s pretty easy, yellow one is video and white is audio. Thanks for the suggestion 👍
lol.. half a video over and guy just realizes he needs cables? wtf. thank you for the video but ne.. stop.. just stop
It really threw me for a second! 🤣
Less than 15 bucks? You get what you paid for.. Which means this video is useless.. A $15 device isn't going to properly convert video tapes to MP4 without glitches and frame drops..
So far no issues, just concerned it make brick itself at any moment. One of my tapes was 2 hours and the video is great, sometimes these cheap devices can get the audio and video out of sync especially during long captures, but nothing negative to report yet. I have like 6 more tapes to record so I’ll report back 🤞