Sup Sup Forums

sup Sup Forums

I have hundreds of VHS tapes. How can I digitize them using ganoo/linux?

Other urls found in this thread:

reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/2y78f8/musing_using_vhs_for_data_storage/
aliexpress.com/item/USB-2-0-Easycap-Audio-New-Video-DVD-VHS-Record-Capture-Card-Converter-PC-Adapter-with/32784619650.html
reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/4739v3/linux_compatible_pci_video_grabber_with_svideo_or/
linuxintro.org/wiki/Set_up_a_Webcam_with_Linux#record_video
manualslib.com/manual/24534/Canon-Zr200.html?page=82#manual
userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manual/Capturing
amazon.com/Canon-ZR200-Camcorder-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B0007D9B9G/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1507386827&sr=1-3&keywords=canon zr200
youtube.com/watch?v=3GsG86sKYdo
ebay.to/2y6FDtb
ebay.com/itm/SONY-VAIO-Laptop-Notebook-Computer-Windows-XP-PCG-FRV31-w-Hardrive-RAM-/182642627703?hash=item2a86595477:g:b6QAAOSw~e5ZVHkJ
ebay.com/i/272870575990
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

You can't, you'd need some hardware plus software. Software alone won't do it

what do they have on them, OP?
also

what hardware do I need to buy, and what software do I need to download?

movies from the 90s. by hundreds I mean like 200

Wind the tape around your computer through the ports inside out

You'll have more fun by killing yourself.

You'll need a capture card of some type, a VHS machine and capture software.

>movies from the 90s. by hundreds I mean like 200
any HBO or showtime promos on them? i think they're pretty rare

possibly, I got them from my friend's garage and a lot of them are blank tapes with stuff recorded on them.

I hope to one day build a site where I can stream my carefully curated archive of movies and music to myself

>VHS machine
>is what they call a VCR in 2017

Bump for interest, I've got lots of home videos (including sex tapes of me and my ex-gf) that I'd like to convert

it's called nextcloud i think.
also please report back if there's anything rare. i'd like to invite you to MySpleen, a torrent tracker full of 90s vhs tape transfers and other rare shit

Install Gentoo.

Also, learn to ffmpeg.

Well it's a little more accurate. There are more VCRs then ones that place VHS.

Get one of those EasyCAP USB cards (RCA to USB), it'll set you back like £6/$10, get a VHS player, hook it all up to your PC and use OBS and record it, OBS recognises it as a webcam.

oh, right. i've never seen a Betamax in my life.

more than just Betamax. Lot's of video cassette formats out there.

As for OP, I suggest tracking down a S-VHS deck or a D-VHS so you can get a little better picture out of those old tapes.

>start a webcam stream
>go to laptop
>start stream on laptop
>point vcr cam on laptop screen
>show vc on cam
>record all that process with your handycam
>it is now digitalized
easy, brah

>Blank tapes with stuff recorded on them
That's not how this works you handbag

>not manually taking pictures every second and putting them into a PowerPoint
Fucking pleb

Not OP, but I've been wanting to do this for awhile so I'm going to follow your advice. Thanks.

Step 1: throw them in the trash
Step 2: repeat step 1.

Seeing as everyone else seems to be giving you shitty answers, here's how I just digitised a bunch of old family VHS tapes.

>Requires: computer, capture hardware (more on this in a sec), and a VHS player/VCR
>Capture cards basically have component/S-Video on one end, and USB on the other. They also have some software that usually works on WIndows and sometimes Mac, so make sure you have WINE installed

Basically, what you do is hook up all the cables, open the software, and press record. Most of them are really simple devices and come with their own drivers and capturing software.

VERY IMPORTANT: test your VCR with something worthless first. Chances are it'll eat the tape on the first go because VCRs are ancient, even when looked after. If it's fucked, just try to find a known working one rather than repairing it. Repairs are way too expensive when you can just buy another VCR on eBay.

No problem. I can't vouch for OBS as I haven't actually used it for said purpose but I'm sure it'd work just fine, or any old webcam video recording software.

Retarded question:
Is there a way to use VHS as a Tape Drive?

Sort of. There was something called "ArVid" which was very popular in Russia in the 1990's, which used VHS tapes as a storage medium. You'd plug a VCR into the ArVid card on your PC and you can backup data as a "video" which the PC could read. It was quite inefficient though, and I think there was also other solutions using VHS tapes but they were very poor in reliability.

>movies
Find something that ignores Macrovision, you WILL need something that does, otherwise you're fucked.

'she" has nice ballz

DVHS with a firewire port exist.

The higher end Sony Digital 8 Camcorders have inputs as well as outputs that can be used to capture and stream out to the PC over firewire as well.

t. Did a whole bunch of this stuff a decade ago.

A Canon Zr200 or similar camcorder, IEEE 1394 FireWire cable, VCR with RCA out and a PC running Windows movie maker that has Firewire. This allows you to connect a VCR to your PC via DV. Youll end up with best quality, the uncompressed 25mbps MPEG-TS.

My 2001 Sony Vaio FX390 is perfect for what you're trying to do. MacBook Pros are fine too provided they have FireWire 400 or 800. Adobe Premiere supports DV capture and would be the recommended solution over iMovie.

This is better on a PC though desu.

There might be some dedicated hardware that can rip these at greater then 1x speed. If you go the capture card route you'll have to play these back at 1x speed and that'll take fuckoff forever.

I don't really know anything about this at all.

Capture cards aren't worth the trouble. The RCA signal is unreliable and some capture cards act up to signal fluctuations. You also end up with a compressed video.

DV Firewire is the way to go. Trust me.

You have no idea what you're talking about. VCR tapes have to be recorded in real time.

Any way to capture from DV Firewire, then?

I think nextcloud is for something else. I have heard of people using it to store footage taken from their home surveillance networks

I will definitely report back when I digitize these movies

See

That's how you do it. Get on eBay for a cheap Zr200, VCR with RCA output, FireWire cable and either a computer that already has Firewire or a FireWire PCI card for like 5 bucks. Windows XP and 7 are great with DV.

You plug the Rca out from VCR into Zr200. Then, plug Zr200 into PC via Firewire.

by capture card do you mean like an ADC?

By capture card I mean literally everything that isn't DV.

do you have Dr. Phil House of Judgment with Dick Masterson?

thanks user!

I speak from experience. I have converted 25 tapes and 50 Hi8 tapes using the DV method I described without a single problem. Using something like an HD PVR, which has RCA in, was a nightmare. The signal from VCR, being analog, fluctuates by nature and the capture device couldn't handle it. It also produced shitty video. Oh and you have to rewind the tape and start over.

DV was DESIGNED to do what OP wants to do. You end up with literally the best quality video you can get. From there you can convert to whatever meme video format you want.

Happy to help, bro. I'm in the midst of converting HDV tapes as we speak.

One last thing: DV video, being uncompressed, is 12GB/hr. You'll want to capture to a non-OS HDD if its an option. This way, if your computer were to freeze or something your OS is safe. I broke a hard drive once because it froze.

so
>VCR RCA out to into camcorder
>camcorder into PC via FireWire
I am going to need a firewire port card and WINE running windows movie maker to record and that should be it, right?

pretty sure I have a camcorder laying around somewhere

I'd just make screencaps but I'm on mobile, dying to know what Sup Forums thinks

reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/2y78f8/musing_using_vhs_for_data_storage/

>linking reddit threads on Sup Forums
kill you'reself

>not screenshotting the PowerPoint afterwards and putting them into a PDF
absolute state of Sup Forums

You need something like this to hook a VHS recorder to your computer:
>aliexpress.com/item/USB-2-0-Easycap-Audio-New-Video-DVD-VHS-Record-Capture-Card-Converter-PC-Adapter-with/32784619650.html

Also read this:
>reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/4739v3/linux_compatible_pci_video_grabber_with_svideo_or/

It should be automatically recognized by Linux if you use a modern distro. You can record with various programs, see
>linuxintro.org/wiki/Set_up_a_Webcam_with_Linux#record_video

you can export powerpoint slides to PDF dumbass

Just read the link title, but it's a very old idea.
I remember commercial VHS data storage solutions in the late 1980s.
It was something like 200 MB per tape.

You now realize you could use these for data storage.

Russian VHS data modem from the 1990s that stores 2-4 GB per tape.
So you could store DVD quality movies on 1 VHS tape with H.264 encoding

...

Not just any camcorder will do, user. The ZR200 had a special AVDV interface that allowed it to function as a passthrough device. You need that for this to work.

See below:
manualslib.com/manual/24534/Canon-Zr200.html?page=82#manual

I don't have personal experience with WINE...can't you locate a laptop or something with XP on it? XP's Windows Movie Maker had DV Capture built in which is why I suggested it.

No experience with this, but Kdenlive on Linux might work as a substitute...

userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manual/Capturing

As something you would do today? No.

Don't do this. Don't get the Easycap. Go DV.

my school gives me free keys for windows 7 and up (I can just pirate any version I know, but this is more convenient). They axed movie maker in windows ~8 right? I have an old thinkpad I can temporarily put xp on it I guess, but I would need a laptop that accepts firewire, or an adapter card right?

amazon.com/Canon-ZR200-Camcorder-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B0007D9B9G/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1507386827&sr=1-3&keywords=canon zr200

that is the camcorder you used? I suppose I could get that it's only $125.00

7 doesn't include Movie Maker by default, but this guy apparently got it. Note how, in the video, the first option in the top left is CAPTURE FROM VIDEO DEVICE. That's what you need; its removed from the Windows 7 version of WMM:

youtube.com/watch?v=3GsG86sKYdo

The camcorder you linked to is the camcorder I use, yes. Look for ZR200 on eBay though, its cheaper here:
ebay.to/2y6FDtb

Finally, you are correct that in that you need a laptop/PC with Firewire. I lean laptop because its easier to set it all up. It was actually pretty common back in the day. Many Dell laptops, like the Inspiron 1525, are dirt cheap now and include it.

This POS has Firewire and XP. So Windows Movie Maker is on it. Don't get it though because its missing the power adapter:

ebay.com/itm/SONY-VAIO-Laptop-Notebook-Computer-Windows-XP-PCG-FRV31-w-Hardrive-RAM-/182642627703?hash=item2a86595477:g:b6QAAOSw~e5ZVHkJ

>The camcorder you linked to is the camcorder I use, yes. Look for ZR200 on eBay though, its cheaper here:
I am banned from ebay :^(

Now this is a much better option ...

ebay.com/i/272870575990

Yep in the early 2000s I was a sysadmin in a small office and I found an old box of VHS backup tapes from the early 90s. I've never seen the actual drive before, but it existed and used standard VHS tapes grabdma would record soaps with.

most, if not all of these VHS backup solutions didn't use a special "drive", just a plain VCR hooked up to a video modem of some kind
that was part of the point, they were a budget solution, using "drives" and tapes that people already had, so the only cost was the interface and software

come to think of it, it's no different to earlier computers which used audio cassette tapes for storage, many could use your existing cassette player just by hooking up line-in/out cables
the only difference really being that these were common/standard means of storage, while these VHS systems came about when everyone has at least floppy drives, which were much more convinient for typical storage requirements, so they were only really used for backups

youre gonna need a betamax camcorder, the video4linux library, some decent scripting skills, and one of those usb video cards you find on ebay, and an rca cable with the drm line cut. update the thread when youve got the required items

>D-VHS
what a fucking nightmare that was
especially with Mitsubishi fire wire crap

I started doing this with a capture card, as I had some 800-900 casettes, some quite rare.

It takes fucking forever dude. If these are just movies/tv shows, try and find a torrent first.

Only bother converting things you cant find and download, or you'll be gone for years!!!!

you have to record in realtime don't you?

I plan to do a couple a week and over the course of months/years digitize them all

nice american dad

Ship them to a digitization service and let them sit and change tapes all day