VHS to my computer: When you lose your digital master sometimes you have to improvise
January 9, 2007 3:01 AM Subscribe
I have VHS videotape. I have a PC computer running Sony Vegas. I need to get the stuff from the videotape onto a harddrive and into Sony Vegas in my PC to splice into reel. Help me please.
My computer is not the greatest, but runs Vegas fine for the kind of editing I need to do here. The computer has an s-video port, but the guy who sold me the s-video cable informed me that it does not carry sound. Plus, when I got my VCR all linked up, it appeared either that the s-video port was not activated or some setting in my computer needs to be changed.
Other orifices on my computer include 3 USB's, a jack for a mic, a P2 card port and an obscure firewire port. We are looking at about 30 minutes of footage total
Here are my ideas:
- somehow get the VHS onto a disk (avi, mov, vob) and get it into my computer that way. I can handle the data conversion from there - Thank you MetaFilter!
- somehow get the s-video thing to work.
- do the VCR to DV to Computer thing... Does anyone have a brief explanation for how that specifically works?
My computer is not the greatest, but runs Vegas fine for the kind of editing I need to do here. The computer has an s-video port, but the guy who sold me the s-video cable informed me that it does not carry sound. Plus, when I got my VCR all linked up, it appeared either that the s-video port was not activated or some setting in my computer needs to be changed.
Other orifices on my computer include 3 USB's, a jack for a mic, a P2 card port and an obscure firewire port. We are looking at about 30 minutes of footage total
Here are my ideas:
- somehow get the VHS onto a disk (avi, mov, vob) and get it into my computer that way. I can handle the data conversion from there - Thank you MetaFilter!
- somehow get the s-video thing to work.
- do the VCR to DV to Computer thing... Does anyone have a brief explanation for how that specifically works?
It's pretty likely the S-Video on your computer is an output, not an input. Also, very few VCRs are able to output S-Video.
The simplest way is with a DV bridge to the FireWire port, which acts like you're importing from a MiniDV camcorder. Some camcorders are able to perform this function themselves, if you have one.
posted by cillit bang at 3:23 AM on January 9, 2007
The simplest way is with a DV bridge to the FireWire port, which acts like you're importing from a MiniDV camcorder. Some camcorders are able to perform this function themselves, if you have one.
posted by cillit bang at 3:23 AM on January 9, 2007
My Panasonic PV-DV953 camera will act as a firewire bridge if you connect a video source to its' RCA pigtails and a computer to its firewire port. I know Sony made some dedicated firewire bridge hardware too. Not sure what their current offerings are like.
There's pretty much no way to get out of this without buying a peripheral. Sorry. :(
posted by Alterscape at 3:54 AM on January 9, 2007
There's pretty much no way to get out of this without buying a peripheral. Sorry. :(
posted by Alterscape at 3:54 AM on January 9, 2007
Although it's geared for the Mac, I think you'll find this article about ripping analog video covers what you need to know. As the previous answers have indicated, you're going to need more hardware–either a digital camera with analog pass-through, or a dedicated box that converts analog to DV output.
Also, I just found that my VCR is not SVHS, which means that it has no S-video output. The digital camera I bought for pass-through only has S-video for analog video in, so I've had to order an SVHS VCR. (There may be an RCA-to-S-video adapter out there somewhere, but I want the best output I can get from the VCR because it's priceless home movies I'm archiving.)
posted by bricoleur at 4:42 AM on January 9, 2007
Also, I just found that my VCR is not SVHS, which means that it has no S-video output. The digital camera I bought for pass-through only has S-video for analog video in, so I've had to order an SVHS VCR. (There may be an RCA-to-S-video adapter out there somewhere, but I want the best output I can get from the VCR because it's priceless home movies I'm archiving.)
posted by bricoleur at 4:42 AM on January 9, 2007
Unless you specifically bought a capture card, or this is a media PC, it's very likely that cillit bang is correct - the svideo port is just an output so that you can watch movies on your TV. Most PCs don't have the capability to read analog video, as it costs more and most people don't need it.
My advice is that if you just want to do this as a one-time thing, find a nearby service that digitizes VHS tapes and just pay them to do it. You'll get the results as either a DVD or some other kind of file, and it will be much quicker and easier than buying a capture card, installing it, fussing with drivers, setting up the cabling, etc.
If you are really set on doing this yourself (and you don't go for the standalone DV/mpeg2 encoder route already mentioned) then you would need to get the proper cabling. This will depend on what outputs and inputs you have available to you, but here are some possibilities in descending order of quality
* VCR svideo out to capture card svideo input, VCR audio line out to sound card line in
* VCR composite out to capture card composite input, VCR audio line out to sound card line in
* VCR composite out to svideo converter to capture card svideo input, VCR audio line out to sound card line in
* VCR coax out to capture card coax in (this carries both signals on the one wire but you're going through RF modulation followed by RF demodulation for no good reason so the quality will be the worst)
posted by Rhomboid at 4:53 AM on January 9, 2007
My advice is that if you just want to do this as a one-time thing, find a nearby service that digitizes VHS tapes and just pay them to do it. You'll get the results as either a DVD or some other kind of file, and it will be much quicker and easier than buying a capture card, installing it, fussing with drivers, setting up the cabling, etc.
If you are really set on doing this yourself (and you don't go for the standalone DV/mpeg2 encoder route already mentioned) then you would need to get the proper cabling. This will depend on what outputs and inputs you have available to you, but here are some possibilities in descending order of quality
* VCR svideo out to capture card svideo input, VCR audio line out to sound card line in
* VCR composite out to capture card composite input, VCR audio line out to sound card line in
* VCR composite out to svideo converter to capture card svideo input, VCR audio line out to sound card line in
* VCR coax out to capture card coax in (this carries both signals on the one wire but you're going through RF modulation followed by RF demodulation for no good reason so the quality will be the worst)
posted by Rhomboid at 4:53 AM on January 9, 2007
Best answer: Your firewire port is neither obscure nor useless. I know you're living/breathing using the P2 card port (I'm assuming this is for use with the panasonic hvx-200 camera).
That camera should have an analog input - and you can use it as a pass through to your system. VHS to camera. Camera to your computer via firewire.
Make sure you're just setting yourself to "capture now" and you should be good (vs. any sort of capture with deck/camera control)
posted by filmgeek at 8:12 AM on January 9, 2007
That camera should have an analog input - and you can use it as a pass through to your system. VHS to camera. Camera to your computer via firewire.
Make sure you're just setting yourself to "capture now" and you should be good (vs. any sort of capture with deck/camera control)
posted by filmgeek at 8:12 AM on January 9, 2007
For just $8, HD Media services (and I'm sure many, many other companies) will convert that tape to a DVD. Unless you plan on doing this kind of conversion often, this seems to me to be the cheapest and easiest option.
posted by Deathalicious at 11:34 AM on January 9, 2007
posted by Deathalicious at 11:34 AM on January 9, 2007
We've used a local service to convert old VHS home movies to DVD.
The good: While I do have the capability to capture analog video on my PC (Sony DV camcorder to firewire to 'puter), they, theoretically, get far better video quality than I ever could (unless I spent several hundred dollars on a first rate capture device and VCR).
The bad: once the video is in DVD format, your editing options are drastically reduced. I can't find a way to do frame-by-frame editing post-conversion. The best I can achieve, usually, is second-by-second editing. (If someone knows of a method to do frame-by-frame on a DVD, please shout it out. Or email it to me; address in profile). I'd have to convert the video to .avi format, edit it, then encode it again. Given that the quality of VHS-to-digital transfers is always a best-of-a-bad-situation type deal, I'm quite pessimistic about the end results of all this transcoding and, personally, wouldn't attempt it.
In any case, along with the frame-by-frame editing, you may have to toss out the ability to add transitions and some other such stuff. I'm guessing you could still make changes to the audio, but I don't know this for sure.
Also, I should note that the folks who did ours used some machine specifically designed for analog>digital conversion and it, apparently, does everything automatically. I asked the woman who runs the machine at what bitrate the video would be encoded and she had no idea. Apparently there are no settings to change. So it might be a variable bit rate, it might be 7000, it might be 9800. No one knows.
You could try to find someone with first rate analog conversion equipment willing to capture the video to an .avi file, but when I tried getting the above referenced folks to do this for me, (a) it wasn't clear they understood what I meant or, if they did, how such a thing could be done using their equipment and (b) they told me it would cost hundreds of dollars.
Still, hiring them to convert the video to DVD (16 bucks for maybe 25 minutes) was the best of the available options. Nothing I could have done would have turned out nearly as pretty. And I really don't need to edit that particular video.
I wouldn't be surprised, though, if there are commercial options available to you that can't be had in Montgomery, Alabama.
Finally, I should mention this guy over at Antisochal Video: his whole schtick is taking old VHS and laser disc sources and turning them into DVDs. He's rather devoted to his craft. The link goes to his monograph on equipment and methods. But if you're inclined to email him for advice or attempt to hire him to do your conversion, I'm pretty sure that's not going to be possible. I'd suggest reading his FAQs but they don't appear to be accessible now that he's re-designed his site.
posted by Clay201 at 2:07 PM on January 9, 2007
The good: While I do have the capability to capture analog video on my PC (Sony DV camcorder to firewire to 'puter), they, theoretically, get far better video quality than I ever could (unless I spent several hundred dollars on a first rate capture device and VCR).
The bad: once the video is in DVD format, your editing options are drastically reduced. I can't find a way to do frame-by-frame editing post-conversion. The best I can achieve, usually, is second-by-second editing. (If someone knows of a method to do frame-by-frame on a DVD, please shout it out. Or email it to me; address in profile). I'd have to convert the video to .avi format, edit it, then encode it again. Given that the quality of VHS-to-digital transfers is always a best-of-a-bad-situation type deal, I'm quite pessimistic about the end results of all this transcoding and, personally, wouldn't attempt it.
In any case, along with the frame-by-frame editing, you may have to toss out the ability to add transitions and some other such stuff. I'm guessing you could still make changes to the audio, but I don't know this for sure.
Also, I should note that the folks who did ours used some machine specifically designed for analog>digital conversion and it, apparently, does everything automatically. I asked the woman who runs the machine at what bitrate the video would be encoded and she had no idea. Apparently there are no settings to change. So it might be a variable bit rate, it might be 7000, it might be 9800. No one knows.
You could try to find someone with first rate analog conversion equipment willing to capture the video to an .avi file, but when I tried getting the above referenced folks to do this for me, (a) it wasn't clear they understood what I meant or, if they did, how such a thing could be done using their equipment and (b) they told me it would cost hundreds of dollars.
Still, hiring them to convert the video to DVD (16 bucks for maybe 25 minutes) was the best of the available options. Nothing I could have done would have turned out nearly as pretty. And I really don't need to edit that particular video.
I wouldn't be surprised, though, if there are commercial options available to you that can't be had in Montgomery, Alabama.
Finally, I should mention this guy over at Antisochal Video: his whole schtick is taking old VHS and laser disc sources and turning them into DVDs. He's rather devoted to his craft. The link goes to his monograph on equipment and methods. But if you're inclined to email him for advice or attempt to hire him to do your conversion, I'm pretty sure that's not going to be possible. I'd suggest reading his FAQs but they don't appear to be accessible now that he's re-designed his site.
posted by Clay201 at 2:07 PM on January 9, 2007
Best answer: Ahhh... I love MetaFilter.
Thank you all. I understand why the s-video port is on my computer now (who knew?) and want to avoid suping this computer up with any kind of cards if I can, as I am beginning to obsess about posessing a much slicker computer (damn you, sexy mac store).
I've narrowed it down to three possibilities:
1. Borrow the Panasonic HVX 200 again (Spot on, film geek! You're such a... film geek ;). I am lucky to have a mentor who has one, but I can't take my access to it for granted. To borrow it for use as just a deck seems insulting or something) or bring my VCR to where it lives.
The reason why I say my firewire port is obscure is that there seems to be two types of firewire ports: The one that everyone else has... and the one on my computer and my oldest portable harddrive. We could not get the Panasonic to talk to my computer last time, due to incompatible firewire issues. I have a slot for the P2 cards, so it's a living, breathing non-issue except in this VCR/camera/computer situation. If I bring my VCR, I can use a computer there... hopefully. I seem to recall talk of incompatibility on their end as well, after their P2 slot was damaged.
2. Use my friends cheesy Panasonic mini-DV, which is so cheesy that it may not have the capability to do this.
3. Go to the nearest video conversion place in Toronto - anyone know a good one? Is HD Media Services local?
Though it is probably easiest, I want to avoid this option. I'd rather lick this problem personally, much like I did with the .vob (DVD codec) to .avi/.mov/.mpeg conundrum. Figuring out and executing that myself was very satisfying.
Hey, Clay201... I can help you. What you want to do is download a program called SUPER. You use it to convert the .vob file from the DVD into whatever you want – and this badass program is FREE. You just have to make sure that you convert the file to something compatible with whatever editing software you use, and boom. Correct me if I am wrong, but all DVDs are NTSC (29.98 frames per second), right? That would probably be the only other variable you would need to worry about.
posted by Elle Vator at 6:15 PM on January 9, 2007
Thank you all. I understand why the s-video port is on my computer now (who knew?) and want to avoid suping this computer up with any kind of cards if I can, as I am beginning to obsess about posessing a much slicker computer (damn you, sexy mac store).
I've narrowed it down to three possibilities:
1. Borrow the Panasonic HVX 200 again (Spot on, film geek! You're such a... film geek ;). I am lucky to have a mentor who has one, but I can't take my access to it for granted. To borrow it for use as just a deck seems insulting or something) or bring my VCR to where it lives.
The reason why I say my firewire port is obscure is that there seems to be two types of firewire ports: The one that everyone else has... and the one on my computer and my oldest portable harddrive. We could not get the Panasonic to talk to my computer last time, due to incompatible firewire issues. I have a slot for the P2 cards, so it's a living, breathing non-issue except in this VCR/camera/computer situation. If I bring my VCR, I can use a computer there... hopefully. I seem to recall talk of incompatibility on their end as well, after their P2 slot was damaged.
2. Use my friends cheesy Panasonic mini-DV, which is so cheesy that it may not have the capability to do this.
3. Go to the nearest video conversion place in Toronto - anyone know a good one? Is HD Media Services local?
Though it is probably easiest, I want to avoid this option. I'd rather lick this problem personally, much like I did with the .vob (DVD codec) to .avi/.mov/.mpeg conundrum. Figuring out and executing that myself was very satisfying.
Hey, Clay201... I can help you. What you want to do is download a program called SUPER. You use it to convert the .vob file from the DVD into whatever you want – and this badass program is FREE. You just have to make sure that you convert the file to something compatible with whatever editing software you use, and boom. Correct me if I am wrong, but all DVDs are NTSC (29.98 frames per second), right? That would probably be the only other variable you would need to worry about.
posted by Elle Vator at 6:15 PM on January 9, 2007
Response by poster: On second thought, Super probably isn't going to solve your problem. HOWEVER: this is an awesome free program which was able to do what many others said they could, but couldn't, ie convert DVD's of my work into something I could edit.
Thanks again everyone.
posted by Elle Vator at 6:20 PM on January 9, 2007
Thanks again everyone.
posted by Elle Vator at 6:20 PM on January 9, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by ijsbrand at 3:16 AM on January 9, 2007