Opinions on a VHS Digitization Project

[Eternal-VHS]

Background Info:

* I have some VHS tapes and I want to get them onto my hard drive, where they can be perpetually stored/backed up.
* I primarily want to get the data off the tapes, so any clean-up that can be done in post is much less important than fixes that need to be done in-process.
* Source is home videos, and possibly some recorded-from-TV or commercial VHS tapes if I find I can digitize economically.
* Any equipment I buy should be readily available without bidding or getting equipment repairs. Refurbished is fine.
* I have a good deal of experience in audio recording and digitizing, but video seems to be a much larger can of worms.
* I good understanding of the processes and the technologies involved, but I'm looking for the opinions of some experts before I go throwing real money at the project, or putting more wear on some already-aged cassettes.
* Assume a big, beefy computer running Linux or Windows, with a few TB storage with RAID and Backup.
* I bought a couple of Hauppauge devices (WinTV-HVR 950, USB-Live-2), but found the images washed-out and grainy compared to the images the same videos produced on the TV screen.
* I currently have a Sony SLV-D281P VCR, but I'm not opposed to getting something else.
* I'm aware many of these questions have been addressed to varying degrees elsewhere in the forum, but I felt it would be useful to consider them together. A "favorite gear" list might miss devices that pair well, while a tutorial might get bogged down in the details of compression or filter settings.

The Questions:

What format do you prefer for archival storage? Raw DV? mkv?
Naturally, I want to preserve as much as possible, but I don't have the resources to dedicate 1TB per tape for storage. How small can I get a VHS tape before I have to worry about losing quality? What software is your favorite for this?

What equipment should I buy if I want to spend $500 on the project?

What equipment should I buy if I want to spend $1000 on the project?

What sorts of processing should be done in hardware, rather than software?
I'd like to separate capture from restoration as much as possible, at the moment, but I'd also like to avoid cutting off my options for restoration in the future. Is this possible?

Are there any services in the US that can do a good job of this?
I can send them a hard drive. What should I look for in a service, and what questions should I ask? My only goal is to maintain as much quality as possible in the conversion process. How much would you expect this service to cost?

At what number of tapes does it become more cost effective to digitize the tapes myself, rather than using a service?

Are there any books or websites you would recommend that deal primarily with the scope of this project?

[DB83]

I really do not wish to sound un-charitable, but, as you said early in your post, practically all the answers to your questions are contained in the posts of these forums.

A little time taken to read will get you up to speed very quickly and not expect it to be given to you on a plate.

When you have read, come back and just ask on those points you do not understand.

In fact, your last question about a website was probably the one that would turn off most people from giving you a comprehensive answer.

You are already here !

[Eternal-VHS]

Hi DB83,

Perhaps I can clarify why I would ask such a series of questions, though we should try to avoid a discussion of the merits of asking to focus on the questions themselves.

I have been a reader of this forum for a number of years, and read many, many in-depth discussions on VCRs, TBC units, capture cards, etc. I've also read some great how-to articles for VHS capture. This is a valuable body of knowledge to which I refer often. I feel, however, that when we address some of these questions separately, we miss out on the big picture. We have many people with diverse experiences, set-ups, and budgets. When we subject these people to a particular set of starting assumptions, a limited goal, and questions that mutually constrain each other, we can get a number of solutions that are much more comparable. What is most important to them in their signal chain? For example, the more you spend on a capture card, the less you have available for a VCR. Maybe someone would rather go for two brands of VCR than spend on an external TBC at this particular price point. We do have some discussions of this sort for cheap setups where quality necessarily takes a back seat, and we also have discussions for best quality where price and availability are not carefully considered, but I haven't seen threads where these things come together for a given context. I have chosen a generally applicable, but well-defined context to relate to as many people as possible.

I could be wrong, of course, and we may end up with a rehashing of all the old topics or my post may be disregarded entirely. On the other hand, we may gain valuable insight into how to digitize VHS in the confusing gray-area of pro-sumer video.

P.S.
I kind of tacked on the "books/websites" question on the end there, and it is of little importance. You may assume all threads on this website have been read. Obviously I haven't read every post ever written, but there is no need to dumb-down your explanations for the beginner. There are some incredibly obscure books out there, and if there happened to be one that addresses exactly this question it would be useful. However, textbooks covering all of video production, of course, would be less useful.

[DB83]

I could also be wrong of course but I do see that your questions have already been passed by by many of the 'experts' who could have been inclined to answer.

General topics like this are, IMHO, best avoided and one needs to be more specific. State 1) Your budget and 2) How many tapes you have. I did a quick Google and firms in the US are are charging $15+ for 2 hours of transfer to DV or Mpeg2. Jeez, some of them have no more equipment than I use. But, from that, you can do the maths whether it is cost effective to get the equipment or simply pay someone to do the transfer and just concentrate on the post-production.

Of course, if you have read the topics you do have most of the answers anyway including the difference between archive formats and distribution formats . And the advantages of one over the other.

Unfortunatley, detailed answers to all your questions will simply regurgitate all the other similar topics.

[Cornucopia]

You can figure out what "seems" to be a good xfer setup by looking at previous posts here (incl. esp. Lordsmurf's, e.g.), then query shops to see how closely they follow that kind of setup. The ones that do and are reasonably priced are probably the way to go unless you have scores/hundreds of tapes.

Scott

[lordsmurf]

I've actually been working on a list of what's needed to start an actual video transfer setup (low-end to moderate professional quality), and I think a lot of people are going to jaw-drop when they see the price tag. And I not only have to maintain those sort of setups, but have to do so in multiples. And for every piece of gear you pass up, the more quality you lose. A few items (TBCs, for example) are even non-negotiable -- either buy it, or forget about the project. Maintenance costs are just as bad as the upfront costs.

Most of the other topics have already been chronicled in depth.
I've done so here at Videohelp's forum, as well as at digitalFAQ.com/forum

Most people would do better long-term to just pay a service, as opposed to DIY methods.
Most low-cost DIY methods yield crap that you have to live with forever.

[Cornucopia]

Yeah, I agree. But I think lots of people either don't know better/can't tell the difference, or are used to putting up with it being crap.

Scott

[Eternal-VHS]

Thanks for the responses, everyone!

It seems I'm getting the answer I most feared - that VHS digitization cannot be done properly at all with only $500 or $1000 worth of equipment. When I started assembling a shopping list and came up with a 5-figure setup, it was then I realized I needed to get some advice. I had hoped that even if perfection could not be achieved, there would be some combination that would give a major quality boost over the typical consumer-level results. I hadn't considered maintence, either. I've done some work repairing electronics from the 70's and 80's, so I could see maintenance alone turning into a full-time job once you get a good lab set up - and that's IF it's possible to source parts at all.

-Evaluating a service
Before resorting to creating this thread, I did some research on dozens of digitization services. I've seen services from $3/hr to $40/hr (more, of course, if you want restoration or editing). Companies range from the mass-market services of YesVideo to some guy in Hong Kong at Superbrands-Digitize-It. The websites rarely spell out what equipment they're using, or what their process is. How do I decide who to trust with my tapes? Do I e-mail them all with a list of questions and see who writes back? What questions would you put on that list? A call for such services has come up a number of times on the forum, but they never seem to end in "Company X did my videos and I can't believe how good they look!". Are there affordable LordSmurf-approved services out there?

-Shortcomings of using a service
Many services require a letter from the copyright holder to transfer from any VHS where you are not the copyright owner. I can understand their desire to prevent taking part in any copyright violations, but how are we to exercise our time-shifting and format-shifting rights? Are there some services where this is not an issue?

-Preparing for a service
If using a service, file format will be limited by whatever they offer. Maybe one should plan for a 13GB/hr DV-AVI? I've never seen HuffYUV as an option, but I guess that's just one of the things you need to sacrifice when letting someone else do the work for you.

-What to ask for
What needs to be part of the process? What absolutely needs to be done during the conversion, that cannot be done afterwards? Some people will say that color adjustment or sharpening must be done in hardware to be done properly, but if you do it that way, what is done cannot be undone. What's your take?

-What to avoid
There sure are a lot of services out there. They tout suspicious "Features" like "Fully-automated process", or "Direct-to-DVD conversion". I'm sure these are fine services for the majority of consumers, but for those who can appreciate good quality, you get a needle-in-the-haystack problem.

[orsetto]

For pity's sake, Eternal-VHS, you are making this question WAY harder than you need to. Yes, there is a huge range of options available, but the range very easily narrows down to just one or two the moment you factor in your absolute budget limit x the number of tapes you actually need to digitize, divided by how many of these tape transfers you seriously think you will watch multiple times in the future while truly insisting on impossible-to-attain quality levels. Its all well and good to fantasize about consistent stunning high quality transfers on the level of what LordSmurf does, but I must tell you plainly that it is simply not achievable by amateurs with limited budgets, limited time, and many tapes. It just isn't gonna happen, despite what the half-dozen well-meaning "high-achievers" here may say in their various posts. Any Joe Blow who thinks he's gonna match their results just by reading a few VH primers is doomed to disappointment.

Or, to put it another way, have you ever seen the sitcom "Big Bang Theory"? The tiny group of transfer experts like LordSmurf are akin to Sheldon Cooper: they are born geniuses who've also had years of training dedicated to their field, they spend ALL of their time working in that field, and they have access to accumulated technical resources non-pros will never even see (much less afford). Compared to LordSmurf/Sheldon, 95% of the folks who come to VH with transfer projects in mind are like the waitress Penny: well-intentioned, with all due respect for her expert neighbors, but she could no more corroborate Einstein than you or I could match LordSmurf's video transfer results. You have to be realistic, or you will drown in a sea of expense and mistakes.

Sending the tapes out to be done for you is a waste of time and money: 99 out of 100 transfer firms are run by guys who should be driving cabs instead, using hardware they picked up in pawn shops. If you aren't particular about results, don't mind risking your originals, only have 50 or so tapes, and can afford the fees they charge- it can be convenient to use one of these services, especially if you find one local. But any more than 50 tapes and the cost becomes outrageous: you can get better results yourself using similar gear, much less expensively. It will take you weeks or months doing a few a day, but isn't all that hard once you get the hang of it.

Doing the work yourself requires you be brutally realistic about what you can achieve, depending on your budget for gear and your expertise with software and/or hardware. I admire LordSmurf tremendously, but his "take no prisoners" approach is dismally unhelpful to the average Joe: he can insist on "only the best" possible setup and results because he has the expertise and gear rack to back it up. Normal people will not have such an array of hardware or the knowledge to exploit it: end of story. LordSmurf is LordSmurf: you want what he offers, pay him for it- you won't be able to match it yourself. With that in mind, and assuming you have several hundred tapes and a budget of $500-1000 max, here is what I suggest:

Forget the idea of "lossless" files, "top quality" files, or indeed any "files" at all: transferring VHS to a video file that is flexible enough and high-enough quality to be future-proof is a daunting task that only LordSmurf and perhaps a dozen other VH members truly know how to do with any degree of efficiency and repeatability. Large, flexible, "lossless" files like AVI require using a PC, video input card, software, and lots of prior experience: major MAJOR drawbacks. Using the PC is slow as hell, and opens you up to an endless array of possible "gotchas" like needing an external TBC for everything and needing to tweak the resulting files for days before they look even passably good. Throw in Windows system bullcrap and other PC nonsense, and its a headache not worth enduring unless people are paying you serious money as a pro (or you are retired with nothing better to do than devote your entire life to the task).

This leaves you with DVD recorders as the digitizing device. The bad news is you end up with DVDs, which are "lossy" by nature and not very "repurpose" friendly (you can rip them to an HDD library system for playback as files, but the files can't be massaged or improved much: whats done is done). The good news is, DVD recorders are far more optimized to handle VHS input than any PC-hosted digitizing system: plug your VCR into the DVD recorder, and you're ready to roll. No experience necessary, no dealing with complex software, no tying up your computer, use a TBC only at your discretion, and results are repeatable/consistent. The video quality will never be more than "good/average," but the counter argument is the fancy PC gear rack often produces similar or worse results. (Note even LordSmurf uses DVD recorders sometimes, albeit long-discontinued JVC models that are not practical to buy second-hand today.)

The wide choice we once had in DVD recorders has narrowed down to almost nothing today. For quality and convenience, you really need a DVD recorder with HDD, of which only two are still sold in North America: the Magnavox MDR513 and MDR515 twins, and the grey market import Panasonic EH59/EH69 twins. The Panasonics have slightly more refined editing features but cost double the price of the Magnavox (and can have issues with incorrect IRE levels). The Magnavox has a rather crude interface, but it gets the job done with the most current encoder chip you can get in a recorder: excellent with VHS sources. The Magnavox recorders are scheduled for termination this coming spring and WILL NOT be replaced with new models: DVD is dead, this is the end of the line, if you even THINK you might need such a recorder buy one now before they disappear (history shows prices skyrocket on the secondhand market). I'd recommend the 515 model over the 513 because it has a MUCH sturdier remote control with more intuitive layout for editing. It can be bought new for $199-248 depending on WalMart or Target promotional schemes.

The VCR is the biggest PITA to acquire. Good VCRs are no longer available new, and if you want a good used one you need to deal with CraigsList or eBay bidding and perhaps getting some repairs done. My take on VCRs is either go low, or go very high: there is nothing to be gained in the midrange models. You can find mint condition 4-head HiFi Sharp vcrs for $25 anywhere, these are the best value followed by the final Mitsubishi/MGA models like the 448, 449, 748, and 749 and late-1990s Panasonics. (Low-end JVCs should be avoided: unlike high-end JVCs they have no advantages to offset their terrible reputation as defective secondhand units.) Sonys are scattershot: some good, some terrible, and its difficult to tell them apart. Any of these "low-end" VCRs will produce a perfectly credible image in tandem with a Magnavox running at XP or SP recording speed. The digital dub will look more-or-less like the original tape: noise and all. If you never heard of digital, and were still watching the tapes thru the VCR on your TV, and were fine with how they look, you can stop right here and be very happy.

The pursuit of "better" is what drives people mental. VHS is what it is: you cannot make the original tapes look all that much better than what they are. Yes, LordSmurf can, but again you or I or the other 500 VH members are not LordSmurf and never will be, so forget it. Yeah, we have about a dozen members here who will swear on their grandmothers they can do wonders with PC, Hauppauge, software, TBC, and uber-VCR: don't buy into those claims. Note what I said above re devoting your life to the task, past experience & expertise, spending a fortune on gear, etc etc. Not happening for average Joe with hundreds of tapes of varying quality. "Improving" VHS in digital entails tradeoffs in qualities: there is no free lunch. If you improve the color noise, everything looks like claymation. If you filter luminance noise, you get bizarro-world motion/temporal artifacts. If you increase contrast you up your chances of image tearing. If you stabilize some issues with a TBC you end up with overall image softening. Get the picture, my friend? Balancing all of this requires a trained eye and some mad skills.

The only "simple" way to improve VHS transfer is to use a high-end VCR with built-in TBC/DNR circuits. Here again you get plunged into the horrific eBay/CraigsList secondhand hardware nexus, and it ain't pretty. The good VCRs are all beat to death and will require servicing, and good techs can be hard to come by (with some VCRs not being repairable at all anymore). Avoiding the used VCR market involves spending serious coin: you would need to find a dealer or individual with new-old-stock models, typically the recently-discontinued DVHS from Mitsubishi (HS-HD2000U) or JVC (SR-VD400U, HM-DT100U, HM-DH5U, etc). The SVHS JVC SR-V10U is also still available occasionally. These all run $300-600 in sealed box or truly mint condition, with the SR-V10U and older DVHS models like JVC HM-DH30000U being somewhat cheaper. All of these will perform a nice, generalized cleanup of color noise, luma noise, jitters and tearing at the touch of a single button. Its a brute force, one size fits all approach with little range of user control, but it works surprisingly well for most tapes and is leagues easier than dealing with post-processing on the PC in software. (Since you specifically mention not wanting to deal with repairs, upkeep and the used market I suggest you steer far FAR away from the oft-recommended Panasonic AG1980 and classic JVC SVHS models like 7600, 9500, 9911, etc. These are all a huge roll of the dice and buying them is not for the faint of heart or wallet.)

Boiled down to its essence, my advice on this topic has not wavered for the last four years: unless you have a particular aptitude/interest in the complex PC digitizing setups, or a very specific need for AVI or other generic video files instead of DVD files, just get a clean mint (or new) DVHS VCR with built in TBC/DNR, and connect it to a Magnavox DVD/HDD recorder. You'll save a world of time, effort and money. A $200 external TBC like the AVT8710 can be handy to stabilize some very poor quality tapes or to clear copy protection from commercial tapes. (Although in most cases of commercial tapes, it makes more sense to browse the bargain bins at WalMart or BestBuy for the studio DVD re-releases instead of wasting time making your own inferior tape dubs.) Getting significantly better results involves a great deal more $$$ and experience/expertise than most people are prepared for.

[Cornucopia]

I'd guess that I would fall in between...

IMO, only 90% of transfer places are crap. That still leaves 10%. If there's 20,000 around the country, that still leaves 2000 from which to choose! Be a discerning and demanding customer (or better yet, "client") and let them know up front what you want/expect. If they seem like they know less than you, skip them. If they act all "we know what we're doing, we do it just this one way, so take it or leave it" high and mighty, you LEAVE it. A good xfer company works FOR and WITH you.

There is much truth to what orsetto says, but it doesn't have to be all-or-nothing...

On another note:
You have yet to say just exacly what budget you really intend for this.

You also mentioned "time-shifting" in the context of copyright, etc. Unless I'm very wrong, this tells me you want to use your money transferring broadcast/cable stuff from VHS to DVD/digital (NOT converting precious home movies). What a waste of your money and EVERYBODY'S TIME!
Just buy the DVD boxed sets and be done with it.

Scott

[Eternal-VHS]

Orsetto: What a great response! I certainly am making this more complicated than it needs to be - in fact, I'd like to know just how complicated it CAN be! I've long been an expert in audio digitization and digital file management, and I'm pretty good with images, too. I think it's interesting to see if I can side-step into video without falling back to the teach-grandma-to-hit-play-on-the-DVD level. In general, home videos are remarkably boring. The fun is not in the watching, it's in the DIGITIZING! But there's some value in that approach even for people who AREN'T like me in that if one can get their video off the decaying tapes and onto a hard disk, they then have the option to wait until the money or need materializes to send the file off to a professional restorer, or to spend the next 50 years tweaking filter settings until DO become a LordSmurf. The digitizing step can't wait, however, because the VCRs are becoming scarce and the tapes aren't getting any younger. Thanks again for your advice and perspective!

Cornucopia: Don't worry, I wouldn't waste your time trying to digitize TV->VHS->4k or anything. That's just silly. However, there are movies and shows that never made it to DVD. These aren't on the same level of importance as home videos at all, but they do exist. This was included as a secondary goal because that can effect the overall equation. ie. $1000 home setup for 20 home videos is much different from $50/tape service, because that secondary goal has some value.

If you'd like some more concrete numbers to work with, let's try these:
5 tapes, 30 min each, $500
25 tapes, 1hr each, $500
100 tapes, 1hr each, $500
25 tapes, 1hr each, $1000
100 tapes, 1hr each, $1000

[Deter]

Wow read some of orsetto, long post !!!

Point Blank you can make VHS tapes look AMAZING almost 1000% better than the source tape, using the correct hardware.....

To me hardware is just the start of it, cause I do digital frame resconstruction of these videos.

Have this super high end vcr with mic-outputs, audio meters and a TBC that was used for a TV station. The sound and picture for a VHS tape is INSANE....The audio is amazing........Than you have picture tracking controls to get the best possible playback of the tape.

Even the avg person who has no clue about picture quality, plays a tape on this machine vs his Walmart VHS to DVD combo unit would be amazed.

The one point people miss and it just important as the hardware itself, is the TV you have. It is very rare to find a good TV that is HD to play backwards analog material in a good manor. It is not the costs of the TV that is the issue it is finding the perfect TV for VHS tapes. It took me a while and testing every single TV in more than a few stores to find one that would be best for VHS. Now that I have it, that TV is priceless. Cause I can watch the VHS tapes upconverted to 720 with HDMI outputs, running fiber for audio and they look amazing. More than likely on someones elses TV they would look like crap. Old School TV's, yea they look great......

$500 ??? Maybe not, the repair work on the damaged hardware, you would get online, would cost more than your budget.....

Than the avg. person has no idea how to detect if the hardware is damaged. 90% of ebay units need some kind of work.

Any High End Panasonic Unit, will more than likely need repairs.......

VHS to DVD shops.....Well was at a website the other day, that had loads of info for this service, some of it was good info. To the avg. Joe it would seem like a good investments. Got to the part of creating DVD's for the clients, did them in 4 hour mode? Come on, that is a basic sign they have no freakin clue what they are doing...


Have called on a bunch of these places, now looking back, have more of an idea of what I am doing and better hardware to do the work.

Yes, Lord Smurf has been a great help !!!, cause he knows what he is doing....

Eternal-VHS, was just like you was an audio guy who restored and remastered bootleg recordings, and once I got to video it was a nightmare cause you had to blend sound to a moving picture. It was like working in a foreign land. However, it took time and lots of works to be able to get good results. Also did a lot of work with picture files just like you. Hense the "digital frame resconstruction", I build frames for the videos and repair damaged sections. Than with the audio, most old tapes have either hiss or are in mono (aka old Betamax) and have super poor tracking that the HiFi channels are messed up. You than need to restore the soundtrack to these recordings. Your backround will help you, it is just how much time you want to put in to this. I would pay a service for sure, but no one can do the work that I want. Can't really send my VHS tapes to George Lucas, can I....

This is from Lord Smurf's book, once you damage the video using the wrong hardware or playback, you pretty much wrecked the video. If you don't have the correct setup from the start, it is a royal pain to try to fix the video, trust me the video will have problems, no doubt on that. You can than only fix them so much. Bad bit-rates to bad coding to macro blocking to bad capture to dropped frames.....The list of problems is endless.....Let's not forget about the horrible chroma / luna signals and time based errors in your tape !!!!

[NJRoadfan]

Where did 5 figures (in USD) come into the total cost of hardware? The recommended SVHS JVCs can be found in working condition on ebay for $75-200 depending on model. The Panasonic AG-1980 is a bit tricky to find in decent shape due to its many failure points (bad capacitors are common). Best bet on those is to buy low and send it out to a shop for a complete overhaul. The TBCs are tough to find cheap, but are required. The Elite Video BVP4 proc amp can be found on ebay for a reasonable price from time to time.

FWIW, besides my JVC HR-S7800U (which I purchased refurbed in 2000 for $200) and AVT-8710, all my video transfer equipment came off of ebay for less then $100 a piece. Some of it was pure luck, others risky (like my AG-1980), and some of the hardware was listed as "broken" like my BVP4+ proc amp. "Broken" stuff can be a great deal. People are scared to buy it, so bidding stays on the cheap. If you are lucky, the repair is usually a blown fuse.

Here is a sample purchase list for VHS work using PC capture, that will produce "good" results:
JVC SVHS/DVHS VCR in known working condition/no playback issues or "new old stock" (commands high sale value): $200-250
AVT-8710 TBC (new): $200
ATI TV Wonder 600 USB capture stick (new old stock): $30
DVD authoring software from recommended lists: ~$75 (free software isn't all that great)
TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 MPEG-2 encoder: $39 (you can omit this if the free HC Encoder meets your needs)

Yes, around $500, but its sunk costs, and everything except the VCR can be reused if you branch out into other formats (8mm, Betamax, etc.) Also keep in mind that the TBC and VCR usually have strong resale value and one can easily recoup most of those costs.

As for restoration services, has anyone thought to review them by sending the same test tape of varying conditions (tracking issues, content issues like color balances, etc.) and comparing the results? Yes it costs money, but it helps the community.

[Deter]

From doing some tests the AVT8710 can cause frame skipping or frames playing backwards in a video. normally happens in a damaged part of the recording or close to a damaged part of the recording. Any kind of signal problem you will get the color bar, which will need to be edited out later.

The Comb filter is nice, it can clean up some recordings.

You can damage a hell of a lot of recordings using this device, it happens.
It is also easy for the thing to over heat, the s-video connection can got out of phase causing line interference in the video. It can also cause a hard coded line on the right side of the picture. It seems to be made on the cheap and the buttons don't always work.

Yea it can help some videos but not sold on the device. Not a lot of external VHS TBC's for $250. Not a big market for this stuff, kind of sucks. Used this device to clean up some betamax tapes. Which need to be re-done cause of the frame skipping or backwards frames.

The JVC HR-S7800U is about a $250 to $500 machine.

Working AG1980 about $300 to $1200 depending, that is hard to find, these units do go bad over time, usually bad caps. Than to find a good repair shop, good luck.....

The avg joe, has no idea what to look for in an AG1980 unit or what the common faults are on these machines, so it is very possible they can start messing up recordings using a "Bad" machine.

Thought about doing a certifield pre-own on the AG1980 and offereing people this service. Can repair these units and get them in perfect working order. However the repair costs are high on some of the machines and the volume of business is not great. Than shipping two ways is like $120. People want to pay $50 for a retail $2,200 machine. After all the work and time is put in to them they are worth $800 to $1,200, but nobody will pay that price, hense why I don't offer "certifield pre-own" AG1980's.

TMPGEnc Plus, never liked the AVI to Mpeg2 coding, to me it seemed to have motion problems. I use a different method.......

The goal is always to get the best possible quality out of a recording, it can be a nightmare. It depends on the level of detail and all VHS tapes tend to have hundreds of videos errors in the recording. Really poor machines the Chroma and Luna is just a mess. The higher end JVC decks for the most part will get good results on play back. If it is a dull recording the NR filter will blur the video even more, so sometimes you need to use another machine.

SP Recorded tapes, would use a Broadcast Industrial SVHS VCR