VHS to Digital

[97browng]

Hello Everyone,

I am looking to convert some VHS tapes to a digital and have been reading several different forums and articles for weeks and just seem to be going around in circles. In fact I started looking about 2 years ago and had to stop and have now come back again. I am using PAL and a lot of info seems to be for NTSC.

I have what I hope is suitable hardware and if possible would like to use what I have got. This is what I have:

* Daewoo DF-4100P VCR/DVD Combo with HDMI Out (Head cleaned and outputting a decent quality image)
* HDMI Splitter
* Blackmagic Intensity shuttle USB
* About 12 VCRs with home recorded footage from a variety of recording devices (all clean and outputting a decent image)
* Everything is PAL as I am from the UK

I don't expect perfect results but if possible would like to deal with it in 3 stages:

1 - Set the VCR settings correctly
2 - Set the capture device correctly and rip the VHS as best as possible with what I have and keep as an archive (file size is not and issue)
3 - Convert to something more user friendly and improve the image to a reasonable quality.

So as a starter is somebody able to help me with the first stage which is configuring the the VCR.

TV Size - 4:3 or 16:9 (I have been going for 4:3 as this is what the original media will be and I don't want anything stretched)
Picture Format - Letterbox or Auto or Centre (I have chosen centre)
Digital Audio - PCM or Bitstream or Off (I have chosen PCM)
Video Output - 576i or 576p or RGB or 720p or 1080i (I have gone for 576i as I assume this is what the original media would be)

I know this seems like very basic questions but I keep going around in circles. Hopefully once this is sorted I can move onto the next stage which is the capture in blackmagic.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

[Alwyn]

TV Size: 4:3 (or whatever gives you 4:3 in your capture software, noting that AmarecTV and VDub, if capturing lossless AVI, will display 5:4), Correct, correct, correct.

Next!

[97browng]

Thanks for the quick response.

OK so the next step is actually setting the capture device and then getting the footage. So I am using Blackmagic Media Express to capture the footage as that's what came with the capture card. I could use OBS studio if that was a better option, I did try VitualDub and it would not work with the card unfortunately.

So if I use Blackmagic these are the options and what I have selected. Any suggestions?


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