record video fron VHS-C to another tape format?

[VHS-C98]

Hi All,

I want to record the video content which is on my original VHS-C tapes onto another tape format for archiving as my VHS-C tapes are getting pretty old and i want to have a hard copy if you know what i mean. I already have digital copies in DVD format but im assuming the picture quality is slightly reduced in this digital format as it has undergone some kind of compression.

Please advise would it be worth recording the content onto another tape format and if so then which format would be best? Or what other ways can i archive to keep the content as close to the originals as possible?

Hope i have made myself clear but if not then please ask questions and i shall try to clarify.

[hech54]

Buy a HUGE hard drive and capture them losslessly.

[VHS-C98]

you said capture them "losslessly" meaning avi file?

[Cornucopia]

We don't know your system, but most lossless codecs in use do make use of AVI container (there are also MKV, a few for MOV and possibly MXF).

Depends on how you transferred it to DVD, but with VHS-C as a starting point, high-bitrate DVD could be a very close facsimile (IOW, you don't have much to start with, so there's not too much you lose).

Lossless capture is always the HIGHEST/MOST FAITHFUL method of capture, but it depends on the time & money & effort expended (and expertise needing to be learned) on whether it is worth it for you. Could be law of diminishing returns...

BTW, hard to tell from the heading, but I strongly recommend you do NOT return your data to ANOTHER tape format! (unless you were referring to LTO data tape backups, etc)

Scott

[hech54]

you said capture them "losslessly" meaning avi file?

Lossless AVI, yes. HuffyUV inside the AVI container is my personal favorite.

[KarMa]

I would just keep it Digital. Kind of pointless to put it back on a tape, unless these are data tapes. You can compress the video losslessly in real time with Huffyuv, Lagarith, FFV1, and some others. These would use a AVi container. Be sure to capture them in YUY2 compared to YV12.

[VHS-C98]

Initially i had played the tapes using a nearly new compact VHS camcorder which i bought off ebay a while back (JVC GR-FX16 with TBC/CNR) and recorded directly onto DVD using a Sony DVD Recorder (RDR-GX210) using its highest quality recording mode (HQ). The DVD recorder had HQ mode which was the highest and then SP, EP and finally the least quality mode being the SLP mode. I connected the camcorder to the DVD recorder with RGB cables. Ideally wanted to connect it via S-Video but the camcorder did not have that option.

That was a couple of years back but now i probably want to capture losslesly and archive them on a external hard drive. To do this i have a few different playback sources available to me which i had not at the time of capturing them on DVD.

As playback sources i have the following and maybe you guys can tell me which would be better to use. The tapes are VHS-C.

1. JVC GR-FX16 VHS Camcorder which i had initially used
2. JVC HR-S9700 VHS Player
3. JVC HM-DR10000 VHS Player
4. Panasonic NV-V8000 VHS Player (can play VHS-C tapes without adaptor)

Capture Device would be my laptop which is a Lenovo Thinkpad T410, i5 processor with 6GB Ram and 1TB external hard drive for storage

I also have a ADVC-300 capture device if required?