Free software to record from VHS via USB?

[kelemvor]

Howdy,

I dug out a bin of old VHS tapes of home movies. I also found my ancient Mygica A680B HDVT Tuner device. I figured it might work to let me Play via the VCR and record via my PC (Windows 10) but I haven't been able to find any software to do the actual recording.

Can anyone recommend something I can download for free? If needed, I may pick up something newer that can work as this is a project I'm just trying to scrape together with stuff I have laying around.

Thanks for any ideas.

Thanks.

[hech54]

Most people will try to recommend VirtualDub.....but I prefer DScaler(not sure if it will work on W10 though).
Be prepared for HUGE amounts of hard drive space being eaten up.

[usually_quiet]

I also found my ancient Mygica A680B HDVT Tuner device.

The Mygica A680B HDVT Tuner is only an ATSC/clear QAM tuner. https://www.amazon.com/Windows-Certified-Antenna-Scheduled-Recording/dp/B00AAJCWDO/ There is no analog tuner and no analog connections for analog capture, so you won't be able to use it to capture the output from a VCR.

You will need to find a different USB device to capture the analog signal from a VCR. A decent one that is new enough to have drivers for Windows 10 will cost somewhere between $30 and $60.

[dzaggiel]

Hi, I recorded video from VHS in VirtualDub. This is clean lossless video.

General
Complete name               : J:\Kaseta1.avi
Format                      : AVI
Format/Info                 : Audio Video Interleave
Format profile              : OpenDML
File size                   : 224 GiB
Duration                    : 3 h 13 min
Overall bit rate            : 166 Mb/s

Video
ID                          : 0
Format                      : YUV
Codec ID                    : YUY2
Codec ID/Info               : YUV 4:2:2 as for UYVY but with different component ordering within the u_int32 macropixel
Duration                    : 3 h 13 min
Bit rate                    : 166 Mb/s
Width                       : 720 pixels
Height                      : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 5:4
Frame rate                  : 25.000 FPS
Standard                    : PAL
Color space                 : YUV
Chroma subsampling          : 4:2:2
Compression mode            : Lossless
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)          : 16.000
Stream size                 : 224 GiB (100%)

Audio
ID                          : 1
Format                      : ADPCM
Codec ID                    : 2
Duration                    : 3 h 10 min
Source duration             : 3 h 13 min
Bit rate mode               : Constant
Bit rate                    : 384 kb/s
Channel(s)                  : 2 channels
Sampling rate               : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                   : 4 bits
Stream size                 : 534 MiB (0%)
Interleave, duration        : 50  ms (1.25 video frame)

But now i have problem how to convert this video file because his have 223GB. (3h). I have tried many programs always audio is not synchronized. But when i tried in one time recording and convert to mpeg2 in honestech VHS to DVD audio is ok but sometimes video lags. Please help me because i don't have any idea.

[SameSelf]

People always report audio sync issues using vdub, and I imagine that with a 3+ hour cap, one is almost guaranteed to have sync problems. You may need to recap it in smaller chunks e.g. 30 minutes to an hour. Alternatively, you can try AmarecTV which solves many ppl's sync problems, as long as you don't mind the Japangrish layout (it does work in W10 though). Or, get a box that does a better job locking the audio to the video like the ADVC devices if the problem is your tape. People love the ADVC boxes because the audio lock is so good.

[Cornucopia]

Bad idea quality-wise to use ADPCM codec for audio. Can be noticeable loss even for VHS hifi (though probably not mono linear tracks).

Scott

[dzaggiel]

Do you have for AmarecTV full version AMV4 video codec?

[TimA-C]

Go for Amarec v3.10 or less and you won't need to have their dedicated codec, you can use Lagarith, HUFFYUV, UT Video or pretty much anything you've got installed on your system and that shows up in Virtualdub. (Don't forget to click on the button at the bottom of the codec list that refreshes it - sorry. can't remember how it's labelled.)

p.s. If you've already installed v4 or above then I think you'll have to completely uninstall it before installing the earlier version. I had problems when I stupidly tried v4.??

[dzaggiel]

Thx Amarec 3.10 with codec Lagarith helps me. I have one question, I saw drop frames it is change to turn off drop frames?

[TimA-C]

If you're getting dropped frames then your computer may not be fast enough to cope with capturing with Lagarith. Try using HUFFYUV as it (I believe) has lower hardware requirements, but you will get slightly larger files than with Lagarith. It might also help to tidy up your PC, close down unnecessary things that are running in the background, especially any cloud based services (e.g. Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive etc.) - maybe disconnect from network/internet while you're capturing. Try adding the folder(s) you capture to to your internet security's list of excluded folders (so that your security program doesn't scan the capture files as they're being captured.) Good Luck!

[dzaggiel]

I used Lagarith because AmarecTV don't see HUFFYUV and i don't know why. Drop frames is not bad ~200 frames in 3h move so is good but still drop frames sometimes are visible. My computer is very nice so i don't think that this is a problem. When i capturing VHS i don't use my computer. I try save video on ssd not hdd and we will se. I thought that in Amarec is option to turn off drop frames.

[jagabo]

AmarecTV don't see HUFFYUV

This post is about Lame but the same installation technique works for huffyuv:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/271712-Lame-MP3-Encoder-on-Vista-x64#1723154

[TimA-C]

If Amarec doesn't see HUFFYUV then HUFFYUV isn't installed correctly. As to your computer being very nice . . . firstly, I'm very happy for you! My main PC is pretty nice (it used to be very nice a few years ago . . . ) but it's not just the specs of your machine, it's how many programs have you got running in the background and what are they doing? Are they taking up valuable processor time? Are they hogging the hard drive(s) periodically and causing the dropped frames? Internet Security/Anti-virus programs are known to cause problems and slow downs when capturing and encoding . . . If your PC is as nice as you think it is then you shouldn't be getting Any dropped frames. I think you said earlier that you were running Windows 10? Try having the Task Manager open (right-click on taskbar and select from the pop-up menu) while you capture and see what other processes and programs are active and might be interfering with your capture. Good Luck!

[jagabo]

By the way, Task Manager showing only 25 percent (just as an example) CPU usage doesn't necessarily mean you can capture without dropping frames. Task manager only shows you the average CPU usage over a period of time (about 1 second at the normal reporting rate). If a background process is hogging up 100 percent of the CPU for 250 ms then zero percent for the rest of the second that will show up as 25 percent CPU usage in Task Manager. But if the capture program isn't allowed to run during that 250 ms interval it may drop 8 frames. Ie, the CPU must be available exactly when it's needed, not just "on average".