Convert vhs tape to mp4

[satimis]

Hi all,

I have old stock of VHS tapes which was created from V8 tapes. Unfortunately both my VHS tape player and Sony V8 camera are both out of order, unable to work.

I expect to convert VHS tapes to mp4. Please advise what device I have to purchase for this job and where I have to look for them.

Thanks in advance.

Regards

[dellsam34]

V8 to VHS? Yikes! Do you still have the original 8mm tapes? No need to capture to mp4, capture lossless and encode to h.264 in mp4 container. Avoid easycaps devices, If you have windows 10 it will be hell to get an analog capture device working, Good luck.

[lingyi]

Thoroughly read and digest everything in this thread, especially the links to digitalfaq.com and lordsmurf's posts: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/j4rwk1/the_how_do_i_digitizetransfercapt...e_video_tapes/

In a nutshell; poor to fair is easy and cheap, fair to good will takes a fair amount of time and learning and will cost you $$$-$$$$, good to very good requires a lot of time and learning and will cost you $$$$.

[satimis]

Hi all,

Lot of thanks for your advice.

I don't think having problem converting VHS/V8 to mp4. There are many software available on Open Source, such as
OBS Studio
https://obsproject.com/

OpenShot
https://www.openshot.org/

etc.

Years ago I have converted V8 to VHS via computer.

Now what I need is a device playing VHS/V8 tape. They are already out of market.

There are shops offering service converting VHS/V8 to DVD and mp4. I have no idea of the quality of DVD and mp4 generated.

I have already dumped the defective VHS player. I have tried connecting my old Sony Video camera direct to the power adapter but there is no light showing. I suppose it is also out of order.

Suggestion and comment would be appreciated? Where can I shop those old devices? Thanks

Regards

[johns0]

Convert your v8 to computer instead of vhs,there's tons of info on the web how to do this.

[satimis]

Convert your v8 to computer instead of vhs,there's tons of info on the web how to do this.

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

My only regret is that when on converting V8 to VHS tape subtitle and background music have been added. Also the video has been edited. I have to do it again but it is not my major concern. I have quite long experience on video editing

Now what I need is a device. Where can I find it? Besides I have no idea of the quality of my VHS and V8 tapes. I don't have a device to check them.

Regards

Regards

[dellsam34]

Now what I need is a device playing VHS/V8 tape. They are already out of market.

There are shops offering service converting VHS/V8 to DVD and mp4. I have no idea of the quality of DVD and mp4 generated.

I have already dumped the defective VHS player. I have tried connecting my old Sony Video camera direct to the power adapter but there is no light showing. I suppose it is also out of order.

Suggestion and comment would be appreciated? Where can I shop those old devices? Thanks

Regards

Hong Kong should be an easy place to get old gear, and Japan is not far, Get a Hi8 or D8 camcorder built in TBC with S-Video output and stereo audio RCA, Connect to a USB capture device that accepts S-Video and RCA audio, tons of threads about what device to choose. Under Windows 10 is challenging but it can be done. Open shot and OBS are not for capturing analog video, Use Vdub or AmarecTV.

[satimis]

Hong Kong should be an easy place to get old gear, and Japan is not far, Get a Hi8 or D8 camcorder built in TBC with S-Video output and stereo audio RCA, Connect to a USB capture device that accepts S-Video and RCA audio, tons of threads about what device to choose. Under Windows 10 is challenging but it can be done. Open shot and OBS are not for capturing analog video, Use Vdub or AmarecTV.

Hi,

Whether you meant following device.
ClearClick Video to Digital Converter 2.0 (Second Generation) - Record Video from VCR's, VHS Tapes, AV
https://www.amazon.com/hi8-tape-player/s?k=hi8+tape+player

It is now available in Amazon. But how can it play V8 tapes?

Is there a video tape player which can play both VHS and V8 tapes?

Regards

[orsetto]

My only regret is that when on converting V8 to VHS tape subtitle and background music have been added. Also the video has been edited. I have to do it again but it is not my major concern. I have quite long experience on video editing

You must first choose how much money, effort and time you want to spend on this project. You also must very seriously and honestly decide exactly how important these tapes truly are. What is on the tapes? Old family videos? If so, is anyone in the family really truly so interested in constantly viewing these tapes that the quality must be as perfect as possible?

Your answers determine what you need to buy and how you need to do the transfers.

My experience is nobody really cares that much about these old family tapes. I understand Asia is different and families are closer in feeling and living than in USA, but still. If nobody has asked you for these tapes until very recently, they aren't so important that you should embark on a complicated expensive digitizing project. Even if one or two people are begging you right now for a digital copy, they will most likely watch the videos once or twice, share them on social media, then never ever mention them again. For such casual use, it really does not make sense to start the project all over again from the beginning with the original 8mm tapes, re-editing and re-adding subtitles and music after you already perfected those extras when you made the VHS versions years ago.

There are shops offering service converting VHS/V8 to DVD and mp4. I have no idea of the quality of DVD and mp4 generated.

I'd strongly recommend you test the service at one or two of these shops. Bring them one not-important VHS that you would not be upset to lose. Let them make an MP4 file or dvd (whichever you need) and see if the digital copy satisfies you (and they return your VHS tape in perfect condition with no damage). If you feel the service is good, have that shop do the work for you. Because you WILL NOT get any better results from VHS doing it yourself unless you spend a LOT of money on some hard-to-find expensive old VCRs and other video / PC hardware. Such expense to digitize the VHS is not worthwhile, since you still have the original 8mm tapes: only digitize from the VHS copies if the convenience of not re-doing the editing, music and subtitles is more important than maximum possible video quality.

ClearClick Video to Digital Converter 2.0 (Second Generation) - Record Video from VCR's, VHS Tapes, AV
https://www.amazon.com/hi8-tape-player/s?k=hi8+tape+player

Most shops that offer VHS>digital service are using devices similar to this. To do the work yourself would require not only buying this device, but also a good VHS VCR. Unless you have more than 10 or 20 tapes to digitize, its far less trouble and expense to pay a service to do it.

HOWEVER:

If these tapes are very very important to someone who will demand absolute best quality, or will be broadcast on a television station or put in a museum library, you will probably need to do the work yourself (very few services do work at super high quality level, those that do will have very expensive fees). You will need to find a good working 8mm camcorder or 8mm editing VCR so you can start with the original 8mm tapes again. You will need a good analog>USB capture device for your computer, or if the camcorder has DV output you could capture in DV digital format direct to your PC if your laptop or desktop has a DV/FireWire/IEEE1394 port. There are advantages/disadvantages to both methods.

If capturing the tapes from analog instead of DV, you might need an expensive external TBC box. You will need a huge amount of hard drive space as a working-editing-compositing area so you can add back the music/subtitles and convert the huge captures to smaller, good quality MP4 format. You should also retain all the original pre-MP4 captured material (DV or AVI) plus your music/subtitle data as a backup, in case a different format from MP4 is requested (or maximum quality is need for a specific purpose).

[lingyi]

++1

An excellent response to the OP and so many others. Especially weighing cost vs demand.

I've posted about this before. My ex-girlfriend's relatives would pay each other for the duplicate photos they had. I thought it was strange at first, but dawned on me that it made perfect sense. Offer something for free and most people will gladly take it. Tell them they'll have to share in the cost and the demand drops tremendously.

"I have some old videos of grandma and grandpa that I can do a really great job on. Do you want a copy?"

"Sure!"

"It will cost $3K to get all the right equipment. Split the cost with me!"

"Ummm...no thanks."

[satimis]

My only regret is that when on converting V8 to VHS tape subtitle and background music have been added. Also the video has been edited. I have to do it again but it is not my major concern. I have quite long experience on video editing

You must first choose how much money, effort and time you want to spend on this project. You also must very seriously and honestly decide exactly how important these tapes truly are. What is on the tapes? Old family videos? If so, is anyone in the family really truly so interested in constantly viewing these tapes that the quality must be as perfect as possible?
......
.....

Hi orsetto.

Lot of thanks for your detailed advice and your time spent to help me.

I have 14 VHS tapes taking video world-wide in the past years plus hundreds of photos taken in my past travel. The 14 VHS tapes were converted by me on Sony V8 tapes taken on Sony V8 Video camera. Unfortunately at present I have no device to play those tapes. More than 80% of the photos becomes yellow in colour. I have to re-develop all photos from their negatives.

All my photo negatives are well protected and packed in boxes. I have decided purchasing a new Epson V850 flatbed scanner to do this job. Although my old Epson Perfect 3490 flatbed scanner is still working but it is time for it to retire.

The primary concern to me is time and the quality of digital mp4 video converted from the VHS tapes. I'm prepared to post all photos and video on websites. I have 5 travel websites running on Internet;

Website-1
Travel in Canada and USA including Hawaii

Website-2
Travel in England and countries in northern Europe including Norway, Sweden and Finland

Website-3
Travel in Japan, Taiwan and countries in South East Asia including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore

Website-4
Travel in western and central Europe including Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Austria

Website-5
Travel in China including the major cities such as Bejing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Nanjing, Qingdao, Zibo, Jinan, Shijiazhuang, Dalian, Dandong, Shenyang, Anshan, Qinhuangdao, Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Wuhan, Suzhou etc.

There are shops here offering service converting VHS tapes to DVD and MP4 but I have no idea of the quality of the DVD and MP4 converted by them. 2 years ago Sony here offered this service. I'll try contacting them to check whether this service is still available. If available I'll give them an un-important VHS tape for trial.

My PC is quite strong:
CPU - AMD 8-core
RAM - 32G
Hard disk for OS - NVME M.2 PCIE 3.0 SSD 1TB
Hard disks for storage - WD 4TB HD plus WD 2TB HD and WD 1.5TB HD
DVD Burner
OS - Linux Ubuntu 20.04

I have long time experience in photo and video editing, including adding background music, narration, subtitle etc. Also I have experience in converting words to voice

I would burn the digital video MP4 files on DVD

Comment and suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks

Regards

[lordsmurf]

ClearClick Video to Digital Cs

No. Problem junk, getting to be as infamous as Easycap (Easycrap) and Elgato (Elcrapo). ClearCrap?

OBS Studio

No. Do not use this. It's streaming screen recording software, not analog capture software.

OpenShot

This is an editor. Never try to use editors/NLE for capture.

Now what I need is a device. Where can I find it?

What OS are you using, or can you use. Understanding that WinXP and Win7 are best, few issues, most hardware available.

You must first choose how much money, effort and time you want to spend on this project.

That's approaching it backwards. "I want to spend $5 on a new car!", bit without realizing what cars cost. Back up. Learn what costs actually are. Once that's done, and you see the full menu of options, from no/crap quality (aka NOT quality), to high quality, to the middle grounds where shortcuts are taken (but with various tradeoffs in quality), can you make a educated decision. When it comes to spending money, don't pull random numbers out of your ass. Educate yourself on actual costs.

You also must very seriously and honestly decide exactly how important these tapes truly are. What is on the tapes?

Yes.
- retail VHS tapes = often not worth it (unless a rare title, worth $$$)
- home VCR recordings = usually worthless, unless you're a TV show collector (like me!)
- family movies = valuable memories

Old family videos? If so, is anyone in the family really truly so interested in constantly viewing these tapes that the quality must be as perfect as possible? My experience is nobody really cares that much about these old family tapes.

Your experience is unusual. Most people value videos of family, ESPECIALLY after somebody has died. The attitude of "eh, she's dead, who cares" is pretty awful to me. Most people care. Highly. And they want to see and hear family members as they were -- not washed out or too dark, and not with audio that sounds like a walkie-talkie.

they will most likely watch the videos once or twice, share them on social media, then never ever mention them again.

So? That's normal. You watch it, you enjoy it. Maybe once, maybe a few times. Odds are, a few times, sharing with yet more family (kids, relatives, etc). What's disturbing is when somebody needs therapy, but instead plays the video on a loop, or watches it all the time. That's not healthy, that's not normal, seek help.

For such casual use, it really does not make sense to start the project all over again from the beginning with the original 8mm tapes, re-editing and re-adding subtitles and music after you already perfected those extras when you made the VHS versions years ago.

Disagree. Vehemently. That's such a callous attitude.

I'd strongly recommend you test the service at one or two of these shops. Bring them one not-important VHS

No. Ask questions first. Learn what's used.
For example,
- "MP4" is jabberwocky nonsense. MP4 is a container, not a video. What codec? What resolution? What bitrate?
- What exact hardware is used to playback the VHS tape. Not just generic answers like "Panasonic VCR, but models, TBCs, etc. Everything in the workflow. Don't give your videos to a slopshop that buys their gear at the big box mart down the road.

Unless you have more than 10 or 20 tapes to digitize, its far less trouble and expense to pay a service to do it.

Correct.

If these tapes are very very important to someone who will demand absolute best quality, or will be broadcast on a television station or put in a museum library,

You're being misleading. For starters, broadcast isn't necessarily a yardstick of quality anymore, nor are they playing mom's old VHS tapes on TV. Museums simply want good quality as well, no different than most home users. And I'd know all this, since I deal with all of the audiences on regular basis.

those that do will have very expensive fees).

You focus on money too much. Not everybody is broke as a joke, and many folks value their time. "Expensive" is also relative. You won't see video conversion shop owners driving BMWs or joining golf courses. People blow wads of cash on BS all the time (filling their homes or guts with useless junk), but are unwilling to spend money where it actually matters.

you might need an expensive external TBC box.

So? Buy it, use it, resell it. Quality gear holds value, sometimes even rises in value.

You will need a huge amount of hard drive space as a working-editing-compositing area

It's 2021. All you really need is a good 2tb drive for space, but you can buy up to 16tb these days for s few hundred dollars. I still remember buying "big" 100gb drives 20 years ago, for the low-low price of $200 or so. Have perspective.

An excellent response to the OP and so many others. Especially weighing cost vs demand.

Not really. It focuses far too much on money, namely unrealistic budgets that are based on nothing ("Gee, I'd like to spend $$ on something where I have no concept of costs"). When I shop for stuff, I educate myself on pricing ranges, and what that gets me. The usual scenario is cheap problem crap from China, to moderate/decent stuff (maybe also from China, or not), to higher end (rarely China, but not always).

I've posted about this before. My ex-girlfriend's relatives would pay each other for the duplicate photos they had. I thought it was strange at first, but dawned on me that it made perfect sense. Offer something for free and most people will gladly take it. Tell them they'll have to share in the cost and the demand drops tremendously.
"I have some old videos of grandma and grandpa that I can do a really great job on. Do you want a copy?"
"Sure!"
"It will cost $3K to get all the right equipment. Split the cost with me!"
"Ummm...no thanks."

It really comes down to socioeconomics. Are you a mooch, or come from a family of moochers? Or do you come from a tight knit family, that is decent well off (not rich, not poor), that gets together a lot? Or in the middle, most gather, mixed incomes, few black sheeps. I deal with a lot of people, and I think some VH voices are far too jaded when it comes to money, and to needs or wants.

[satimis]

- snip -

OBS Studio

No. Do not use this. It's streaming screen recording software, not analog capture software.

Also I haven't used it before and just found it on Internet searching. I suppose it is a video converter converting analogue video to digital video, similar to HandBrake

HandBrake
https://handbrake.fr/

OpenShot
This is an editor. Never try to use editors/NLE for capture.

I have used this software quite sometimes. It is a video editor able saving the final video in many format. It is very nice software and easy to use.

dvgrab is for capturing DV or HDV (MPEG2-TS) video and audio data from digital camcorders via FireWire. The data is stored in one or several files and can later be processed by video editing software (OpenShot).

Now what I need is a device. Where can I find it?
What OS are you using, or can you use. Understanding that WinXP and Win7 are best, few issues, most hardware available.

Linux Ubuntu 20.04. I have been running FreeBSD -> Unix -> Linux (now) ever-since I stepped away from Windows >20 years ago. I have been running many Linux distributions, such as Red Head, Fedora, Mint, Debian, etc. The best Linux version is the Linux built by yourself, i.e. Linux From Scratch.

Linux From Scratch
https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

Almost unable to be attacked by Hackers. They don't know how you build the OS core. It took me 5 days and 5 nights continuously to build it in Single-Core PC. The process is completely automatic. You can go to sleep.

Others noted.

If I found a good second-hand VHS player, I'll try to convert my VHS tapes myself as a test.

Regards.

[satimis]

Convert your v8 to computer instead of vhs,there's tons of info on the web how to do this.

Yes, thanks for your advice.

I converted my V8 tapes to VHS tapes long long time ago, before the birth of digital video.

Now what I need is a VHS/V8 player to play the tapes. There are many solutions on Internet converting analogue video to digital video.

Regards

[lingyi]

Not really. It focuses far too much on money, namely unrealistic budgets that are based on nothing ("Gee, I'd like to spend $$ on something where I have no concept of costs"). When I shop for stuff, I educate myself on pricing ranges, and what that gets me. The usual scenario is cheap problem crap from China, to moderate/decent stuff (maybe also from China, or not), to higher end (rarely China, but not always).

This is at the core of video capture. Quality costs money and takes time, which most people aren't willing to put in. If high quality was cheap and easy, the answer would be simple. Get any a $10 VCR and a $10 capture device and you're done! When people are given the reality, they but, but's come out. "But can't I just <insert alternative here>?" and when told no, they either go that route anyway, then come back asking why their results are so bad or they never return, presumably happy with their capture. The worse case is when they come back and talk about how great their method is and others follow their advice.

[orsetto]

You focus on money too much. Not everybody is broke as a joke, and many folks value their time. "Expensive" is also relative. [...] People blow wads of cash on BS all the time (filling their homes or guts with useless junk), but are unwilling to spend money where it actually matters.

You're making my point for me, LS. Over and over again you dispute me as if I'm an amoral troglodyte who disagrees inherently with your pursuit of best practices and highest quality, when I do not at all. The issue is the average tenor of the people who are now asking about digital transfer in the current era: over and over and over again, they very clearly state what you or I might think of as a "callous" (gee, thanks for that) attitude toward ultimate quality, insist on a budget that wouldn't pay for a McDonalds family meal, have pre-conceived embedded notions about an elusive single cheap unit that will do everything at the push of a button, and a complete lack of interest in devoting lots of time or energy on a learning curve.

Very very few people who post on these forums follow up and listen when they're told to "spend upwards of $2K on hardware, capture as ginormous lossless master files, use command line scripts to filter and de-interlace, and only then carefully attempt to craft a more usable reasonable-size MP4 out of it that actually suits what you wanted in the first place." Generally we never hear back from them at all, or they dither hopelessly trying to make sense of increasingly elaborate explanations until they eventually just ghost the forum.

Asking them to take an honest, seemingly rude approach when evaluating their goals is essential to guiding them appropriately. Those with modest aims and expectations can use the cheap easy methods, or a local service. Those who immediately balk and defend the importance of their tapes will be more receptive to more complex expensive workflows. Not everyone who needs an engagement ring for their fiancee wants to experience the entire process of mining the gem, cutting the facets, forging the band, mounting the gem in the setting, and pressure forming the little felt lined box before finally presenting the ring. Some just want the finished product asap, and some don't even want (or can't afford) top quality: its more of a token gesture.

The same applies with family videos, esp those that are absolute sh*t quality to begin with (nine out of ten shots, grandmas face is buried in shadow so severe no amount of fancy hardware or trick processing will ever reveal her eyes). If the baseline video is reasonable quality, sure, go nuts, but unlike you I have only seen barely passable family camcorder footage over the decades: stuff that would look exactly the same whether your firm spent a year working on it or whether you ran it thru a defective Sylvania combo recorder.

You won't see video conversion shop owners driving BMWs or joining golf courses.

No, but thats not relevant to the money issue under discussion. It doesn't change the fact that most people simply do not place a high money value on this stuff. They're all sentimental about "our family memories" until confronted with a either a $2000 DIY investment or high hourly service rate: then watch how quickly "callousness" sets in. A top quality VHS transfer/restore specialist isn't gonna get rich off the work, but he/she is also not going to charge the same low fees as CostCo or WalMart. You've got "people who drive BMWs" complaining those discount outlets are charging "highway robbery at $20/hr when I can buy my own USB stick on Amazon for $20!", but you think they'll be more sympathetic to a pro service charging double or triple that? C'mon. During the heady giddy time of a wedding, they'll pay hefty fees for good photos and video of the event, but 20 years later they won't tolerate a tiny fraction of that amount to digitize that same material. People are what they are: at best you can lead them to the proper solution, but you can't force them to choose it.

[orsetto]

I have 14 VHS tapes taking video world-wide in the past years plus hundreds of photos taken in my past travel. The 14 VHS tapes were converted by me on Sony V8 tapes taken on Sony V8 Video camera. Unfortunately at present I have no device to play those tapes. More than 80% of the photos becomes yellow in colour. I have to re-develop all photos from their negatives.

Thank you, satimis, for replying with complete details about your tapes, why you need them digitized, and what type of computer setup you have. All of that info is very important, but many people who ask about digitizing never tell us so it is harder to help them. For example, you are apparently using a Linux system as your primary PC: knowing this, we can advise that you will need either a separate PC running Windows 7 (preferably over Win 10), or a dual boot configuration allowing you to run your Linux workstation under Win 7 for capture work. This is because most of the fully tested and recommended tape digitizing strategies involve Windows: while it is possible to do the work under Linux, most of the info and help you will find is Windows-centric.

Your intended use of the digitized videos for your own youTube travel channel means you will need higher quality than the average person is typically satisfied with. This could be challenging, partly because youTube sometimes tampers with submitted files in some ways that may need to be kept in mind as you work thru your project. You may or may not be able to use your VHS versions. It would be preferable in terms of time saving, because they are already finished versions with music and subtitles, but it depends how clear they are and how well they would survive digitizing and then further processing by youTube.

I think you should still consult one of the shops near you that previously offered the Sony service: ask them what they use to digitize VHS for their customers now. Do they perform the service themselves, or send it out? If themselves, would they show you what VCR they use? Does it look clean and cared for? If sent out, where do they send your tape? Can you find reviews of that send-out service by other customers? If things seem reliable, give them one of your VHS to digitize as MP4. The files they make for you will give you a basic idea of whether the VHS versions will be satisfactory for youTube, or if it really would be much better to start over again from the original 8mm tapes.

Note I am not suggesting you immediately use the service for all your tapes (unless you happen to think the results look excellent). I'm suggesting you use the service as a test, just to see how the VHS might look in digital form. Since you do not even own a VCR right now, paying to have one test tape done will help you decide whether you need a VHS vcr or an 8mm vcr/camcorder. If the VHS test file looks good to you, try temporarily posting it to your youTube channel. If you think it looks good there, maybe you can have this service do all your tapes. If not, you would need to decide which workflow would work best for doing the job yourself.

One significant aspect to look carefully at would be the appearance of the subtitles: are they clear when posted to youTube, or fuzzy? What about the overall video quality: check both bright daylight and darker scenes with shadows. Do you feel the file on youTube shows what you want your followers to see clearly? Or is it too blurry or murky or have fine lines or distortions disturbing it? If you feel it meets your expectations, but could maybe be a little better, doing it yourself from the VHS can offer better results than you can get from that service. But it probably won't be a huge difference: since your VHS are already heavily processed from when you made the dubs from 8mm, improvement possibilities may be limited compared to what you could get going back to the 8mm originals.

Follow the recommendations of the links to LordSmurf's DigitalFAQ website at reddit, in lingyi's earlier reply. Improving the VHS files requires a very specific type of VCR, a specific capture hardware/software setup, and specific method of creating the final MP4s for youTube. LordSmurf is the authority on best ways to digitize VHS: if you want the best files possible, his method is the best method. I only disagree with his suggestions when someone makes clear they do not have the time, money, ability or need for ultimate quality (some people are very satisfied with what they get from a budget service, or a combo VHS/DVD recorder, or generic Amazon USB capture stick and an ordinary VCR).

If you DO NOT like at all how the test VHS file from the shop looks on your youTube channel, chances are you will not like your own files made from VHS very much either. In that case you will need to do the entire set of tapes over from scratch, beginning with the 8mm originals. Some 8mm VCRs or camcorders include a DV feature that digitizes the 8mm tapes internally, which lets you capture a DV format video file directly to any PC that also has DV connection. DV captures are easier than from analog, but DV isn't suitable for some projects with very challenging video issues or heavy post processing plans. Here again you would want to try a test sample before deciding: if DV doesn't work for your needs, follow the same analog capture workflow recommended for VHS (except of course you would use an 8mm VCR/camcorder instead of VHS).

All my photo negatives are well protected and packed in boxes. I have decided purchasing a new Epson V850 flatbed scanner to do this job. Although my old Epson Perfect 3490 flatbed scanner is still working but it is time for it to retire.

The Epson 850 is quite good but may not be the optimal choice for scanning 35mm film negatives. It does a decent job with 35mm (esp for web posting purposes) but is more optimized for medium format 120/220 sized films. For top quality archival scans of your most important 35mm images, consider high res direct film copying with DSLR or mirrorless digital camera setup. Another (often better) alternative is a dedicated 35mm film scanner, but unfortunately good 35mm scanners are mostly used, second-hand items today. They can be expensive, and many work best with an older Windows PC or Apple Mac. There are many film-specific service firms that will use these dedicated film scanners from Nikon etc to do the job for you at reasonable fees: unlike video digitizing, good film digitizing service is easier to find.

[dellsam34]

Yes, thanks for your advice.

I converted my V8 tapes to VHS tapes long long time ago, before the birth of digital video.

Now what I need is a VHS/V8 player to play the tapes. There are many solutions on Internet converting analogue video to digital video.

Regards

What Johns0 meant is digitize the V8 tapes and ditch the transfered VHS tapes, When you transfer analog tape to another a chunk of quality is lost not to mentien the baked in H and V timing and tracking issues, You will probably never get a stable picture from the dubbed VHS copies using a low cost VCR. Instead get a good Hi8 or D8 camcorder with built in line TBC and S-video out to get the best out of your V8 tapes this lowers your demand for a higher quality capture card or even getting an external TBC.

Now to your slides, never use a flatbed scanner for slides, The resolution is split into tiny windows, instead use a slide scanner even if it's cheap you still get the full resolution for each slide.

[Cornucopia]

Depends on the Flatbed scanner, @dellsam34. Some, you CAN set the region to scan and the resolution independently, and if the density is high enough, it CAN capture the full rez of the slide (or more). I have done so, with 35mm slides, on a Flatbed.
For convenience, especially with quantity, nothing beats a dedicated slide scanner.

For the OP, FYI 35mm slides should have a (rough) equivalence to 4k digital images, depending on how it was captured, developed, copied, scanned.


Scott

[satimis]

Depends on the Flatbed scanner, @dellsam34. Some, you CAN set the region to scan and the resolution independently, and if the density is high enough, it CAN capture the full rez of the slide (or more). I have done so, with 35mm slides, on a Flatbed.
For convenience, especially with quantity, nothing beats a dedicated slide scanner.

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your advice.

It is because all my old photos turn to yellow in colour, the digital images scanned on them won't have a good result. I need to scan their negatives. I have tried my film negatives on my old Epson Perfection 3490 flatbed scanner the result is quite good. However I expect to replace it with Epson V850 flatbed scanner, the latest model. Its cost is far more expensive than a slide scanner. During scanning, the quality of digital images is completely under my control via the software, GIMP. Besides after having scanned all negatives I can still use it for scanning documents.

For the OP, FYI 35mm slides should have a (rough) equivalence to 4k digital images, depending on how it was captured, developed, copied, scanned.

I don't have slides, only film negatives. Thanks

Regards

[satimis]

What Johns0 meant is digitize the V8 tapes and ditch the transfered VHS tapes, When you transfer analog tape to another a chunk of quality is lost not to mentien the baked in H and V timing and tracking issues, You will probably never get a stable picture from the dubbed VHS copies using a low cost VCR. Instead get a good Hi8 or D8 camcorder with built in line TBC and S-video out to get the best out of your V8 tapes this lowers your demand for a higher quality capture card or even getting an external TBC.

I fully understand your advice. To my much regret, all my VHS tapes are well organized with label on each tape indicating the countries and cities taking the shot. Besides I don't know whether I can find all their original copies. Up to now I only found one cassette.

Metal MP120

Sony Metal MP90 [9]

PAL 8

Video 8

My old Sony video camera;

Sony

Handycam

Video 8

[8] PAL

VIDEO CAMERA RECORDER

CCD-F380E

Now to your slides, never use a flatbed scanner for slides, The resolution is split into tiny windows, instead use a slide scanner even if it's cheap you still get the full resolution for each slide.

I don't have slides to scan but film negatives. I have tried scanning them on my old Epson Perfection 3490 flatbed scanner. The quality of digital images is not bad. I can adjust their quality via the software GIMP before scanning and it is complete under my control. Their quality depends on my time injected.

Regards

[satimis]

[QUOTE=orsetto;2627385]

Thank you, satimis, for replying with complete details about your tapes, why you need them digitized, and what type of computer setup you have. All of that info is very important, but many people who ask about digitizing never tell us so it is harder to help them. For example, you are apparently using a Linux system as your primary PC: knowing this, we can advise that you will need either a separate PC running Windows 7 (preferably over Win 10), or a dual boot configuration allowing you to run your Linux workstation under Win 7 for capture work. This is because most of the fully tested and recommended tape digitizing strategies involve Windows: while it is possible to do the work under Linux, most of the info and help you will find is Windows-centric.

I have 3 PCs here all running Virtualization
Virtualizer - Oracle VirtualBox
Host - Ubuntu 20.04
Guests/VMs:-
Windows 10 Home
Windows 10 Pro
Ubuntu Linux
Linux Mint
Fedora
etc.

Alternatively I can add a SSD hard drive to PC, running Window 10 Home or Pro as dual boot. I have spare 120G/500G SSDs

Your intended use of the digitized videos for your own youTube travel channel means you will need higher quality than the average person is typically satisfied with. This could be challenging, partly because youTube sometimes tampers with submitted files in some ways that may need to be kept in mind as you work thru your project. You may or may not be able to use your VHS versions. It would be preferable in terms of time saving, because they are already finished versions with music and subtitles, but it depends how clear they are and how well they would survive digitizing and then further processing by youTube.

All my video upload to YouTube are in MP4 format. So far I don't discover any loss on video quality.

I think you should still consult one of the shops near you that previously offered the Sony service: ask them what they use to digitize VHS for their customers now. Do they perform the service themselves, or send it out? If themselves, would they show you what VCR they use? Does it look clean and cared for? If sent out, where do they send your tape? Can you find reviews of that send-out service by other customers? If things seem reliable, give them one of your VHS to digitize as MP4. The files they make for you will give you a basic idea of whether the VHS versions will be satisfactory for youTube, or if it really would be much better to start over again from the original 8mm tapes.

Yes, sure I'll try Sony if they still provide this service. I'll find it out later.

Note I am not suggesting you immediately use the service for all your tapes (unless you happen to think the results look excellent). I'm suggesting you use the service as a test, just to see how the VHS might look in digital form. Since you do not even own a VCR right now, paying to have one test tape done will help you decide whether you need a VHS vcr or an 8mm vcr/camcorder. If the VHS test file looks good to you, try temporarily posting it to your youTube channel. If you think it looks good there, maybe you can have this service do all your tapes. If not, you would need to decide which workflow would work best for doing the job yourself.

If I can find a second hand VHS player, I'll try it myself as a test. I don't think capturing analogue video and converting it to digital such as MP4 is a problem to me. There are many solution on Internet.

One significant aspect to look carefully at would be the appearance of the subtitles: are they clear when posted to youTube, or fuzzy? What about the overall video quality: check both bright daylight and darker scenes with shadows. Do you feel the file on youTube shows what you want your followers to see clearly? Or is it too blurry or murky or have fine lines or distortions disturbing it? If you feel it meets your expectations, but could maybe be a little better, doing it yourself from the VHS can offer better results than you can get from that service. But it probably won't be a huge difference: since your VHS are already heavily processed from when you made the dubs from 8mm, improvement possibilities may be limited compared to what you could get going back to the 8mm originals.

Yes, no problem including background music and narration. The video files upload to YouTube are in MP4 format.

Follow the recommendations of the links to LordSmurf's DigitalFAQ website at reddit, in lingyi's earlier reply.
- snip -

Could you please advise me the URL of LordSmurf's DigitalFAQ website at reddit. Thanks

The Epson 850 is quite good but may not be the optimal choice for scanning 35mm film negatives. It does a decent job with 35mm (esp for web posting purposes) but is more optimized for medium format 120/220 sized films. For top quality archival scans of your most important 35mm images, consider high res direct film copying with DSLR or mirrorless digital camera setup. Another (often better) alternative is a dedicated 35mm film scanner, but unfortunately good 35mm scanners are mostly used, second-hand items today. They can be expensive, and many work best with an older Windows PC or Apple Mac. There are many film-specific service firms that will use these dedicated film scanners from Nikon etc to do the job for you at reasonable fees: unlike video digitizing, good film digitizing service is easier to find.

I don't have slides but film negatives. I suppose slides differ from film negatives. I have tried scanning the negatives on my old Epson Perfection 3490 flatbed scanner. The quality of output digital images is NOT bad. Their quality is completely under my control. It is time for my old Epson scanner to retire. I'm going to replace it with the latest model Epson V850 flatbed scanner. Why I stick on flatbed scanner it is because I have large photos to scan. Besides after scanning all my old film negatives I can still use it scanning documents

Thanks

Regards

[servese]

It's a bit of a pain to follow, but the instructions outlined in this guide show you how to decently capture VHS tapes and other analogue video formats on linux without losing sync.

[dellsam34]

Depends on the Flatbed scanner, @dellsam34. Some, you CAN set the region to scan and the resolution independently, and if the density is high enough, it CAN capture the full rez of the slide (or more). I have done so, with 35mm slides, on a Flatbed.
For convenience, especially with quantity, nothing beats a dedicated slide scanner.

For the OP, FYI 35mm slides should have a (rough) equivalence to 4k digital images, depending on how it was captured, developed, copied, scanned.


Scott

Not really, You can upscale the resolution in software but you are not adding any new details, You are limited to the RGB bar physical resolution, each negative is scanned by a segment of that bar not the entire bar, You cannot scan one negative with the entire bar, it's impossible unless you add a lens module on the flat bed and that can cost over a $1000.

[lingyi]

Could you please advise me the URL of LordSmurf's DigitalFAQ website at reddit. Thanks

He just posts at DataHoarder, like he just posts here.

I gave you the link above, search through the posts (ideally reading and digesting the OP's and other's posts) for his name. Not going to spoonfeed you. Hint...look for his blueness!

[Cornucopia]

No upscaling here. And who cares if the whole bar isn't used, if the portion of the bar that IS used is high enough density to support a high rez scan for that portion. Doesn't take $1000 either, 400-500 maybe.

Scott

[Alwyn]

It is because all my old photos turn to yellow in colour, the digital images scanned on them won't have a good result.

My Canon scanner software has a "fading correction" setting that will almost completely eliminate the yellowing of old pics. Also, Photoshop's auto colour correction does a great job in fixing this on a lot of occasions.

never use a flatbed scanner for slides, The resolution is split into tiny windows, instead use a slide scanner even if it's cheap you still get the full resolution for each slide.

I do not agree. If you crank up the scan resolution, use the backlit lid and slide holders you can get great results from slides and negatives, way better than the slider scanners I've used (without spending hundreds of dollars).

And what precisely is "full resolution" for a slide?

[dellsam34]

You can't crank up scan resolution it is defined by the number of pixels on the RGB light bar, I don't know what full resolution for a film scanner, give me a model and I'll tell you, Either way it will be much much higher than a flatbed scanner. 36x24mm negative and positive film can be equivalent to up to 35 mega pixels, That's a minimum of 5000 dpi, How much the dpi of a cheap flatbed scanner? A cheap film scanner like this can do 7000dpi easily.

If viewing photos on TV or a computer monitor maybe you can get away with a flatbed scanner, but if you are scanning for archival and/or restoration a film scanner or an expensive flatbed scanner with 6000dpi minimum is a must.

[satimis]

It is because all my old photos turn to yellow in colour, the digital images scanned on them won't have a good result.

My Canon scanner software has a "fading correction" setting that will almost completely eliminate the yellowing of old pics. Also, Photoshop's auto colour correction does a great job in fixing this on a lot of occasions.

Hi Alwyn,

Thanks for your advice.

The alternative of Photoshop in Open Source is GIMP. I have tried it. It works but the result is not good. It would be better to scan the film negatives on a flatbed scanner. In my case I scanned the film negatives on my old Epson Perfection 3490 flatbed scanner and the result is good therefore I decide to get a Epson V850 flatbed scanner, the latest model, to do the job.

Regards

[satimis]

Hi orsetto,

Again, I have called Sony office here asking about the service of converting VHS to DVD. Unfortunately they have stopped this service.

I found another shop here offering this service. I'll visit them tomorrow giving them one pack of unimportant VHS tape as testing. The delivery is one week. I'll come back after having received the DVD and tested it.

I won't give up to find a second hand VHS player. If I found a reliable one I'll purchase it as a toy to start my own test, converting VHS to MP4.

Regards