Not able to Convert VHS to digital file

[LetsDoIt]

Hi,

I purchased August VGB300 capture cad and using OBS software. I have connected VCR and connected VGB300, Selected 'AV to USB2.0' Device in the OBS, played VCR, started recording. Stopped after 2 mins to test the recording and I can see the file with size but when I played the recorded file, it is blank screen.

What am I dong wrong.

[DB83]

Well start by not using OBS. Either vdub or amarectv with a lossless codec.

[lordsmurf]

This is just another cheap junk "grabber" Chinese capture card. It's literally $9 on Aliexpress/Wish/Temu/etc. You probably overpaid $35+ on Amazon/eBay for it.

Use VirtualDub.
OBS is the wrong software to capture analog videotapes. It was made for digital streaming recording.

[dellsam34]

OBS use has spread like fire, It became a waste of time advising against it.

[Bwaak]

OBS use has spread like fire, It became a waste of time advising against it.

OBS is multiplatform. The guy who made a popular YT guide using VDub made another one using OBS.

7-yr old guide - 930K views
1-yr old guide - 495K views

The numbers speak for themselves.

[dellsam34]

What views got to do with capturing video?? So that's how you rate the validity of a youtube video by looking at how many views it has gotten?

[LetsDoIt]

This is just another cheap junk "grabber" Chinese capture card. It's literally $9 on Aliexpress/Wish/Temu/etc. You probably overpaid $35+ on Amazon/eBay for it.

Use VirtualDub.
OBS is the wrong software to capture analog videotapes. It was made for digital streaming recording.

Could you suggest better video capture card.

[dellsam34]

There are quite few threads in this sub forum started with the exact same question, just read few.

[LetsDoIt]

Ordered diamond vc500, I will get back once try with this capture card. Anyone have any other recommendations other than this capture card.

[Alwyn]

The IOData GV-USB2 is my favourite.

Some EBay entries for this are fakes but are easily spotted. The real device has the name "IO Data" on it. It's installation instructions are in Japanese but English install instructions have been posted here.

I only use mine to capture; I use other software eg Virtual Dub to edit and export my captures.

Re your issue with OBS, you have to be able to see your video on the OBS preview screen in the middle. If it's blue, that's what you'll get as a recording. Tim Ford has done a good OBS video on YT here.

IMO the only issue with OBS is that is records direct to MP4, which is a lossy format and therefore not ideal for further editing. Most users here prefer to capture in a Lossless AVI format. I use AmaRecTV to capture in Lagarith format.

[Sharc]

Ordered diamond vc500, I will get back once try with this capture card. Anyone have any other recommendations other than this capture card.

Keep an eye on its brightness "adjustments" (pumping) with scene changes (caused by the AGC action). Looking forward to your findings.
For USB dongles my preference is I-O DATA GV USB 2 or Hauppauge USB-Live 2, both with their pros and cons.
Re. OBS: I have never seen a video capture in interlaced format out of OBS (as should be for video tape captures, ready for post processing). Maybe I missed something.

[lordsmurf]

OBS use has spread like fire, It became a waste of time advising against it.

OBS is multiplatform. The guy who made a popular YT guide using VDub made another one using OBS.

7-yr old guide - 930K views
1-yr old guide - 495K views

The numbers speak for themselves.

There are also videos with millions of views, showing people lighting their farts on fire.

Numbers of views mean nothing. If "views" are what determined good methods/science/facts, we'd all be dead by now.

"To sin by silence, when we should protest, Makes cowards out of men." (Ella Wheeler Willcox, NOT Lincoln/whoever!)

Ordered diamond vc500, I will get back once try with this capture card. Anyone have any other recommendations other than this capture card.

VC500 = AGC issues.

Some EBay entries for this are fakes but are easily spotted.

No, not easily spotted. Stock images, "upgraded"/fake unit comes in the mail from China, or Chinese drop-ship locations (in USA, that's CA, GA, NY, NJ).

You don't see this with negative feedback, because the buyers are gullible newbies that don't know what they don't know. These Chinese SOBs are predatory sellers on all platforms (Amazon, eBay, and obviously the Chinese goods stores Ali/Wish/Temu/etc).

[Alwyn]

No, not easily spotted. Stock images, "upgraded"/fake unit comes in the mail from China, or Chinese drop-ship locations (in USA, that's CA, GA, NY, NJ).

Show us a "not easily spotted" one then. Help the guy out!

I've showed the OP what a real one looks like; if he orders one and it doesn't look like the ad... I'll leave the rest to you to work out. How many fake GVs have been sent out when the real thing was shown in the ad that you are aware of?

Or provide the OP with a link to a genuine site.

Hang on, I've worked it out.

[Alwyn]

OBS: I have never seen a video capture in interlaced format out of OBS (as should be for video tape captures, ready for post processing). Maybe I missed something.

I assume that's directed at me. Yes, you are: read my last comment again.

[Alwyn]

@Letsdoit, to put your mind at ease, I have the VGB100, and it's not bad. Not the greatest digitiser on earth (I like the GV better) but not a disaster.

[Bwaak]

What views got to do with capturing video?? So that's how you rate the validity of a youtube video by looking at how many views it has gotten?

Not validity, but popularity. Every youtuber wants millions of views, and widening the audience is one way of achieving this goal. The OBS video clearly has a wider appeal. Maybe this popularity tells us something? Like, not everyone runs a decrepit computer with a 15-year old OS.

[Sharc]

OBS: I have never seen a video capture in interlaced format out of OBS (as should be for video tape captures, ready for post processing). Maybe I missed something.

I assume that's directed at me. Yes, you are: read my last comment again.

No, it wasn't directed at you. It was directed at anyone more experienced than me with OBS. But your 'last comment' (which one?) didn't clarify: Can we capture interlaced and output as interlaced with OBS, yes or no? I still seem to be missing something....

[Sharc]

What views got to do with capturing video?? So that's how you rate the validity of a youtube video by looking at how many views it has gotten?

Not validity, but popularity. Every youtuber wants millions of views, and widening the audience is one way of achieving this goal. The OBS video clearly has a wider appeal.....

And then people come here and ask how to fix/improve.....

[DB83]

Well I watched that, I think, video that was linked to above. I did not link to it since it seemed not to be the one that Bwaak was refering to (surely if he wanted to praise something he could link to it ?)

Anyway. The said video does show how to 'capture' interlaced. Select mpeg2 and .ts as the output format. Yet the creator then spoils the party when he says that .ts is the way to go for dvd.


But having watched that video I am still un-impressed with OBS. Jeez. Vdub is not the simplest of sw to set up for capture but it is a whole lot easier than this. So many 'hoops' to go through. Little wonder that the OP has missed something along the way. But if he watched it - maybe a few times - he can get by.

[lordsmurf]

No, not easily spotted. Stock images, "upgraded"/fake unit comes in the mail from China, or Chinese drop-ship locations (in USA, that's CA, GA, NY, NJ).

Show us a "not easily spotted" one then. Help the guy out!

Read it slower this time:

1. stock photo
2. seller located in Chinese dropship location
3. bogus Easycap/etc garbage sent in mail

There's nothing to "show you", anymore than the Amazon/eBay/etc "sees" what will actually be sent.

Why is this so hard?
You were not even aware of this problem until I posted about it a month or two ago.

Why must all your posts lately (especially to me) be so ... I don't know ... bitchy? snowflaky? Seriously, WTF? We're all trying to help each other here, but you get easily sidetracked by vocabulary, or tone, or whatever. For years, I found your posts helpful, informative ... and then it stopped, replaced by the touchy comments of a teenaged girl.

[Alwyn]

You were not even aware of this problem until I posted about it a month or two ago.

Yes, and I used that information in my post. Read it slowly. Do you want me to credit you every time I mention that?

But what you have now done is extrapolated/catastrophised into being posted a gadget that wasn't on the ad. I was just asking for evidence of this (as you do). And as I said, so what? Just send it back.

This isn't so hard. Just buy a GV-USB2 as I described.

[Alwyn]

Yet the creator then spoils the party when he says that .ts is the way to go for dvd.

You did note that PS is not listed as an option. I suppose you could make your DVD from interlaced H264.

[Alwyn]

Since we're sledging YTers, Tim also has an excellent video on, amoung other things, Staxrip, which includes QTGMC processing.

[DB83]

Yet the creator then spoils the party when he says that .ts is the way to go for dvd.

You did note that PS is not listed as an option. I suppose you could make your DVD from interlaced H264.

You can, with the right tools, make a dvd from anything.


But this is not the point.


This sort of content atracts the kind of people thinks that instant sliced-bread is the greatest thing EVER invented. Or that they hardly know the difference between PS and TS except that one is higher in the alphabet ( and, no, I cannot spell) than the other.

[Bwaak]

Not validity, but popularity. Every youtuber wants millions of views, and widening the audience is one way of achieving this goal. The OBS video clearly has a wider appeal.....

And then people come here and ask how to fix/improve.....

When a video that explains how to digitize hi8 video into a combed mess with blown out highlights and incorrect proportions has 1.1M views and 21 thousand likes and praising comments, you realize that people either don't know what to look for or don't care or even worse, they think this is how we watched TV thirty years ago, it was interlaced after all, wasn't it. They will not come here, asking how to improve this garbage. They are perfectly content.

Recently someone commented on my channel, listing a complete workflow that included HDMI and ProRes and DaVinci, but capturing into 30p. When I pointed this out, they replied that they did not see a big difference between 60p and 30p, so will continue to use 30p. At least they know what they may be missing, most people who watch crappy digitization videos do not.

[dellsam34]

What views got to do with capturing video?? So that's how you rate the validity of a youtube video by looking at how many views it has gotten?

Not validity, but popularity. Every youtuber wants millions of views, and widening the audience is one way of achieving this goal. The OBS video clearly has a wider appeal. Maybe this popularity tells us something? Like, not everyone runs a decrepit computer with a 15-year old OS.

Oh, that's even smarter, So the popularity dictates right or wrong? I'm gonna go smoke a joint or sniff some crack, it's so popular these days.

[Sharc]

Forgive me as I am an uneducated OBS idiot and my trials were not exhaustive. But has anyone succeeded to capture an interlaced VHS correctly using OBS with its x264? Means interlaced formatted output in any container, correctly flagged (interlaced, TFF or BFF, 4:2:2 or 4:2:0), no random field swaps and field glitches etc.? (Lossless could still be forced by setting CRF 0 or qp 0 eventually, so this shouldn't be a problem).
Just a question out of curiosity as OBS has been referenced and quoted so often. I don't intend to use it for capturing analog video.

[Bwaak]

Oh, that's even smarter, So the popularity dictates right or wrong?

Did I say anything about right or wrong?

[dellsam34]

Did I say anything about right or wrong?

It is about right or wrong, you are the one forcing the popularity aspect.

Here is what you are arguing, When someone comes to you and ask you, hey man I see this tool a lot, is it good and safe to use? Your answer is, it is not about how good the tool is, as long as it is popular use it even if you lose a finger.

[Bwaak]

It is about right or wrong, you are the one forcing the popularity aspect. Here is what you are arguing, When someone comes to you and ask you, hey man I see this tool a lot, is it good and safe to use? Your answer is, it is not about how good the tool is, as long as it is popular use it even if you lose a finger.

Forcing? Not at all. And it is not about me. Try to read slower this time, I am explaining the state of things for the third time:

On the one hand, people look for a quick and easy solution, using the equipment that they have, which is mostly laptops, mostly Macbooks. On the other hand, youtubers want to reach as broad an audience as possible, so they offer a quick and easy solution for the equipment people have. In this, viewers and youtubers converge. OBS is multiplatform, unlike VDub or AmarecTV or tons of other tools that work on Windows only, and old versions of Windows at that.

So, it is unsurprising that videos that explain how to use OBS, the tool familiar to almost anyone not least because it is used for gameplay capture, is more popular than videos that explain how to use an obscure 25-year old tool that needs a 15-year old Windows to run.

There is another option, of course, a recorder box, which forgoes a computer altogether.