Digitizing Your Analog Collection

Working on anything outside of this forum? Let us know!
Post Reply
User avatar
Drew_Sutton
Posts: 659
Joined: Tue May 07, 2013 6:19 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1994
Location: Atlanta, GA US/Hackistan, Internet

Digitizing Your Analog Collection

Post by Drew_Sutton »

So, I've seen a few posters mention that they are digitizing their analog collections for posterity's sake. I'm curious as to what everyone's set up is? What do you do for back-up and storage? Please spare no detail!

I first toyed with the idea of digitizing my collection back in 2001/02 when I was leaving for university and I didn't want to take all of my tapes with me. I remember purchasing a TV Tuner card for my PC, connecting the VCR and was able to initiate playback but found recording to be difficult and heavily storage space intensive since I knew nothing of video codecs and compression. That's still pretty much the case - I know that there are numerous video formats but I don't know advantages or disadvantages to any of them other than my TV in the living room hates MKVs.

EDIT: So, I've been toying with the idea of digitizing everything to cut back on actually using some of my old tapes and increase the viability of using more of these when I do panels at conventions. I've been kicking around the idea of some panels on old school fansub stuff, so digitizing some samples that I can run from my laptop while leaving my junky tapes on the table to show around would be one of my primary goals. I think the only analog media I have that I don't have qualms about hauling out and playing are my LDs. I figured if they're going to rot and degrade, they'd probably have done it already which is very different than my old VHS magnetic tapes.
Akihabara Renditions: Japanese Animation of the Bubble Economy
Excuse me, I need to evict some juvenile delinquents from my yard.
User avatar
yusaku
Posts: 257
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:37 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1988
Location: Kansas City
Contact:

Re: Digitizing Your Analog Collection

Post by yusaku »

This item should do the trick. It is uncomplicated and it should do fine for what you are trying to do.

http://www.carolwrightgifts.com/Househo ... MgodhX8AFg
***^__^***
davemerrill
Posts: 1235
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 3:38 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1984
Location: the YYZ
Contact:

Re: Digitizing Your Analog Collection

Post by davemerrill »

I know several users here, like Animesennin, have some pretty advanced digital capture systems happening for getting items off VHS and into digital formats. I've been using set-top DVD recorders and burning my VHS straight to DVD. From DVD it's pretty simple to render things into various digital formats when necessary. It's also useful to burn clips right onto a DVD for use in panels at conventions, as you've seen.

I have done panels up here where I hauled my LD player in to show the kids what it was like in the old daze, but them things are heavy. I don't know that I'm going to do more than one of those panels.

A lot of my old VHS have been replaced by commercial DVD releases or high-quality digital versions, so many times the old tapes don't make it onto DVD at all. I've distributed many of the tapes to other fans, some of them have been dropped off at the thrift store, some don't even get that far and have a new home in the recycle bin. I did one promotional thing at AWA 5 or 6 where the old VHS tapes became prizes. Of course others have sentimental value (my Star Blazers episodes taped off TV, etc) and I'll probably hold onto 'em forever. But we've moved a few times and the utility of hauling around and storing hundreds of VHS tapes becomes less and less apparent as the years go by.
User avatar
Drew_Sutton
Posts: 659
Joined: Tue May 07, 2013 6:19 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1994
Location: Atlanta, GA US/Hackistan, Internet

Re: Digitizing Your Analog Collection

Post by Drew_Sutton »

yusaku wrote:This item should do the trick. It is uncomplicated and it should do fine for what you are trying to do.

http://www.carolwrightgifts.com/Househo ... MgodhX8AFg
This looks neat and like it would do the trick but ... I don't have any of those Windows OSes anymore. The only Windows OS we have is 8.1 on a laptop that my fiancee uses for a lot of her school work - not really something I want to co-opt for digitizing cartoons.
davemerrill wrote: I've been using set-top DVD recorders and burning my VHS straight to DVD. From DVD it's pretty simple to render things into various digital formats when necessary.
You know, I never thought of doing that. I suppose I should start looking into those options.
davemerrill wrote:I have done panels up here where I hauled my LD player in to show the kids what it was like in the old daze, but them things are heavy. I don't know that I'm going to do more than one of those panels.
I'm still considering this as a part of a panel but if I do it, it's going to be a local gig. Not going to haul it to an out of town show.
davemerrill wrote: Of course others have sentimental value (my Star Blazers episodes taped off TV, etc) and I'll probably hold onto 'em forever. But we've moved a few times and the utility of hauling around and storing hundreds of VHS tapes becomes less and less apparent as the years go by.
Ideally - this is another end goal. I know we'll have another move or two in us and being able to whittle what collection I have to just "essentials" that can be boxed up, moved and unboxed onto shelves in the next place.
Akihabara Renditions: Japanese Animation of the Bubble Economy
Excuse me, I need to evict some juvenile delinquents from my yard.
_D_
Posts: 795
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 8:21 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1978

Re: Digitizing Your Analog Collection

Post by _D_ »

Game recorders from Hauppage, Elgato, etc. will also do the trick and can be used with both Windows and Mac OSes. I was recording TV with a Hauppage setup. Works good. I use Videoredo to edit with. Saved to h264 TS files of about 12 GB per hour, though you can probably get away with far less using VHS or Betamax tapes as the source. I stopped doing that now as I'm looking into upgrading the equipment again for spring. I've seen the Hauppage units at a local pawn shop for as little as $80 since newer units have been released...
User avatar
greg
Posts: 2159
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 9:00 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1989 (consciously)
Location: Shizuoka-ken, Japan
Contact:

Re: Digitizing Your Analog Collection

Post by greg »

I have an AverMedia EZ USB recorder with both RCA and S-Video inputs. However after swapping out the motherboard and chipset a couple of years ago, there is an occasional static snap sound that strikes randomly. When I first bought it, I got that all the time with my Windows 7 64-bit laptop, but my XP desktop was fine. Then after I moved to Japan, my computer would no longer boot and I had to replace a lot of stuff. Now that XP is obsolete, I am faced with having to buy Win7 and hope that there won't be any driver conflicts. I even contacted AverMedia and sent them a file of my configuration, but they gave up on me when they must've realized that they couldn't help me. I've no idea if buying a newer version of their product will help. For only about $40, it was a great deal, and I used it a lot to record a lot of video game videos. I still use it, but that occasional snap is bothersome.

I bought it to also digitally archive the few anime VHS I still own. As it is, this isn't feasible without having that annoying snap plaguing the recording.

Has anyone encountered this sort of thing before? Driver conflicts? Hardware incompatibility? Computers are great when they don't piss me off.
My presence on the Net, with plenty of random geekiness:
My homepage
My YouTube channel
My Flickr photostream
My Tumblr page
davemerrill
Posts: 1235
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 3:38 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1984
Location: the YYZ
Contact:

Re: Digitizing Your Analog Collection

Post by davemerrill »

I have/had a similar gadget that I used for screencaps from VHS and DVD back before my latest PC. The resolution was pretty low, and once screencaps quit being such a total PITA with Windows 7, I quit using it.

I'm looking at that AVerMedia HD EzRecorder Plus, however, and it looks like something that I could definitely get some use out of. Might put that on my Xmas list.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815100149
User avatar
Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 525
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 2:56 pm
Anime Fan Since: 199X年
Location: USA

Re: Digitizing Your Analog Collection

Post by Daniel »

Greg,

Have you tried lowering the input volume? (Make sure you change input volume as opposed to playback volume)
User avatar
Drew_Sutton
Posts: 659
Joined: Tue May 07, 2013 6:19 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1994
Location: Atlanta, GA US/Hackistan, Internet

Re: Digitizing Your Analog Collection

Post by Drew_Sutton »

Glad to see this thread getting some more love, but like Dave, budget is a little tight right now, I'll be holding off from toy purchases for a bit. Looking forward to any other tools or gadgets anyone else is using or looking at, even if I'm gonna have to wind up with buying another Windows License :(.
greg wrote:Has anyone encountered this sort of thing before? Driver conflicts? Hardware incompatibility?


Never ran into an issue like that; though I suppose it could be a driver or software issue. Checked for any updates or anything like that? Only other thing I can think of would be a hardware issue, maybe the motherboard slot it is connected to might be going or the connectors need to be cleaned? Beyond that, I'm not exactly sure what to offer up as a suggestion - I don't get super detailed with BIOS stuff normally.
greg wrote: Computers are great when they don't piss me off.
Yeah, man, tell me about it.
Akihabara Renditions: Japanese Animation of the Bubble Economy
Excuse me, I need to evict some juvenile delinquents from my yard.
_D_
Posts: 795
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2012 8:21 pm
Anime Fan Since: 1978

Re: Digitizing Your Analog Collection

Post by _D_ »

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr2.html

This guy has dropped in price. I see them online at Ebay for $100 - $120. Pair it with a cheap HDMI splitter ($35) that will break the HDCP and you can record just about anything from any source. I use mine with satellite TV these days but there are inputs also for sources like VHS/Beta/LD, etc. the older one that recorded through the Component and the composite ports can be had for as little as $65 online. I ended up giving my old one to a friend to experiment with since its unlikely I will ever use it again...
Post Reply