Home Video (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, 4k)

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Any recommendations for digitizing DV tapes? (programming.dev)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've recently started digitizing my mother-in-law's collection of home movies. What I would love is some recommendations or tweaks I can do to improve the quality and remove any combing or minimize static. I am not particularly concerned with audio quality, but I'll list it below as well.

And so far I'm enjoying the processes. It's really fun to see old videos and to learn a bit about video formats and encoding. I'm an amateur when it comes to these kinds of things so I'm learning as I go along. Each tape I make the picture clearer and the file size smaller!

Recording

Sony Handycam (DCR-TRV27)
Various DV 60/90 cassette tapes
Seemingly ran in standard recording mode (tapes are 60 minutes)

VCR

Elgato USB Analog Video Capture Device
Handycam's VCR mode connected via S-Video Cable and 3.5mm audio jack*

* I have ordered a A/V to RCA cable which is the manufacturer's recommended connection, but unsure about the effects on quality

Software

OBS for recording the VCR feed
- Downscale Filter: Bicubic (Sharpened scaling, 16 samples)
- Deinterlace - Linear 2x
- 720x540 @ 29.97 FPS (NTSC) (upscaled from 720x480)
- "Indistinguishable Quality, Large File Size"
  - .mkv format with H.264 encoder
- Audio Encoder AAC
- Audio 48khz steroe
Handbrake for re-encoding
- 720x480 @ 29.97 FPS
- H.264 (x264) MKV format
- No additional deinterlacing
- "Constant Quality" set to 20
- Audio Encoder AAC

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

By chance does the camera have FireWire or usb? That way you may be able to rip cleaner files.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Manual says it has mini USB, but may require software...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I'd look into that a bit, it's Sony so the software may be out there somewhere. But you may run in to driver or windows version problems.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I'll check and see if I have a Mini-USB lying around somewhere and plug it in and see what happens. Ideally I'd prefer not to have to install software to record but I suppose if it results in the best video quality that may be the best option

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Update: Found the cable, but connecting to the computer results in an unrecognized device. Sony stopped hosting the drivers in 2019, so I fear I may be out of luck in terms of a USB connection - unless I risk downloading a driver off the internet which I'm not inclined to do...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Archive.org would probably be the one place I'd trust if you can find it there

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Unless there's something very unique about the camera, the USB is only going to transfer still images off the memory card (and possibly supply a low-res webcam function) - you won't be able to transfer video through it.

There should be a mini-firewire/mini-DV/iLink port hidden under a flap - that will connect to a firewire port on a desktop, or an older laptop.

If you don't have access to a firewire port, your existing S-Video/AV cable is still your best option.

Unless anything magical has happened recently, a firewire to USB will not help you for video capture.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Use a VM if you're concerned.