Evening all, I'm trying to transfer my old vhs and camcorder footage to digital and was just wondering if anyone could advise (
@chinnyhill10 maybe) on a capture card that is compatible with windows 11 and will work with a cheap, low spec pc.
Ive already wasted money on a cheap hdmi card and scart to hdmi converter and the results arent great not to mention the huge file size that results from just a 25 minute tape.
I now realise that its better to capture with a standard definition card but cant really find anything trustworthy that is win 11 compatible, only another cheap chinese one.
Thanks
Do the camcorder and vhs output composite video?
Composite to usb capture devices are fairly cheap and will get you a decent recording.
Then you can convert them to MP4 to make them smaller in file size.
Quote from: Dr Tiger Ninestein on 20:15, 01 November 22Evening all, I'm trying to transfer my old vhs and camcorder footage to digital and was just wondering if anyone could advise ( @chinnyhill10 maybe) on a capture card that is compatible with windows 11 and will work with a cheap, low spec pc.
Ive already wasted money on a cheap hdmi card and scart to hdmi converter and the results arent great not to mention the huge file size that results from just a 25 minute tape.
I now realise that its better to capture with a standard definition card but cant really find anything trustworthy that is win 11 compatible, only another cheap chinese one.
Thanks
I don't really know much about Windows stuff these days. For capture I've always used Black Magic gear but it isn't cheap. IMO the best bet is one of the Panasonic VCR's that has HDMI out then just use a standard HDMI capture card. Bonus with those units (they are usually VHS and DVD all in ones) is they have timebase correctors and give a better picture.
Be warned, video file sizes are always huge. The capture I do for ChinnyVision runs to 1GB per minute!
Quote from: robcfg on 21:18, 01 November 22Do the camcorder and vhs output composite video?
Composite to usb capture devices are fairly cheap and will get you a decent recording.
Then you can convert them to MP4 to make them smaller in file size.
Be careful, Many of those USB video capture devices stopped working after Windows 7 and don't offer Win 10/11 drivers.
Bryce.
Trying to get "old stuff" working on modern devices is often much more time and cost expensive than getting a matching old set-up.
If there is no trustworthy capturing device for Windows 11, then get Windows 7 32Bit. Just install it on a second SSD/HD (maybe even a USB installation could work, as long as it can capture to a real SSD/HD). As long as you are capturing stuff you won't want to use a low spec PC anyway for anything else. If you really need the PC in parallel, get a used Windows 7 Laptop. You end up paying less than 50€ for something that is perfectly usable for that task and can even do the MP4 compression - not fast but over night. After you're finished with all the conversion you can sell it again and minimise the investment even more.
Quote from: robcfg on 21:18, 01 November 22Do the camcorder and vhs output composite video?
Composite to usb capture devices are fairly cheap and will get you a decent recording.
Then you can convert them to MP4 to make them smaller in file size.
The vhs just has scart output, not sure about the camcorder as I have checked it yet.
Quote from: chinnyhill10 on 22:15, 01 November 22Quote from: Dr Tiger Ninestein on 20:15, 01 November 22Evening all, I'm trying to transfer my old vhs and camcorder footage to digital and was just wondering if anyone could advise ( @chinnyhill10 maybe) on a capture card that is compatible with windows 11 and will work with a cheap, low spec pc.
Ive already wasted money on a cheap hdmi card and scart to hdmi converter and the results arent great not to mention the huge file size that results from just a 25 minute tape.
I now realise that its better to capture with a standard definition card but cant really find anything trustworthy that is win 11 compatible, only another cheap chinese one.
Thanks
I don't really know much about Windows stuff these days. For capture I've always used Black Magic gear but it isn't cheap. IMO the best bet is one of the Panasonic VCR's that has HDMI out then just use a standard HDMI capture card. Bonus with those units (they are usually VHS and DVD all in ones) is they have timebase correctors and give a better picture.
Be warned, video file sizes are always huge. The capture I do for ChinnyVision runs to 1GB per minute!
1gb per minute :o I captured 20 minutes, it was nearly 4gb and I thought that was big!
The panasonic dvd/vcr combo sounds like a good idea, and if they're dvd recorders that will make life even easier as I can skip the capture and just record straight to dvd. Cheers, I'll definitely look into that and see if there are any available on ebay.
Quote from: Bryce on 09:07, 02 November 22Quote from: robcfg on 21:18, 01 November 22Do the camcorder and vhs output composite video?
Composite to usb capture devices are fairly cheap and will get you a decent recording.
Then you can convert them to MP4 to make them smaller in file size.
Be careful, Many of those USB video capture devices stopped working after Windows 7 and don't offer Win 10/11 drivers.
Bryce.
Yep, thats the problem I'm facing.
Quote from: eto on 10:13, 02 November 22Trying to get "old stuff" working on modern devices is often much more time and cost expensive than getting a matching old set-up.
If there is no trustworthy capturing device for Windows 11, then get Windows 7 32Bit. Just install it on a second SSD/HD (maybe even a USB installation could work, as long as it can capture to a real SSD/HD). As long as you are capturing stuff you won't want to use a low spec PC anyway for anything else. If you really need the PC in parallel, get a used Windows 7 Laptop. You end up paying less than 50€ for something that is perfectly usable for that task and can even do the MP4 compression - not fast but over night. After you're finished with all the conversion you can sell it again and minimise the investment even more.
Good idea, I'll look into this if I cant find another way, thanks.
It would be worth checking if composite video is also output on the scart connector, that may make your life easier.
Drivers can be a pain, but they usually come with Windows drivers, for MacOS on the other hand... And even for it, I've managed to get them working, so as I said, maybe they're worth trying as they are relatively cheap.
Quote from: robcfg on 12:39, 02 November 22It would be worth checking if composite video is also output on the scart connector, that may make your life easier.
Drivers can be a pain, but they usually come with Windows drivers, for MacOS on the other hand... And even for it, I've managed to get them working, so as I said, maybe they're worth trying as they are relatively cheap.
I cant find any mention of composite output in the service manual so I'm assuming it doesnt have it.
From what I've seen on youtube, a scart to rca cable should work with those cheap usb capture cards though.
I have this one for 12-14 years, can't really remember.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/123329945773?hash=item1cb709a0ad:g:eJoAAOSw1BtbgDga&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoCMNQRUFiPj9MPN4z0HY%2FzjF0CrXXMXgBAId5pIIcRe3UTf%2BYhNjymKRd6qwrWIz6ZMoQFaKzayVW58uY%2B2cPVctFJLBuONtwIEIfphdevDLiyFvg8VnElzeQ4U3QuZe1pTlnoDiCcc40z45XVH%2BOQTOE%2FjU71ce9E30eCYovvOZXPglqKOmltDDUjIRpT28xEbarsZJC0QPfNTSrmotpJ8%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7LUu5aHYQ
DVB-T 1080 and composite/svideo.
Works fine on my Win10 laptop.
If you can't afford a Retrotink or OSSC, the Medusa is an option although it doesn't upscale.
I pre-ordered one so got it cheaper but haven't really used it due to lack of time:
https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=135
But I can confirm it works with the CPC. You'll need a DVI to HDMI cable for capture. For costs reasons the output is DVI but it's not an issue as DVI is included in the HDMI spec. It's just if they put an actual full HDMI connector on there they would have to pay licensing fees.
But I haven't used it for more than half hour to have a quick play. As I said, no time. Will do a review when I have more time + they have done a few firmware updates or I'll cause a load of upset like I did with the Retrotink where the seller shipped it before it was ready and I upset him because (as shipped) it was a disaster for machines like ours. Now works fine but it took 6 months and 2 or 3 updates!