Digitising VHS Tapes

[ScuderiaDave1337]

Hi guys,

I'm in the process of digitising a bunch of old VHS tapes. The way I'm doing this playing the tapes through an early Panasonic TV recorder which can record to its HDD but also burn the recordings to DVD-R. I'm then taking those DVD-R and using Linux, ripping them to a .ISO file and then using HandBrake to transcode those to .mp4 files.

My question is, some of the tape recordings are in really good shape, some of them, the image is very fuzzy and seems to have lots of "noise" - is there a reasonably easy way of clearing this up? Or would I need to fundamentally change how I'm capturing the content from the tapes?

Thanks!

[cobra kid]

I would imagine you would need a dedicated video service for that. I got a mate to record mine from VHS straight to DVD.

[droopsnoot]

Were the poor quality tapes recorded on a different VHS back in the day? I wonder if maybe the tracking is slightly different and that's what is causing the problem.

[nvubu]

droopsnoot said:

Were the poor quality tapes recorded on a different VHS back in the day? I wonder if maybe the tracking is slightly different and that's what is causing the problem.

I seem to remember there was a control on VHS recorders in the 1980s where you could adjust the tracking.

[SwissJonese]

I would imagine the Panasonic TV to HDD would be encoding the video files to make them fit on the small HDD. It is then probably encoding again to DVD.

I bought a VHS to PC Digital recorder, pretty cheap now. You had to play the VHS and it would copy them to the software on the PC. I then just encoded them to MP4, quality is very good considering the VHS is only 480P.

[2172cc]

I've still got this Philips VHS to DVD recorder. In the past I've managed to record VHS tapes into DVD-R's then convert them to digital files to post online. Can't remember what software I used but I remember it was relatively easy.

[ScuderiaDave1337]

droopsnoot said:

Were the poor quality tapes recorded on a different VHS back in the day? I wonder if maybe the tracking is slightly different and that's what is causing the problem.

They were, but also they've not been stored in the best location for at least a decade - exposure to sunlight and dust. I suppose I should be grateful that they play at all.

[hidetheelephants]

Aren't VHS auto-tracking? I don't remember ever having to do anything about it, but then we didn't get a tape machine until the 90s anyway.

[Wacky Racer]

My first Ferguson "piano key" VHS recorder (With WIRED) remote control was £525 in 1975,, over £4100 today, according to the Bank of England.

Asda were knocking them out for £40 new about 1995.

[Road2Ruin]

Just take them to the local photographic store and get them to do it.

[ScuderiaDave1337]

Road2Ruin said:

Just take them to the local photographic store and get them to do it.

I would, and there are specialists online that'll do it for you and make the videos available to download from cloud storage, but a lot of these are wanting £15-20 per tape which makes it prohibitive considering I have at least 100-odd tapes to go through.

[Road2Ruin]

Yes that is a lot, so I see where you are coming from. There is also the satisfaction of getting it done yourself and doing a good job.

I did two, quite a few years ago, and omg what a pain. I reckon by the time it had stopped working, missed bits, poor quality and you have to be there, it probably took a day for each tape. Like you, though, for 100 or so, I would do it to avoid the money.

Good luck.