Still use a VCR?

[Splashee 28,566]

5 minutes ago, Pentium100 said:

Deinterlacing (especially if I want 50fps result from a video source, so yadif2x or similar) takes a lot of CPU power. Combine that with encoding ant my TV-PC may not be able to do it, so I just keep the files as interlaced. If I record the result to DVD then the player can deal with it, if I keep it as a file, I can just enable deinterlacing when playing. After all, stuff I record from TV is interlaced as well (1080i).

If I just want to play something, playing a tape is a bit more convenient for me compared to booting the TV-PC.

Yea, I have to separate video and audio. Run a couple of deinterlacing scripts on the video in AviSynth, and the quality is fantastic ans sharp, with only a little bit of tiny wobble. But also, I keep the wonderful framerate of 50 Hz (yes, living in PAL land). I do this for video game capturing mostly though. And it is too much work.

[Pentium100 2,178]

Just now, Super Splashee said:

Yea, I have to separate video and audio. Run a couple of deinterlacing scripts on the video in AviSynth, and the quality is fantastic ans sharp, with only a little bit of tiny wobble.

I use ffdshow filters when watching a movie and just enable deinterlacing and yadif2x both for 1080i stuff from TV and 576i stuff from a tape or DVD.

[Princess Moonlove 307]

5 minutes ago, Pentium100 said:

I use ffdshow filters when watching a movie and just enable deinterlacing and yadif2x both for 1080i stuff from TV and 576i stuff from a tape or DVD.

576i vs 8k stuffing from a tape or dvd player

[Splashee 28,566]

8 minutes ago, Lyra Heartstrings TR said:

576i vs 8k stuffing from a tape or dvd player

If it only was that simple @Lyra Heartstrings TR

 

@Pentium100 Are you getting a good result from that? I am always looking for ways to improve capture of interlaced streams. Requires a lot of graphics card processing power?

[Pentium100 2,178]

Just now, Super Splashee said:

@Pentium100 Are you getting a good result from that? I am always looking for ways to improve capture of interlaced streams. Requires a lot of graphics card processing power?

Good enough to watch. I usually try to keep "fixed" processing to a minimum, that is, record and keep it as is. When I watch the file I can apply whatever processing I want, if I don't like it, I can change it. However, if I save the processed file I cannot change my mind anymore.

I do the same with music for example - when I record something to a cassette, I try to make it sound exactly as the source - I can apply eq or use an expander when I play it.

[Splashee 28,566]

1 minute ago, Pentium100 said:

Good enough to watch. I usually try to keep "fixed" processing to a minimum, that is, record and keep it as is. When I watch the file I can apply whatever processing I want, if I don't like it, I can change it. However, if I save the processed file I cannot change my mind anymore.

I do the same with music for example - when I record something to a cassette, I try to make it sound exactly as the source - I can apply eq or use an expander when I play it.

I only do this with my own drawn art. Keeping the original, so that I don't fall into the trap of having JPEG degradation. But that is digital (and so is DVD). VHS is analog, and for every time you rewind the tape, depending on the tape quality, you get visible errors. I used to get so much errors on an audio tape I actually destroyed one of my only recorded demo songs, it was horrible!

The need to find a good replacement for VHS, is not an easy challenge.

[Pentium100 2,178]

7 minutes ago, Super Splashee said:

But that is digital (and so is DVD). VHS is analog, and for every time you rewind the tape, depending on the tape quality, you get visible errors.

Yeah, but unless I intend to watch the same tape over and over again it is probably going to last for a long time. I get quite good quality when I watch the tape on my big plasma TV using a scaler. Transfer to digital quality depends on the capture card, mine is rather OK, but all the hassle with encoding makes me not want to do it.

Just like audio tapes, I have a lot of cassettes and reel to reel tapes. Copying them all to digital would take up so much time. So, I can just use a cassette walkman and a cassette deck in my car to listen to music - recording a new cassette is easier. If I had a cassette that I wanted to listen over and over again, I'd just make a copy and wear out that copy. Sometimes when I buy a brand new record I copy it to a cassette or a reel to reel tape, especially if I think I am going to listen to that music a lot.

[Splashee 28,566]

1 minute ago, Pentium100 said:

Yeah, but unless I intend to watch the same tape over and over again it is probably going to last for a long time. I get quite good quality when I watch the tape on my big plasma TV using a scaler. Transfer to digital quality depends on the capture card, mine is rather OK, but all the hassle with encoding makes me not want to do it.

Just like audio tapes, I have a lot of cassettes and reel to reel tapes. Copying them all to digital would take up so much time. So, I can just use a cassette walkman and a cassette deck in my car to listen to music - recording a new cassette is easier. If I had a cassette that I wanted to listen over and over again, I'd just make a copy and wear out that copy. Sometimes when I buy a brand new record I copy it to a cassette or a reel to reel tape, especially if I think I am going to listen to that music a lot.

Do you know what kHz the audio is on cassette tapes and VHS tapes? (Like CD has 44.1 kHz). I feel like they have slightly less, or is that just the recording? (or is that only relevant for digital recording?)

[Pentium100 2,178]

Just now, Super Splashee said:

(or is that only relevant for digital recording?)

That is sample rate, it only applies to digital. Sample rate is how often you measure the signal and bit depth is how precise you measure it. Sample rate affects the frequency response (it can only go up to half of sample rate), while bit depth affects maximum dynamic range or signal to noise ratio (20*log(2^n) where n is bit depth).

While analog formats have both usable frequency range and signal to noise ratio, sample rate or bit depth do not really make sense for them, since nothing is "measured". It also really depends on the tape, the tape deck and how well calibrated the deck is, but usually noise is worse than CD and frequency range is similar. However, some say that the numbers/specs are not everything.

Digital vs analog is one of the topics that can start flame wars on audio forums.

[Splashee 28,566]

6 minutes ago, Pentium100 said:

That is sample rate, it only applies to digital. Sample rate is how often you measure the signal and bit depth is how precise you measure it. Sample rate affects the frequency response (it can only go up to half of sample rate), while bit depth affects maximum dynamic range or signal to noise ratio (20*log(2^n) where n is bit depth).

While analog formats have both usable frequency range and signal to noise ratio, sample rate or bit depth do not really make sense for them, since nothing is "measured". It also really depends on the tape, the tape deck and how well calibrated the deck is, but usually noise is worse than CD and frequency range is similar. However, some say that the numbers/specs are not everything.

Digital vs analog is one of the topics that can start flame wars on audio forums.

Good that this is not an audio forum

I am slightly interested in this, because I have always measured quality relative to CD quality or telephone quality. And that isn't really working now. This is complex!

 

Just for people that might not understand what we are talking about, the VCR is used to extract the music from the VHS tape and play it on your TV. Compared to digital media like DVD, that has audio stored as bits, the VHS is an analog media, and stores audio as.... Well, I don't know the actual format, but it is analog

Edited April 6, 2020 by Super Splashee

[SpittyPie2005 3,952]

I would if mine hadn't broken when I was 9...

[Phosphor 11,532]

I still have one and use it with a USB capture device to digitize old family videos before the tapes degrade.

[EpicEnergy 23,224]

My mom and dad have one, although they don't use it, but I don't have or use one.

[Fluttershutter 2,529]

Nah. I still have one and I still have some stuff taped off tv, I should look for it on disk some day.The quality of tapes just looks so crappy on modern tvs.

[Pentium100 2,178]

5 hours ago, Super Splashee said:

VHS is an analog media, and stores audio as.... Well, I don't know the actual format, but it is analog

VHS has two ways to record audio - one of them is a linear track along one edge of the tape - it can be mono or stereo, but a lot of VCRs only have mono liner audio. The recording is just like a cassette tape, but because the tape speed in a VCR is lower, the sound quality of linear tracks is not that great. Later VCRs have "Hi-Fi" audio, which is recorded using a spinning head, just like video, the signal is frequency modulated by the audio (unlike FM radio which uses a single carrier and multiplexes the two channels, VHS Hi-Fi audio just uses two separate carriers). This has great sound quality, but is rather sensitive to tracking errors. 

[Splashee 28,566]

9 hours ago, Pentium100 said:

VHS has two ways to record audio - one of them is a linear track along one edge of the tape - it can be mono or stereo, but a lot of VCRs only have mono liner audio. The recording is just like a cassette tape, but because the tape speed in a VCR is lower, the sound quality of linear tracks is not that great. Later VCRs have "Hi-Fi" audio, which is recorded using a spinning head, just like video, the signal is frequency modulated by the audio (unlike FM radio which uses a single carrier and multiplexes the two channels, VHS Hi-Fi audio just uses two separate carriers). This has great sound quality, but is rather sensitive to tracking errors. 

Frequency Modulated

I have seen those Hi-Fi VCR before.

 

 

 

 

@Pentium100 NERD!

[Dreambiscuit 10,094]

I still use a VCR occasionally. I have tons of VHS tapes and some really rare stuff I can’t get on dvd, so it comes in handy. It may not be as nice a picture or sound as a dvd but it doesn’t skip either and I can always fast-forward past the stupid previews they force you to watch on dvd. And I don’t have to wait for a VHS to show spoilers of half the movie while I’m waiting for the Play menu to show up.  

[TheRockARockster 52,134]

4 minutes ago, Dreambiscuit said:

I still use a VCR occasionally. I have tons of VHS tapes and some really rare stuff I can’t get on dvd, so it comes in handy. It may not be as nice a picture or sound as a dvd but it doesn’t skip either and I can always fast-forward past the stupid previews they force you to watch on dvd. And I don’t have to wait for a VHS to show spoilers of half the movie while I’m waiting for the Play menu to show up.  

I still have one too, I need to get it back out and watch stuff that I only have on VHS.

[Yoshi89 5,293]

I tried to fix a tape last night to no avail. At least the VCR in my bedroom still works.

[Splashee 28,566]

So, did anyone ever try to copy a Disney VHS tape using two VCRs to another VHS, and had to enjoy that colorful copy protection?

[ChikaChan 7,326]

My mom still has 2 dual dvd vcr combos in the living room

[Oblivion 20,270]

Lol I have not used one of those since I was like 14 years old.

[Cirrus. 1,090]

The only time I use a VCR occasionally is at my family's cottage in the summer if it rains. I might watch a movie with my younger cousins once in a while.

I still have a couple VCRs at my house not hooked up at the moment. My parents have a lot of old home movies that I have to get around to digitizing someday. I have all the equipment to do it, but not the time at the moment. If I wasn't working during this virus crap, that's something I would probably be doing.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Cirrus.

[Divine plywood 1,239]

I guess my folks still have a (broken) VCR, though no-one have been using in in decade or so. I have saved some old VHS tapes from my childhood to be digitalised. As some said above, dialogue or even voice actors might change in newer re-releases, it's good to have those old, authentic copies around

[Splashee 28,566]

My VCR started eating tapes

I will have to get a new one... How easy is that?