VIDEO
What’s the difference between a TBC and a Frame Sync device?
HARDWARE
What’s the difference between a TBC and a Frame Sync device?
Why a Time Base Corrector matters for analog video capture
SOFTWARE
Understanding whether 4:2:2 Chroma Subsampling Ratio amplifies colour loss in low...
PHOTOGRAPHY
Capturing analog photography into digital formats – Part I – Overview...
LATEST ARTICLES
Designing a family archive that survives you – Part II: Preservation
This is Part II of the family-archive series. Part I covered the backup half — copy discipline, the 3-2-1 baseline, and the snapshot-and-replicate model...
Designing a family archive that survives you – Part I: Backups
Walk into the spare room of someone who has started preserving the family's old media, and you tend to find the same scene. A...
Why AI upscaling doesn’t fix your old tapes
Why generative AI tools can't recover what was never on the tape — the structural argument, the narrow places AI does help, and the two-master discipline that resolves the question.
Capture hardware in 2026 — picking a device, and getting audio in sync
If you've already decided that vhs-decode is the right tool for your tapes, the next question lands almost immediately: which capture hardware should I...
How vhs-decode actually works
Sooner or later, anyone who spends a bit of time reading about tape preservation runs into the term vhs-decode. Sometimes it's a forum post...
Capturing Analog Video Tapes – Part IV – Preparation
Preparing VHS, S-VHS or Betamax tapes for capture — cleaning heads, capstan care, mould removal, and a step-by-step procedure for hand-cleaning mouldy tapes.
Capturing analog photography into digital formats – Part I – Overview and Storage
Equipment, storage and methodology for digitising paper photos, slides, 35mm negatives and medium-format film — three workflow tiers from Impatient to Perfectionist.
Capturing Analog Video Tapes in 2025 – Part I – Overview and Storage
How big the files end up, what "lossless" really means, and the ten paths people use to capture analog video tapes. Part I of a four-part VHS digitisation series.
Capturing Analog Video Tapes in 2025 – Part III – Buying Guide
Equipment buying guide for capturing analog video tapes — three tiers for the Impatient, Libran and Perfectionist, with quality and budget trade-offs covered.
Capturing Analog Video Tapes in 2025 – Part II – Capture differences
Quick answer (April 2026): After two years testing every realistic option from a $30 USB capture stick to $4,000 frame syncs, the Domesday Duplicator...
