Before reading this article, make sure you familiarise yourself with the video terms in the glossary of terms page. Perhaps keep it open in a new tab so you can refer to it as needed.
Foreword
Capturing analog video requires anything from a relatively large amount of storage to a very large amount of storage. It is mostly far more complicated than capturing audio due to it being outdated technology with extremely limited buying options of an acceptable quality. However, when you get it right, it can be extremely rewarding, and you may find yourself looking for more tapes to capture just for the satisfaction of it.
Storage Requirements - Let's say you have a VHS tape with one hour of home video recorded on it. The size you need to store the video in digital format will depend on a number of factors. The resolution and number of frames per seconds has a large impact, but luckily for you, these are going to fit into one of two standards for this kind of video source, which for purposes of archiving I will simplify as PAL 576i25 and NTSC 48029.97 (the "i" meaning frames interlaced, so 50i and 59.94i terms are also common as they denote the fields being displayed on a TV etc).
However, please bear in mind that the way (lossy) video codecs store data, it can make a huge difference what you have actually on the tape. For example, if you have scenes where people are sitting in chairs in a room with little movement, this will consume far less than scenes with lots of movement, such as a panning shot, crowds of people etc. For this reason, the storage space examples below are just that, examples including fixed/lossless.
Capture quality options / consumed space for one hour of video for 576i25 PAL and 48029.97 NTSC:
Lossy Compressed:
- DV25 / FireWire 8-bit - 4:1:1 NTSC / 4:2:0 PAL) - 14-20GB/h (25-30 Mb/s)
- AVC/H264 8-bit 4:2:0 - 10-12GB/h (20-55 Mb/s)
Visually Transparent:
- ProRes HQ 4:2:2 10-bit - 18GB/h (70~80 Mb/s)
- DVCPro50 4:2:2 8-bit - 22.5GB/h
Lossless (RAW/Uncompressed):
• Uncompressed (V210) 4:2:2 10-bit - 93.2GB/h (207 Mb/s) (fixed bitrate) (used by most transfer houses & BBC archives)
Lossless (Compressed):
- HuffYUV 4:2:2 10-bit - 20-30 MB/s (8-bit 4:2:2) 72-108 GB/h
- FFV1 4:2:2 10-bit - 22~43GB/h (50-85 Mb/s) (current 2020s era archive standard for most libarys)
In case you are wondering, PAL is the technically superior format, despite its slower frame rate for a number of reasons such as higher line resolution, more robust and ability to use higher frequencies for colour. It's also the newer format.
Required video space, based on the format you want to store it in, is easy to calculate using an online calculator such as this one.
Methodology Overview
As usual, there is more than one way to do this task. As you may have read, below we will cover off three different methods to suit three types of individuals. But before we get into this, it's also worthwhile to provide an overview of the possible solutions and their associated challenges. If you are in the impatient group, feel free to skip to the section for you below.
Possible solutions for capturing video
You will read / see in various online locations a lot of opinions about this topic. For some reason, video capture brings out a lot of binary viewpoints which are not often fun to interact with. These views seem to forget for the most part that there are differing requirements and not everyone needs the best quality. Even if they do, not everyone can afford it, or even find the equipment to do it. There are some people whom will be happy with a basic Canopus firewire capture device and some people whom will only settle for the absolute best, both are fine. However, I do think that most people, when presented with visual evidence around the flaws of the cheaper devices, will eventually see that at least the cheapest devices are not desirable. To be clear, cheap in this case means around $80-150NZD, so not actually that cheap!
Please see the following list, outlining some of the many possible solutions you could choose to archive your analog video from sources such as VHS tapes - (this is intended just to open your mind a bit to a bit more investigation around options, rather than to complicate your life)!
- VHS Player with in built DVD player
- VHS Player -> USB Capture Device (such as Pinnacle, Hauppauge, Elgato, EZCap) -> Included Video Capture Software
- VHS Player -> Firewire device such as Canopus ADVC-110 -> 3rd party Video Capture Software
- S-VHS Player -> Firewire device -> 3rd party Video Capture Software
- S-VHS Player -> PCI* / PCIe card -> 3rd party Video Capture Software
- S-VHS Player -> Frame Sync Device & Separate Audio Mixer -> Analog to SDI Device -> SDI to Thunderbolt or USB device -> 3rd party Capture Software
- S-VHS Player -> proxy TBC / Frame sync device -> Video Capture Card or Adapter -> 3rd party Video Capture Software
- Any variation of the above including differing brands etc
- VHS Player -> Direct to head capture (requires hardware modification) - > RF PCIe card / capture device -> Software based TBC, Frame Sync, Processing, export etc
- External Conversion house - $$$$
* Be aware of the difference between PCI and PCIe which are not compatible with each other. Some of the sites that recommend PCI capture devices are recommending PCI rather than PCIe and modern motherboards largely gave up PCI slots around 2015. Be careful that what you buy is compatible with what you have.
As you can see the options are broad and many, however with the exception of options 1, 2, 6, 9 and 10 they require hard to obtain and potentially expensive, second hand capture equipment. Unless you're going to outsource it to option 10, ALL of them require a VHS player, which for the most part will be second hand, unless you've got the kind of money to spring for a premium unopened NOS (New Old Stock) box somewhere (more on that in the buying guide).
A quick word though on option 10. I would say 90% of these places that you see in your local street shop are using either option 1 or option 2. If you want to get this done by a 3rd party, first read section 2 of this article series and then go ask them what their process is and what devices they use. If they know what a TBC is, a hardware TAP is or a frame sync device (and claim to use them), you might get a good result. If not, you are well and truly better off saving your money by buying that cheap device yourself - because that's almost certainly what they're doing and the quality of your own capture certainly won't be any worse.
Summary Equipment Needed
- For the Impatient - VHS Player, Canopus ADVC 100 or 110 (if you can get one), Firewire Card or Adapter (still readily available new for Mac and PC), 3rd party Video Capture Software / Alternative - Option 1 VHS DVD player combo unit
- For the Libran - S-VHS Player with in built TBC, Ensemble Designs Brighteye 75, Blackmagic SDI to Thunderbolt adapter, Blackmagic Media Express capture software (or if too expensive, look at the perfectionist option below which is usually a lot cheaper but a lot harder to do)
- For the Perfectionist - Modified VHS or S-VHS player, RF capture card, VHS-Decode Software stack
The following page, intends to help you understand which of these methods is for you and why, followed by a buying guide in part IV.
Please see our detailed comparison of these methods if you're unsure what method to go for.
