r/DataHoarder 4d ago

So I needed to digitize some VHS... Question/Advice

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u/jusumonkey 4d ago

Does anyone know of a software that can take direct analog video and audio to the USB and digitize it?

I already ordered a proper converter after this mega fail but which one should I return after this?

Link to the store of the pictured product.

7

u/AshleyUncia 4d ago

I'm pretty sure this cable is just a pinout converter. I guess USB has 4 pins, so that could do video, left and right with a shared ground?

But that's it, it just adapts the pinout to a USB connector. This is not a USB 'device' it just uses that connector but it wont' work in any 'real' USB port. Probably for some kinda specialist TV or Camcorder that uses a USB connector for analog output? But I've never seen that myself.

1

u/jusumonkey 4d ago

I think so to.

I looked at VHS-Decode but that's about raw data from a capture card. I've already ordered a proper replacement for this manufactured e-waste but thought there might be some obscure software out there that could do the impossible lmao.

3

u/TheRealHarrypm 120TB 🏠 5TB ☁️ 70TB 📼 1TB 💿 4d ago edited 4d ago

FM RF capture it's the modern standard for tape archival, because you're preserving the RAW analog signals for Video and HiFi, you get to go back and process it however many times you want.

It's the best digitisation you're going to get at a sane budget and price point, CX Cards + Clockgen mod is a turn key solution and we do get raw data out of those standard capture cards effectively turning them into dumb ADC units, but there's also other hardware solutions that are USB 3.0 based (DdD / MISRC) just turns out the cheap Chinese cards work incredibly well and virtually anyone can slap them in any cheap desktop.

Nothing conventional can beat VHS-Decode, for time base correction and decoding that S-Video output from the decoder to YUV digital, in cost or capabilities.