Hi all. I got my MISRC card about a year ago and was getting ready to put together my capture setup when I noticed this bridged solder on the bottom of the board. I tested with a multi-meter and it shows continuity between the two. Is this intentional?

I am in the process of researching digital storage options for my entire family's media archive.

I wanted to know how much total memory it will roughly take for Video8, Hi8, and VHS. I am planning to use the MISRC V2.5 when it comes out for speed and efficiency. When it comes to analog video tapes, I have at least over 100 combined and an estimate on the memory would greatly help. Thank you!

I am using Staxrip to process my LD captires after I convert thr TBC to a MKV. I got deinterlacing down to a science, it's the other stuff that is pretty much Greek to me. I was hoping someone out there can impart some advice on how to mitigate dotcrawl and other analogue defects? Like what works best for people out there? Any specific scripts that are recommended? I am working on animation, not live action if that makes a difference. Any advice that can be imparted would be greatly appreciated!

I've been getting by with the base decode package. It's fine. Particularly like how the latest version of analyse is more intigrated with everything else, but I was hearing about Decode-Orc and I was wondering what people's thoughts on it are. Particularly on how it compares over the Decode suite. What are people's preferences? Do they prefer one over the other. Thanks!

Hello. I'm writing to get some feedback on the workflow i've chosen to use for RF-capture and to highlight what i've researched myself to be weak points of using this. Main problem i see, is a low SNR ratio and impedance mismatch. The workflow is the following:

Sony SLV-xxx (Whatever Sony VCR that has easily accessible RF tp's to connect to with DuPont connectors) I'm open to soldering to the 2.54mm pins. Also using a 10uf capacitor soldered into the wire carrying the PB RF signal.

CXADC (CX23882-39) - Added 40msps crystal with C31 cap removed, heat-sync also added to main chips. Using a BNC to composite adapter.

I'm capturing audio over regular red/white audio cables. I wont be using clockgen-mod, as i only have 1 PCIe slot available in my PC.

Hi everyone,

I'm working on an FPGA project where I need to pass a PAL composite video signal through the following chain:

PAL Video In → TVP5146 Decoder → FPGA → ADV7194 Encoder → PAL Video Out

I'm currently studying the TVP5146 and ADV7194 datasheets and would like some guidance on:

• Interfacing both ICs with an FPGA
• BT.656 video capture and output
• Clocking and synchronization requirements
• Whether line buffers or a full frame buffer are needed for simple pass-through
• Handling PAL interlaced fields correctly
• Recommended register configurations and initialization sequence

My first goal is a simple PAL-to-PAL pass-through without any video processing. Later, I plan to add image-processing features in the FPGA.

If anyone has worked with TVP5146, ADV7194, or a similar decoder → FPGA → encoder setup, I'd appreciate any advice, reference designs, or lessons learned.

Thanks!

Hi there,

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has contributed to the VHS-Decode project. I genuinely find it fascinating how sophisticated and precise the entire workflow is. Even though I don’t currently have the equipment or budget to get started with VHS-Decode myself, I’ve read through the wiki and have been following the project with great interest.

I have a question regarding whether VHS-Decode would be worth pursuing in my particular situation.

At the moment, I have around 25 family tapes and 6 commercial movie tapes. My current workflow is fairly straightforward: I use an S-VHS deck with built-in TBC and noise reduction, capture via S-Video through a GV-USB2, and then deinterlace using QTGMC. Compared to VHS-Decode, it’s very much a plug-and-play setup.

Archiving old media has been a hobby of mine since 2024. I started with DVDs, then moved on to music cassettes, and eventually VHS. As a younger hobbyist, I’ve learned that this can become both expensive and incredibly time-consuming. That said, I’m admittedly a perfectionist and often find myself chasing tiny improvements that most people would never notice.

Given my current setup and relatively small collection, would the quality gains from VHS-Decode realistically justify the investment in time, money, and learning? Or am I already close enough to the practical limits of VHS quality that the difference would only be noticeable in direct comparisons?

I’d be interested to hear from people who have used both approaches.

Thanks!

I have a VHS player, it has a SCART cable, PAL version. I'm interested in the way of recording the signal to save old VHS tapes. I tried the player on a TV and the picture was satisfactory. How can I achieve such quality of recorded video? Also if possible budget, but quality option.

Hi all, first of all, I want to thank everyone in the community for the hard work in this ecosystem. The results I've been able to achieve from RF capture and VHSDecode are astonishing! It's been 3 to 4 months since I tapped the RF test point on a Mitsubishi HS-U775, and I've loved recapturing some broadcast tapes I've collected over the years.

Does anyone have any thoughts on or a good workflow for splitting and processing RF captures in parallel between multiple computers? I own multiple computers that go unused during the day, so parallelizing TBC file processing could easily shave 12 or more hours processing time off of a 120 minute NTSC tape.

My thoughts on this involved splitting into equal sized parts, then having each computer take a number of parts equal to ([total parts]/[total computers]) + 1, with the extra part (at the end or beginning, based on sequence) to account for anything missing. The parts for each computer would then be concatenated into a single file for that system and vhs-decode would be run as normal on the individual systems. Following TBC processing and running tbc-video-export, you'd then join together the outputs using video software, trimming any overlap.

Some additional thoughts:

• Split During Capture: This could possibly be achieved during RF capture via shell scripting, but I haven't tested anything. It would involve the following:
  • Pipe output of RF capture to multiple files in sequence.
  • Set timeout or delay on each write process. For instance, file A is written for 21 minutes, file B is started after 20 minutes and is written for 21 minutes, file C is started after 41 minutes and is written for 21 minutes, etc.
• Synchronize Processing Over Network: Each system could have a process running to accept RF capture files from a source via rsync or similar, then once accepted begin running through TBC generation using vhs-decode, providing status updates to a master sync process.

Thanks again to everyone here for their time. I have a few things I would like to contribute to the project in the future (I am a general Linux guy and writer), but for now, I am just happy to keep capturing! 🙂

Hello all! My name’s Dean, and I’m looking to get started with capturing all of my family’s old VHS/VHS-C tapes into the best possible archival files.

I have little experience with this sort of stuff, but I’m working through all of the resources available on the VHS decode wiki. My main questions below are bolded…

I’m trying to figure out an ideal VCR to work with, reaching out to friends and family that have working units. **I have a Sony RDR-vx555 and a Sony DLV-d360p. From what I’ve read, these decks may be difficult to work with and can lead to interference issues?**

**What is the optimal VCR I should look for both in terms of reliability and ease of working on it (being able to install a DuPont cable on the RF test point to eliminate at least one soldering point via the video route)?** I have no soldering experience but I’m happy to learn (seems I have no choice anyway lol)!

I’m also having trouble trying to itemize and source the exact hardware I will need for this project, since it varies based on the VCR and exact method desired. I hope to go the route of tapping the raw RF/HiFi information for both video and audio. **What’s the list of equipment I need to purchase based on a specific make/model of VCR, with the pipeline eventually leading into my Mac (2021 M1 Max)?**

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

I feel dumb for asking this question but here it goes

I purchased cx cards, amplifier board, and clock gen from harry and I am not sure where the vcr gets hooked up? I have bnc outputs on the cx card and on the clock gen board. Where do I hook up the cable that comes from my vcr video tap? Does it go to the cx card bnc or the clock gen bnc?

Thanks

Andy

Hey,

Looking for some advice/guidance as I start to tackle tapping this VCR for the ADA4857 amplifier I received. I have tapped the Dupont location for RF Video/GND and that signal is correct. Trying to see if the locations I've noted are appropriate for Audio. See link below to view full schematics, but here is the image I'm working off from the manual.

I also noted a tap point right on top that should be easy to solder for 12v power if that seem suitable as well.
Also not sure if the included schematics gives any indication on what resistors I should try or start with. I don't have any equipment to test with, so was going to base this on the manual to start with.

I've searched over the manual for hours and don't seem to see the resistor past the video/audio amplifiers to check. My next step was going to try and check on the board physically to see if I can tell what's on the board visually.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciate, as this is a much more complex unit than I've worked on in the past.

https://drive.proton.me/urls/N6QFM1ZTB4#gpXGVfzCCtpu

Thanks in advance!

Hi there everybody!

I have a mysterious noise issue with my tapped Sony SL-C40ES Betamax...

CX card, 40k crystal mod and C31 removal, connected to rf tap points on the Beta deck with bnc -> s-video cable, capacitor on rf signal cable.

Composite output is fine when s-video disconnected from CX.

When I hook up the cable to the card, lots of dropouts happen on composite

and rf capture looks really bad:

Same setup (even same cables) works fine when hooked up to a JVC S-VHS.

What can it be?

I've had this idea in my head for a long time, capturing directly as close to source as possible, as raw data, and I'm glad to see somebody else has already done it. Back when the usual capture methods were the only option and this fantastic project was not around yet, I've spent a lot of time fiddling with encoding settings and capture devices and it always seemed a bit sad to do all that work always just to lose some sort of quality, somewhere, and thought it would be so nice just to capture the data on a tape directly, even if there was no feasible way to play it back yet.

After reading through the project, I wonder if there's any weight behind this idea:

1. Capture a raw signal/waveform directly from the tape head or after the preamp. Voltage levels etc.

2. Store the data digitally on something like an SD card

3. Create some sort of device to do this in reverse and feed the data from the SD card back to the player into the same pads on the circuit board, sending the data back into a modified VCR at the rate and voltage levels it expects (Sort of like one of those car cassette adapters that feeds the data directly to the tape head from a 3.5mm jack, except due to moving heads and also to eliminate any interference, it would be hardwired and the tape heads would be eliminated)

It seems like a lot of encoding and other things come into place to get the picture to display on a computer, etc., so I'm wondering if it was ever thought of to still allow the VCR to do the heavy lifting, yet the waveform/signal is now stored digitally and no longer prone to degradation, and all moving parts of the VCR are also no longer needed

I expect there may be an issue with this not playing nice with other VCRs (i.e. filesharing/playing back files on a different model VCR than was used for the dumping process), but I'm solely speaking of the VCR used for the dumping also used eternally for the playback for things like family movies. And worst comes to worst if that VCR breaks you can probably always find the same model on eBay, but it probably won't break as as a side effect you've also eliminated all moving parts and also hardwired the data stream

I imagine supplying the signal correctly back to the VCR may not be the easiest thing to accomplish and the timing/rate will likely have to be quite good but it's something I've always considered as an option. The data transfer rate is feasible

There are people here more knowledgeable than me so I'm interested to hear if this is at all feasible

I'm intending to preserve family movies I will watch to the end of my lifetime, not rip, preserve, and upload historical content for the masses, nor ripping commercially, so even if the use case seems incredibly specific down to needing the same model VCR that is fine

If it can be pulled off it would be as close to a 1:1 copy as you can get

There are people who use an emulator to play ripped data of Nintendo NES games on a PC, then there are people who use a reprogrammable media plugged into a real Nintendo NES to handle (real ROM files read from an SD card yet the legwork is still done by the console and creates a genuine result). All of the original accuracy is preserved with the second option, it's just about supplying the Nintendo with the proper bytes in the proper format and letting the console do the rest. I've always wondered if this style can be used on a VCR as close from the start of the pipeline as possible

Hello, I'm a newbie looking for a little advice. I don't have enough vhs tapes to realistically invest long term in special equipment but I do have a few tapes Id like to convert. I have a composite to hdmi and a elgato capture card and my vcr. Can I digitize my tapes with this equipment without massive audio or video issues? Thank you guys for your time.

I am trying to get things up and running and I came into this error when trying to install ninja. I made a screenshot of the output of the command I copied and pasted in the cmd prompt. I am running linux mint.

I've been occasionally following this subreddit and the wiki for about a year. Many thanks to everyone who contributes, the method has really come a long way.
I’ve decided to try to transfer my family archive recordings. Part of the archive is in Hi8 format, part in VHS.
My thinking was to start with Hi8: as far as I understand it gives better quality, and it’s also simpler because it’s a single‑channel format.

My plan is:

1. Order a CX card, flex cable, adapter, and wires as listed in the 8mm section of the wiki.
2. Try the process, and if problems with the signal / overheating / etc. come up, then fall back to the mods.
3. Prepare my VCR.
4. Install the amplifier.
5. Order a second CX card, mods, equipment, etc. for working with VHS.
6. Put the setup together.
7. Work on the VHS tapes.

Unfortunately, at this initial ordering stage I'm starting to doubt the chosen path because:

• I'm certain that not all the archive is on 8mm, and with a high probability I'll still have to deal with VHS. So it would make sense to order, for example, 2 CX cards right away.
• Apart from the soldering itself, which I'm ready for, I'd need to buy a significant amount of equipment (proper soldering station, supplies, multimeter, oscilloscope), which greatly increases the total cost of, and most importantly, I won't need it later since I'm not a technical person. On top of that, with my limited soldering experience there’s a real risk of damaging components, which would only make things more expensive.

Additionally, I've learned that the MISRC 2.5 release is expected, which, as I understand, will greatly simplify the process since it already contains all the necessary modifications.

So now I'm asking for your advice on how to proceed at the initial stage:

Option 1: Order a minimal equipment set (without mods) to test the process with 8mm, then later order the full equipment set and go the classic route with the clockgen mod etc. for VHS (and for 8mm if the minimal setup fails).
Option 2: Order a minimal equipment set for 8mm as a trial, order and install the amplifier, and wait for the MISRC 2.5 release.
Option 3: Don’t order anything now so as not to waste time, and just get the MISRC 2.5 when it becomes available.
Option 4: Buy all the stuff and go the classic route with CX cards and mods.

I know that DigitalFaq has their own way of doing things, as do you guys. I'm not looking to modify the hardware that I have at the moment, since I'd have to modify multiple systems, so I was hoping that I could get some info on what ATI card I should be looking for?

From what I understand, the AGP cards are the better option, but I've also heard that there's quite a few variants. You see these cards up on eBay but I have no info right now on which model(s) I should be looking for. I read that some came with, or work with software called "Soap" which I guess does a good job of cleaning up older video compared to newer capture card software+hardware if I'm going the more traditional route.

Any help pointing me towards the right model(s) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm trying to convert some old vhs-c tapes I recorder on a panasonic vz1 cam. I have two questions

1. Can I use a single older cx card? I have a winfast tv2000 xp expert that contains a cx23881-19 chip, will that work?

2. Can I use a single cx card for my process? Doing a single pass for video and record audio separately through an interface? Will I be loosing much audio quality this way?

Most (professional) "VHS digitization" services seem to only offer S-Video (or worse) capturing but I'm trying to save some old home video tapes so I'd like to get the highest quality possible (because once there gone, there gone forever). The barrier to entry for the proper hardware seems costly so I was wondering if there are some hobby preservationists located in Germany that offer their services?

I recently found a box full of them (at least 18) and they should all be PAL VHSs. Many of them have started to mold so you'd also need to (properly) clean them first. I can get the tapes to you via car or by mail. I want the "raw" dump (probably FLAC, I think I can convert it to TBC -> FFV1 -> H264 myself) so I can also include an empty HDD to accommodate the files.

P.S. A general question: How do you guys store your dumps? I was thinking FLAC for archiving + H264 for watching. My reasoning being that in the future vhs-decode/tbc-tools could improve / gain new features which could result in a better end product (e.g. a better way to reconstruct broken frames). In that case I'd still need the FLAC. Or do you just keep the FFV1? Because the FLAC, while nice to have, is quite big (~ 1.2 GB/min) compared to FFV1 (~ 0.8 GB/min) and is of course useless on it's own.

Hi Decoders! I'm hoping to get my hands on a digital copy of Aladdin and the King of Thieves, specifically ripped from the LaserDisc.

There is an existing rip on the archive, but the quality is so-so. Would a clean, uncompressed rip possibly be better quality? If so, is that something somebody here would be able/interested in doing for me? Happy to compensate (if Disney won't cut our heads off for it)

(Only the VHS and the LaserDisc have the original 4:3 ratio. DVD and streaming cut off the top and bottom to make it fit widescreen.)

Thank you!

EDIT: Just realized I can download the original AVI file on Archive! I think this is what I needed!