Introduction

What a nightmare rabbit hole this is! I have never come across a subject that has so many different methods and opinions on how to achieve the aim, being digitisation of analogue (tape) video. I shouldn’t turn you off with the “nightmare rabbit holes” comment. While there are a plethora of methods, here are some reliable ones which provide an increasing level of quality. The perfectionists can spend thousands of dollars on high-end TBCs and VCRs. Then there is the intermediate level (mine) which includes advanced software post-capture processing and finally the cheapest options, where you capture direct to MP4 with no processing. This may well be quite satisfactory for you.

Workflow components

These are the components you’ll need. I haven’t touched on esoteric solutions such as standalone capture boxes.

Tapes

Obviously! Together with the VCR, the quality of your tapes makes up probably 60% of the overall capture quality.

VCR

The “better” the VCR, the better the playback and therefore capture quality. In the old days, an SVHS VCR would be better than a normal VCR, but today, the overall quality of the VCR is more important. A much-used SVHS VCR may not be the best option. Unfortunately, these days there’s no way of knowing what a VCR will be like. I have very good normal VCRs which perform on a par with my 3 SVHS machines. If you don’t have a VCR at all, look for an SVHS VCR if you can afford it, otherwise, try to buy local so you can test it before you purchase. In Europe, VCRShop is an option. It is not faultless (I know of a few instances of defective VCRs going out) but it’s probably safer than a long-range EBay “tested and working” purchase. If you do have a VCR, try with it first. You may well be lucky. You can give it a clean; check YT. For cleaning heads, do not use a head cleaning tape; use a piece of photocopy paper soaked in high % isopropyl alcohol.

Stabiliser

You will probably need a stabiliser of some sort, especially if your tapes are second generation ie a re-recording (as we used to do to save tape costs). The perfectionists will poo poo anything less than a true Time Base Corrector. I don’t subscribe to that theory. Various DVD recorders, because of their design/use (writing MPEG 2 to DVDs) have great stabilising properties and will straighten out wobbly, jumpy and flashing video. Have a look at examples here.

Digitiser

The gizmo that converts your VCR output into digital format on your hard drive. My go-to digitiser is the IOData GV-USB2. There is an absolute plethora of digitisers on the market, from a few dollars up to over $200.

AV>DV Transfer

A viable alternative to the TBC+USB digitiser workflow is using a qualifying Digital8 or MiniDV camcorder equipped with a TBC. The VCR is connected to the camcorder by Composite or S- Video cables (plus audio) and the camcorder converts the analogue signal to DV. You then “capture” (or more correctly, “transfer”) the DV to your PC via FireWire (you must have a FireWire port of other method of ingesting DV). The quality using this method is on a par with the traditional method. There’s more information on this here.