VHS, XRGB Framemeister and Capture Device Questions

[Anapan]

If you intend to get another VHS player, when I did the research back in the day the guides were saying that you definitely want an S-VHS model from either JVC or Panasonic.
The one I have is a JVC S-VHS (I think it's the JVC HR-S9800U (can't find to verify but the picture looks the same). It has a jog wheel and the output quality is far better than the 5 others that were around. Interestingly tho, a tiny one my dad got free from a garage sale made by General Electric late in the VHS's lifespan had a nice horizontal smoothing filter and wasn't all that bad, at least before I ran the chain of filters on the output to get rid if static noise and while keeping fine details.

I didn't even know there were tape converters; are they battery powered? I always just borrowed cameras that took the tapes and used the cameras for playback. I guess it helped that my mom worked at the fine-arts section of the college so if friends or family didn't have the camera, I could ask her to sign one out for me.

[fastbilly1]

I mentioned it to my mom, her parents had all their whatever mm footage transferred to VHS some years back.

If for some reason those tapes dont work and you still have the film (I am guessing 8mm), I can probably transfer it for you. I have functioning 8mm, super8mm, and 16mm projectors in my house, and super16mm, pathe (9.5mm), 35mm, and a couple others accessible.

[Ziggy]

I didn't even know there were tape converters; are they battery powered? I always just borrowed cameras that took the tapes and used the cameras for playback. I guess it helped that my mom worked at the fine-arts section of the college so if friends or family didn't have the camera, I could ask her to sign one out for me.

Yeah, I have the one camera I can use to play back the one type of tape. But I'm up shit's creek for the other type of camcorder tapes I have. I always thought the adapters were purely mechanical, but I just Googled, I see some that show a battery. I don't know if they all take batteries or not. I never had one, I just assumed they just literally adapted the cassette to feed the ribbon in a VCR.

edit: Grr, I really am up shit creek. They make VHS-C to VHS adapters, which I don't really need since I have a VHS-C camcorder to play those tapes back from. But I just found out the other type of mini VHS I have (8mm) there's no such thing as an adapter for. It seems the only way to play them back is WITH a camcorder... so I might have to source one (which I don't really wanna do).

The good news is the reason why the 8mm tapes are compatible with VHS.. because they're not VHS at all. Apparently they're higher resolution and bandwidth than VHS. So that's good, at least.

If you intend to get another VHS player, when I did the research back in the day the guides were saying that you definitely want an S-VHS model from either JVC or Panasonic.

I thought only S-VHS tapes could take advantage of an S-VHS player? Or is it that the S-VHS VCRs are just built better?

I mentioned it to my mom, her parents had all their whatever mm footage transferred to VHS some years back.

If for some reason those tapes dont work and you still have the film (I am guessing 8mm), I can probably transfer it for you. I have functioning 8mm, super8mm, and 16mm projectors in my house, and super16mm, pathe (9.5mm), 35mm, and a couple others accessible.

Thanks, Fast. I'll definitely keep that in mind. When I first hatched the idea, I was wondering if it would be better to capture the VHS tape (which was already one analog transfer) or to instead grab the original film, 8mm or whatever it is. But we're talking about film ranging from the 50's to the 70's. Does it degrade like VHS? Because then the VHS would be better, having been recorded only a couple decades ago versus half a century. My grandparent's most likely still have the original film.

[Ziggy]

The Elgato Game Capture HD came in last night. Luckily, it uses the same software/driver bundle as the HD60 (which I already had installed) so I didn't have to do anything to set it up. I just plugged it in, and the Elgato software detected it.

It works great! I connected a VCR straight to it and captured some test footage. The Elgato had no problems detected (and keeping) the signal. I even used a tape that "jumped" a few times, the Elgato never once lost the signal. And since the Elgato also has an HDMI input (for up to 1080p30) I'm not sure why I didn't just get this model in the first place. I guess I figured since I have the XRGB I wouldn't need anything below 480p, as those things be be better off going through the XRGB.

[Anapan]

Congrats!
I forgot to answer your question about S-VHS machines. They came out late in the VHS era and their parts, especially the reader/writer parts are capable of better fidelity than others.

[Ziggy]

^ Do you clean your VCR manually, or with one of those cleaning tapes?

I read a few guides and it seems pretty straight forward. Clean the erase and audio heads with alcohol on a cotton swab. For the drum heads, soak a small piece of copy paper with alcohol, lightly press it against the drum, then spin the drum to clean the heads.

[Anapan]

Manually. Xylene, then Isopropyl with Q-tips.
I also have a couple of tape head cleaner cassettes, but don't recall actually using one before.

[Ziggy]

I cleaned the heads for one of my VCRs. Easy as pie. I did, however, decide to get a head cleaning tape for my VHS-C camcorder. The VHS-C to VHS adapters are REALLY expensive right now, I don't feel like spending $50 on one. I own a VHS-C camcorder, so I'll just use that to play the tapes. Problem is, it's been in the basement for like 10 years. And I really don't feel like taking it apart to clean it manually. So I'm hoping the tape will work good.

I also bought a new VCR, but not for VHS tapes...



It's a VCR for Video8 tapes. My options were buying a used Video8 camcorder or borrowing one, and either way it'd be old and used and I'd have to clean the heads. I found the above VCR for not too much more that what a decent used camcorder is going for, so I decided to get it. It works great, I'm very happy with it.