VLC Media Player Transfer VHS to Computer

     In the last post, I described the steps that took me from failing with OBS, to succeeding with VLC.  In this post, I included the step by step images that actually worked for me, and a portion of the resulting video.  Portion, because the test video recorded for well over an hour.  When I played it back, the entire duration played fine.  Audio stayed synced.  Image quality looked great (for a plus-or-minus 30 year old VHS tape).  It was satisfying, gratifying, after the entire journey from "Why isn't this working?" to "Look, Mom!"

For the record, here's VLC's official site.  VLC is completely free, and a very "swiss army knife" of a video player.  Versatile, fast, and lightweight.  I've used it for years, but even so didn't realize it could capture video until a year or two ago.  It's sort of 'hidden', unless you explore the menus.  And VLC could do with some actual documentation.  But I can't complain.  It's free, works great, and solved the problem.

    Quick note about the video recording - I played with some options that should have shown the video as it played, while recording.  Nothing worked exactly right.  If I chose the "Play" option and recorded from there, the video was visible while recording, but would only record AVI, which has a size limit.  Ultimately, I had to follow the steps, but take it on faith the video was recording correctly.  Once I hit the "stop" button, it finalized the file.  Only then did the finished file play.  As you see, it worked, I just couldn't see the actual video while it was recording.

    I still strongly recommend visiting "How to Record Screen with VLC."  By the time I found this site, I had a lot of the puzzle pieces.  This was the website that put it all together and showed a wide variety of ways to record.  But for a quick visual shortcut, the images below shows the process that actually worked for me.

Above you see VLC's startup screen.  

Next, under the MEDIA menu, select "Open Capture Device"

Here, under the Capture Device tab, make sure "DirectShow" is selected for Capture Mode.  I'm using AV2HDMI for the capture hardware that connects the VCR to my computer.  For me, the Video Device Name was "USB Video."  The Audio Device name was "Digital Audio Interface (2 USB Digital Audio)."  Your devices may be different, depending on your capture device and your computer setup.

Where it says "Play" near the bottom, click the dropdown arrow and select "Convert."

The "Convert" popup should appear.  Source was automatically set for "dshow:\\", I didn't have to choose that.  I did not select "DeInterlace."  Thought it might be needed, but it worked fine without.  I did try the "Display the Output", but still couldn't see the video as it was recording.  The recording worked, with or without trying to display the output, it just didn't seem to make any difference either way.  Under "Profile", I selected "Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4)."  There was a higher numbered Codec for H.265.  I tried that, but it embedded the audio in a way that my players and video editors could not use, so I went back to H.264, which works just fine.  

The only thing important here is that the "Browse" button is highlighted. Click on it to open the save window.

From here, you select the target directory you want to save the video to, name the video, and type ".mp4" at the end of your filename.  Adding .mp4 seems to be all you need to tell it what format to save in.  There are other options, but mp4 is the only one I wanted.

Now you're back to the "Convert" screen with your destination file selected.  Click Start.  

Now you're on the recording screen.  I know, it's blank.  That's all I could see.  But the red dot was depressed, and the counter was counting up.  At this point, I took it on faith, and went to eat supper.  How did the video turn out?  Check out the clip above!

    For the record, I (accidentally) recorded an hour and 13 minutes for the test video.  Left it running, and forgot it was on.  Most of the video is very old children's cartoons recorded from broadcast television.  Rather than bore you with all of it, I took the first six minutes because it was me... playing 30 years ago.  It's like a window into the past.  And a chance to see how my playing then compares to my playing now.

    Honestly, I think I played better back then.  Still made mistakes, but my playing was more certain, and felt more 'full of joy'.  I've learned a lot since then, and can play things now that I couldn't back then.  But it seems to be missing some part of what I loved about the piano.  Food for thought.  Maybe I need to simplify, and get back to just having fun with it.

VLC Media Player for Transferring VHS to MP4

 

    I mentioned OBS in a previous blog, as a great free option for capturing video.  I'll have add a caveat.  It's great, when it works.  When it as working, it was perfect.  The first time I ever used it, it felt like a godsend.  Now, I have another videotape to capture.  Booted OBS, it still captures video great, but no audio.  I hadn't changed anything about it.  Settings were still the same, hardware still the same.  I'm using AV2HDMI, by the way.  Sneered at by professional VHS restorers, but they consider a minimal set-up investment to start at $1,000, and freely recommend much more expensive equipment if you're serious.

    Those guys are exactly that - professionals who make a living salvaging old videos at the best quality humanly available.  I had to wait weeks to afford the $35 I needed for the AV2HDMI unit plus an HDMI to USB cable.  Would love to have the pro stuff.  I used to do weddings/industrial video production, so once upon a time I had most of the gear they mention but that was decades ago. Back in the first great days of video production using an Amiga 4000 and NewTek's Video Toaster.  Revolutionary days back then.

    Back to modern times...after several days of research, studying, trying to learn, following multiple guides and suggestions, it started looking like it wasn't a hardware issue, but a compatibility issue.  OBS's main strength is as streaming software.  Seems like video capture is kind of a side effect, and doesn't work equally for everybody.

    Given the number of other people online making the same complaint about OBS - no audio - and the lack of any consistently successful solutions, I had to give up.  I did try Virtualdub, but really had my doubts.  While the software will run in Windows 10, it's specs list Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7.  While that's a huge spectrum of continued support, it's age and lack of mentioning Windows 10 put me off.  Gave it a try, the quality was fair, but most disappointingly the only output format was AVI.  Some modern media players don't even recognize AVI, others struggle to play the audio in an AVI.  For the record, 5kplayer was great at playing AVI files. 

    The biggest problem with AVI was that I could only record a few minutes and then it auto-stops.  Some very minimal searching on google, and I found that AVI files were originally limited to 2GB, and using some tricks with pointers, can go to 4GB.  I'm not certain that's the problem here, but it's a limitation that MP4 doesn't have, so that disqualified VirtualDub for me.

    There were a few paid options, but I didn't look into them.  I've already invested my limit.  :^)
Then I remembered that VLC Media Player has a rather obscure video capture system.  It didn't work for my previous capture card, so I'd forgotten about it until yesterday.  Didn't even have to update, it was immediately compatible with AV2HDMI.  There were still some bumps in the road, but at least it worked with the hardware, and grabbed clean video.

    First problem?  Defaults to AVI.  The initial guides I found all lead to saving the file on the default format.  Plus, the guides were a bit outdated, so I had to blunder around blindly on the parts that weren't accurate any more.

Eventually, I found this page - How to record screen with VLC 
If you want to see the process that worked for me, it's on my next post - step by step images, and an example of the video:  VLC Media Player Transfer to VHS

The article offered instructions for multiple techniques.  The most useful part for me was the section on recording a video.  You have to read between the lines a little.  But following the steps, the article got me exactly where I needed to be. 

    The best part, when you get to "Convert/Save", and the option to create the file name, you can choose MP4 format simply by TYPING .MP4 AT THE END OF YOUR FILENAME!!  That seems too little, too simple, it feels like there should be a button to select or a preference somewhere.  VLC actually offers a lot of format options to save in, and it's very simple once you know how to get to it.

I just did a test video, running for over an hour, and the quality was great, the audio was perfect, and it recorded the entire hour-plus.  Finally, a reliable way to get video from VHS tape to my computer!!

Another Minor Update - New Blog and Another Cookie Consent Struggle

     It's been a while since the last post; that's getting to be a bad habit.  Lots of little things all up in the air at once.  Plus some annoying hurdles to get past.  I did finally resolve the cookie consent issue for the upcoming eBay Ephemera-focused blog.  I've been using CookieYes for Grace Notes, but they only let you have one free site.  If I wasn't on such a limited budget, I'd have been happy to sign up for the cheapest available paid service they offer.  It's only $10 per month, and allows up to 600 pages per scan.  Not sure if that's 600 "unique URL" sites, or literally 600 pages in total scanned.  Either way, the cost was very reasonable.  It's my income/living expenses that aren't reasonable.  Currently I'm on the Google Office plan of $12 per month, plus $12 per year for the custom URL.  Unless Monique and I can improve our finances significantly, I'm not willing to spend more on what amounts to a hobby.

    Instead of upping my game with CookieYes, I found another cookie consent site called "Osano".  Like CookieYes, Osano has a "first one is free" policy.  With restrictions.  And difficulties.  For some reason, this one was harder to get working.  Then I had a hard time confirming it was actually functional.  Finally ran into CookieBot.  Their site has an app that checks your site for cookie consent compliance.  They confirmed "Not Working" at first, and after some effort, I finally received positive confirmation.  

    So, after far too much effort, the Ephemera blog is ready to begin.  There's still a ton of set-up, design, and of course, actual blog posts to write... but it's ready to start now.  You can check out my progress here:  eBay Ephemera: A Page Out Of Time.  Still working on the next gospel song.  Haven't been as focused as I should be, so it's going slow.  Finished a personal project today, that should free me up to work more on the blogs now.  Hopefully that will include enough practice time to get that next song ready.

    Went to visit my folks yesterday.  Aside from spending a great day together, Mom decided to go through her old 'home video' collection.  We found three tapes that seemed like good potential.  They're on my desk in front of me at the moment.  Will get them transferred to computer, then fast-scan through the videos to see what's on them.  With luck, there might be some footage of my uncle playing piano.  Not quite so important, but one of them might have some footage from the early 90's of me playing.  I'm curious to see how my playing has changed over the years, but also hope to see one of my favorite pianos.  Back in the Missouri days, my final year or so in the Air Force, I had a vintage upright piano.  Not the best condition, but most of the keys worked.  The piano itself was stained a faded green.  Can't remember who made it.  Like any old beat-up upright, it had a strong honky-tonk sound, and was a lot of fun to play.  When I moved, it was too big to take, so passed it along to another family.  Fingers crossed, I'd be very pleased if that piano was on one of these videos.  I'd love to hear it again.

Used Laptop for the Hammer-88: USB Problems

     Just an update based on a simple fix for a long-standing problem.  Going way back, I originally had one very good desktop to do everything.  It's 6 or 7 years old now, and still good, but no longer great.  Over the years, some things started conflicting with others.  The usual victim was system audio.  

    This caused the biggest problem with Ableton Live Lite and M-Audio's Hammer-88 keyboard.  Sometimes the audio drivers would quit working randomly.  The  most consistent and annoying villain was when Microsoft did a Windows "update/upgrade."  EVERY SINGLE TIME.  I only know a couple of swear words, but I've used them many many times at Windows updates.

(Warning - Upcoming Rant)
    The problem could sometimes be fixed easily (usually the random occurences.)  Other times (looking at YOU, Microsoft...) it could take days or weeks to get the audio to working reliably.  Sometimes it took so long, another update would come out just days later and we'd start all over again.
    Helpful Hint:  This website provides a link to a trouble-shooter that could fix most of the audio problems in moments:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/fix-sound-or-audio-problems-in-windows-73025246-b61c-40fb-671a-2535c7cd56c8
    Yes, I'm aware it's a microsoft link.  That doesn't make me like them any better, since it was nearly always their OS updates that triggered the problem.  Just the same, this is the first thing I try when the audio stops working.  Click the link on the page and allow the app to test for problems.
    The weird thing is, it always reports "no problem found", and starts suggesting random things to try... but actually fixes the issue, at least most of the time.  So I click the "Open Get Help" button, let it do it's thing, then close the window after it reports failure.  And that's usually all it takes.
    Other times, it's as simple as checking "Sounds", going to the PlayBack Tab, and finding that the update has totally played havoc with speaker output assignments.  For some reason, it would reassign a new random output as the default.  Sometimes it would go to a legitimate speaker, like the one built-in to the monitor.  Other times it would choose options that had no output at all.  Re-setting the correct speakers as the default option will typically fix the audio, but sometimes it has to be reassigned as the default with every reboot.  Eventually it sticks, until the next system update.
    The worst ones... the mystery issues with no reliable fix... were the worst. This is part of the reason I quit playing.  It was so consistent, there were so many times I just wanted to 'play the piano' but couldn't, I gave up for a while.
(Rant Over)

A Dedicated Laptop
    In a final attempt to solve the problem, Monique found a used laptop on an Amazon lightning sale.  It's an older HP EliteBook.  Old enough it was originally sold with Windows 7 installed.  It's running Windows 10 now, but that's pushing things.  I don't install extraneous software.  Primarily Ableton, plus CCleaner and Irfanview.  And my favorite browser, Vivaldi. 
    Ableton 10 Live Lite - dedicated to the Hammer 88.
    CCleaner for it's utility toolkit and easy system cleaning. 
    Irfanview for the times I need a screenshot. 
    Vivaldi mainly because I used to use Google Drive to swap files.
    Our working space is tight, so the keyboard is on a wall-mounted shelving system, right beside the door.  It's easy to bump the keyboard while walking past it, and I thought maybe too many impacts caused the issue.

The Ultimate Fix: A USB Hub
    Eventually I realized the problem was the USB port the keyboard was attached to.  The laptop only has 3 USB ports, one to an external audio driver (the Air/Hub, by M-Audio), one to the keyboard, and one for the mouse. Not enough to go around with one having intermittent problems.  We had a 7-port powered hub.  I tried it, but for some reason when the laptop is powered down the hub still provides power to the Hammer 88 and to the mouse.  I didn't want the keyboard to be powered up non-stop all day long.  Seems like that would wear the electronics out faster.
    For about $15.00, we found a great USB hub on Amazon, by Sabrent.  It's powered, has 4 ports, and each port has a dedicated on/off switch, with a light so you know which ones are on.
    Now the keyboard and mouse are connected through the hub.  I also keep a USB memory stick on one port, for trading files between computers.  And the fourth port, just because it was available, provides power to a VCR-to-Computer converter.  Only the ports in use are powered up.  And when the laptop is turned off, I turn off the hub ports as well.  
    Now it works great.  I can play the keyboard reliably, at any time.  And turn the peripherals on/off as needed.  It's amazing when things function like you need them to!!

    With this setup it worked most of the time, but frustratingly there were still days it didn't.  Sometimes on a reboot, the laptop would not communicate with the keyboard.  Occasionally reconnecting the cable between them, but not always.  I started worrying that after all these years of not getting to use it, maybe the keyboard was aging, connections failing, who knows. 

Freil Thrift on Piano; from a 30-year old video Using AV2HDMI!

    I've been tearing my shed apart trying to find old recordings of my uncle Freil playing piano.  This VHS tape is over 30 years old, so it's not perfect, but it really means a lot to hear him play again!  I've found several others, but this is exceptional.  Nearly 25 minutes of video with Freil playing, and there are quite a few songs I don't have recorded anywhere else.  The video quality is rough, the tape is stretched, and the VCR's auto-tracking couldn't compensate enough.  But this may be the only surviving copy, and I'm grateful it works at all.

    The search for more recordings is just about over.  I've gone through nearly every box that could possibly hold any more.  Haven't found the Hi-8 tape I was actually hunting... but did turn up some audio cassettes and vhs tapes. Even got my hands on a couple of record albums he played on.  

    This videotape was recorded somewhere between 1990 and 1991.  Maybe on multiple days.  It wasn't made by me, and I have no recollection of how it came to be in my storage.  It's an awesome video.  The quality's not great... probably a copy, but more importantly, the tape is about 33 years old at this time.  VHS wasn't meant to last this long, way back then nobody knew for sure how long it would hold up.  It certainly hasn't been kept in optimal conditions.  Most of those years were in a box in a shed.

    As a result, the quality would be unacceptable, had it not been for the unique and irreplaceable nature of the subject.  For a few weeks, I couldn't even test it out.  The old digitizer (EZCap) that worked years ago no longer works.   The computer identifies it as attached hardware, but I couldn't find any software able to use it.

 

    In a previous post, I mentioned a YouTube guide by Jumble that explained an inexpensive setup to digitize videotape. It involved an RCA to HDMI converter called MINI AV2HDMI, and a small video capture device that converts HDMI to USB.  Everything else I already had, or was available for free (the OBS "Open Broadcast Software".)  OBS is way over my head, but Jumble explained the basic setup in his video.  Once it was all connected, it still didn't work, but a quick Google search fixed that.  Hint - check your windows privacy settings.  I had all related settings for Windows Webcam turned off.  As simply as turning on permissions, and it was recording video.

    Beyond that, the resulting video files had an odd echo effect.  The audio was being mixed back into itself.  I turned off the desktop/mic volume in OBS, and it worked perfectly.  Or, at least as good as the videotape itself was.  Repairing the damage of years was beyond me.

    The result is a fabulous memory of some of my favorites.  I hope you can forgive the inconsistent video quality and enjoy the music!

    IMPORTANT NOTE!!!

OBS worked great... once.  I didn't use it again for a few weeks, and the next time I tried to use it, there was NO AUDIO.  After days of googling, struggling to learn, trying different things, I went looking for other solutions. Here's the step by step process that finally worked: VLC Media Player Transfer to VHS    

 

Goodbye World Goodbye: Getting VHS Video Transferred to the Computer

    Last night's post was all about the end result.  Getting to play a duet with my uncle, and sharing it with the world.  Today's going to be the "prequel."  The story of how it got from a 2-decade-old videotape, to the state it's in now, and how I hope to get the real video uploaded eventually.

    To begin with... that photo was taken in 1962.  Freil was the youngest of my aunts and uncles, the baby of the family.  I was two at the time.  Mom's always said Nanny (her Mom) didn't get to see me until I was two, because of Dad's Navy career.  Nanny said I was walking already the first time she saw me.  So, just guessing, this photo might have been during that first visit.

    Fast forward to 1996, there was a family reunion.  We have a huge family, reunions were a big thing.  Freil was there, and of course everybody begged him to play.  I got a pretty long video of him playing.  At one point, he tried to 'escape', and asked me to play.  I've never been as good, but what I know, I learned by watching and listening to him.  Instead of letting us switch, someone asked us to play a song together, and Goodbye World Goodbye was the result.  It was one of those perfect moments, where everything goes absolutely right.  

    The rest of the video was mainly reunion events.  Later, I edited the raw footage, using his music as background track for the scenes.  By the early 2000's I'd sold or worn out most of my equipment, including the Hi-8 Camera.  The original tape is (I hope) somewhere in a box in our shed.  About 2016, Mom brought out one of the edited vhs reunion tapes.  It would have been a third-generation copy- raw Hi-8 to SVHS Master Edit, to regular VHS done using a 6-deck setup for small production duplication.  Better than home quality, way below broadcast quality.  And regardless, it's not optimal to have a final product at 3 generations. Back in the days of analog video, each generation lost significant quality.  

EZCap Video Grabber... not as good as it used to be 

  I bought a cheap transfer device from Amazon - EZCap Video Grabber.  It wasn't great, but it got the job done.  I borrowed Mom's VHS tape, and used an old VCR we still had.  It didn't come with software, but provided a link to free software.  It was already old when I ordered it, but with some tinkering and some online guides, I got it to work on Windows 10, on a computer I no longer have.     
    Now, that one video is on a file on my computer.  It's a poor scan, made from a 3rd-generation copied vhs tape. The video quality is not good enough to rescue, and the footage of Freil was mostly edited out anyway.  All I could save was audio of some of his playing, and that was muddied by background crowd noises.  That was the intent way back then... to use his piano playing as background audio for the reunion.  The conversations, the meal, the prayers, the announcements... I never thought it would be used to rescue Freil's music from.

    I'd forgotten the file existed.  Even that computer is gone, but I always save the internal hard drives from my old computers and add them to the new one.  Recently I was trying to make the EZCap work again.  Some programs acknowledged it's existence (VLC), but none of the ones I tried were compatible with it, including the original software.  It was while trying to run the old software, I found that old family reunion video.  Pure luck and coincidence, but I'll take it.  Sometimes you have to work with what you've got.

Serendipity plus hard work

    Even though the quality was bad, the audio was recognizable.  Hoping for an easy solution, I tried loading the file on Audacity, but Audacity can't load video files.  I tried using HitFilm Express (a free video editor) to separate the audio, but couldn't find an option to save the audio without the video.  There's a lot of results when you google the question, but I wound up using VLC, a free video player with a lot of options.  THIS SITE has a slightly outdated guide, but it was close enough to get me there.
    By the way, Audacity is free too... and a fantastic audio editor.

    With a 33-minute mp3 audio file, I used Audacity to convert it to a WAV file.  WAV is uncompressed, and will always play the audio at a consistent bitrate.  Mp3 is compressed, making it hard to match video clips with perfect timing.  When the whole video is just a single photo it doesn't really matter, but old habits die hard.
    From the Wav file, I edited it down to "Goodbye World Goodbye", equalized the audio trying to highlight the piano and de-emphasize the crowd noises, and exported it as a 32-bit Wav.

    Then back to HitFilm.  Create a project, import the Wav file, drag it into the timeline.  Import the photo, drag into the timeline, stretch the photo duration until it's equal to the audio track.  (It will snap in place when it gets close enough to the audio duration.)  Export the video to hard drive, upload to Youtube, and done.

    I'm still searching for the original raw footage of Freil playing on Hi-8 tape.  Once it's found, I'll have to obtain a Hi-8 player.  My plan is to buy an old one for $200-$250 from eBay, use it for any Hi-8 tapes I have (Not just Freil's, but any I may still find in all those old boxes.)  Then re-sell it on eBay.  It may not break even but at least I won't be out a couple of hundred dollars!

EZCap is outdated, but there's a better way to transfer video to computer

    Though I was able to transfer video using EZCap in the past, I can't recommend it.  It was a pain to get working all those years ago, and now it's not working for me at all.
    The best way I've found to transfer that footage into computer (meaning "effective, yet cheap") costs about $50 from things easily found on Amazon, plus some free software, all of it compatible with an ordinary computer running current Windows.  You'll notice I'm fond of free.  In this case, the list of items, along with a video explaining how to do it, was created by a YouTuber named "JUMBLE."

    There's not much sense in me duplicating his work.  And I don't want to divert his Amazon links for the items you'll need, that's very likely a source of income for him.  So, go watch his short, interesting, and truly informative video, "VCR to Computer - How to connect, watch and record old VHS tapes."  It's well worth the few minutes.  He doesn't add "fluff" to his videos.  It's all solid info.  He provides links to all the hardware, making it very easy to follow his instructions.