Posted: 2/3/2013 10:33:44 PM EDT
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I think I've finally found a workable system. Enables me to play a complete tape and have it read into my PC.
Of course, there are a few short comings. First of all, the system? Ion's Video 2 PC?..............has been discontinued. Secondly, a 10 hour tape produces a file only 39.7 Gigs big. Not that comforting, but answers should be possible. ________________________________________________________________________________ ("Damn!"--007 taking apart a MIRV "What's the problem?"--Carter, (w,stte), "The Spy Who Loved Me") |
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Bumping my own post to try to get input.
39.7 GIGs for a 10 hour tape. Most of my tapes are 6 hours but if that number holds, that is still about 24 GIGs for each tape.......and I have over 2000 tapes. Call it 80 tapes for a 2T drive which runs about $160 right now. Now as it is, time is my limiting factor and at best, I'm looking at maybe, MIGHT processing 60 tapes a month which means I'd be looking at a new 2T drive a little over once a month, which isn't too bad. But are there other suggestions how I might bring down that storage requirement? As I see it, I can't do DVD's because of a number of reasons. First of all, I don't want to. This project is to have the entire tape stored in some format other than tape because the VHS machines won't last forever. I want to have the entire tape in storage because of the historic database they are a part of, that they contain. Ie, for example, a time when Sci Fi Channel showed "Inside Space", when they may have expected intelligent people watching.....instead of whoever they expect to be watching now. It is both the shows and the commercials that were around them. But I don't actually need the shows because that has been bypassed. I have the series of this, of that, on boxed DVD's, so what was shown on Sci Fi, even if they didn't snip it, isn't needed. Another reason of why not to do DVD's? Because taking a 6 hour take and turning it into a 6 hour DVD produces lousy quality. Quality comes up if a portion of an ELP tape is recorded on a 2 hour DVD, but that's not the project. Right now, it is only to have a 20 year database, as my video collection is, stored in a more stable format. A friend has suggested zipping the file, compressing it, but is that even possible with files this big? Thoughts? Eventually, I may want to have to do this again, have backup digital files for this, but first things first. You know, one project of such magnitude for each decade. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ("Wait. I don't understand replicative fading."--Riker "Each time you clone, you're making a copy of a copy. Subtle errors creep into the chromosomes, and eventually you end up with a non-viable clone."--Pulaski, (w,stte), ST:TNG, "Up The Long Ladder") |
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If I'm understanding this correctly you're wanting to convert taped video to digital video? I wouldn't know the specifics behind this as this isn't really my cup of tea, however, you can do something about those large file sizes. Depending on your setup and what type of digital video file type it outputs, you can use one of the many free conversion softwares to convert/compress that large file type to a smaller file type, and without sacrificing much if any of the video quality. I use a program called Handbrake for converting FRAPs screencap video to a smaller file type that I can upload to Youtube. Huge difference in the file size with little to no difference in the video quality. Also that Analog to Digital converter box you mentioned in your first post may be discontinued but you can still buy it. In fact there's at least 2 on amazon being sold by a fairly reputable amazon seller/store. There's probably also other options on the market. As I said above I don't know the specifics behind what you're trying to do(tape to digital) so hopefully someone else can chime in and help out with that. |
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Quoted:
39.7 GIGs for a 10 hour tape. Most of my tapes are 6 hours but if that number holds, that is still about 24 GIGs for each tape.......and I have over 2000 tapes. Yeah, video is very data intensive which translates into large files. Full HD video (1080p) compressed to AVCHD format still takes around 8GB/hr while compressing to MP4 (a version of MPEG) at 1080p (at 12Mbits/sec) should take around 4.8GB/hr. But are there other suggestions how I might bring down that storage requirement?
... Another reason of why not to do DVD's? Because taking a 6 hour take and turning it into a 6 hour DVD produces lousy quality. Quality comes up if a portion of an ELP tape is recorded on a 2 hour DVD, but that's not the project. Right now, it is only to have a 20 year database, as my video collection is, stored in a more stable format. A friend has suggested zipping the file, compressing it, but is that even possible with files this big? MPEG - the most likely format your solution is using for video storage - is already a compressed format so Zipping an MPEG file won't save you any space of consequence. The only option to squeeze down size is adjusting the bit rate of your MPEG files. The instinct for many folks doing this type of project the first time is to use the best "quality" compression which means higher bit rate which means higher file size. Try using different bit rates until your converted video quality is lower than your source. In my experience with similar work, anything over 2Mbits/sec is a waste of storage since VHS just doesn't capture fidelity higher than that (figure no better than 720x480 and fuzzier - read "less data" - than 720p HD). This should get your file sizes down to around 1.2GB/hr. _____ Edit: If your current solution doesn't offer you the option to change bit rates, look for any of the low cost video editors to get that. Pinnacle Studio 16 is ~$100 and there are others that should suit your needs for less (or even free). |
