vhs vcr recommendations for archiving?

[angryswede]

I've grown a bit of a vhs collection lately and need some recommendations on vcr tech.
I know there were a couple of posts about this a while ago but can't find the thread.

What's top of the line and somewhat available nowadays? What kind of prices are we talking about for the best possible quality and features?

There are some v8000 B&O Players on ebay, are they really worth £120 + international shipping?
The design is attractive and I have a lot of other vintage B&O stuff to match. But £120?

Several tapes I have are next to impossible to find today, with content not available online so I would like to archive these digitally. My best option would probably be to leave it to professionals, but as it's commercial tapes I'm unsure anyone would want to help. I've found "video grabbers" for about €40 locally here in Sweden, but I would like the best possible quality.
Anyone confident enough to leave recommendations for this type of equipment

If I can set up a reliable system for this I would want to help out other people with rare tapes like super plays and other old video game related content, so I need everything to be both pal and ntsc compatible.

[spadgy]

I know next to nothing about this, but I do know through the internet a UK VHS collector who's very involved in that scene (putting on VHS screenings etc), and he seems very helpful, enthusiastic and informed. I communicate with him through Twitter in his guise VivaVHS. Here's got a website too: vivavhs.co.uk. He may be able to help.

[Fudoh]

My best option would probably be to leave it to professionals

there are professionals and there are professionals. Taking a VHS tape to a shop, paying 20 EUR to it copied to DVD doesn't quality as being professional. You can easily achieve better results than very high-end facilities, if you follow a few easy rules.

You have to decide what your end format will be. If you're going for DVD, you can keep the VHS' output interlaced as it is. If you want to go digital (file storage) you have to think about deinterlacing. Do you want to do encoding on your PC ? Or postprocessing ? Or do you want a one-step solution with live encoding ?

Anyway, your two key components are a good VHS player (after testing up and down about two dozens units, the Sony SVO-1500P is your best choice) and a recorder with a good comb filter (like Pioneer's DVR units). These two combined will already give you a picture quality way better than you would expect and are used to see from your tapes.

[cj iwakura]

I would say 80s/90s anime is the best candidate for saving old VHSes. Lots of obscure stuff that never hit DVD and probably never will.

[angryswede]

@Spadgy: Thanks a lot, that's one interesting hobby! I was heavily into collecting imported c-grade horror movies like 15-17 years ago. Probably time to get those boxes down from the attic and see what treasures they hold.

@Fudoh: Thanks, that was exactly what I was looking for! I definitely want to go with digital for the archiving purpose and use a pc for the post-processing work.

Is that Sony vcr common in Germany? I can't find it here in Sweden, and there is only one listing up on ebay - an Austrian selling a lot of 8 broken units for €99. I'm waiting for an answer about postage for that crazy package but don't have high hopes.

I've found a Pioneer dvr locally though. A DVR-433H-S with 80gb for €80. Is that an acceptable price range?

@Cj: Yeah I can imagine there is a lot of obscure stuff from Japan that's stuck in vhs limbo. An interesting video game related example is this weird video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... tiQqI192Co
A guy on underground gamer found the tape at a pawn shop and made a torrent about half a year ago. Now you can find it reposted on youtube and discussed here and there on the net. Before that, nobody even knew it existed. That's just fantastic.

[Fudoh]

Is that Sony vcr common in Germany?

not exactly. It's not a consumer machine, but a professional PAL/NTSC machine without a tuner. But they're not really rare either... If you set up an automated eBay search for Europe (Sony SVO) you're likely to find something within a few weeks.

I've found a Pioneer dvr locally though. A DVR-433H-S with 80gb for €80. Is that an acceptable price range?

seems valid, but I can't tell you anything about the comb filter in that one. It's likely pretty good, but I haven't tested it.

The Austrian sellers asks 30 EUR for shipping to Germany. I doubt that Sweden would be more expensive, but he says that all 8 are defectice, not accepting or releasing tapes....

[Despatche]

anything is a good candidate, anything, for the simple reason that it exists. if you have it, please archive it. thank you.

[Edmond Dantes]

I have a Magnavox VCR/DVD combo that I got off Amazon for like $40. It works well and has copied everything I put in it. I only once had to clean it.

The prices for it seem to have shot up on Amazon now though... all the similar-looking models now go above $90.

[Ed Oscuro]

Some years back I used a GoVideo (model GV-6650, should be model year 1999) VHS deck with a DataVideo DAC-200 (a "Bi-Directional DV to S(Y/C) Composite Video Converter") to record from an old VHS tape. I recall it working very well, although I used quite a bit of space (something like 7GB for the whole 30 minute tape, zounds!) and of course you have the option, via whatever software you use, of different target digital resolutions to preserve the character of the analog signal.

Anyway that is a lot of yapping about what I did.

I think our friends over at RetroRealities, who have posted a LOT of impressive rips of VHS tapes, as well as laserdiscs and who knows what else, should be able to give some good tips on a streamlined production process for this, as I think within the video gaming media space Arasoi must have as much experience and success as anybody with archiving.

[charlie chong]

another thing is you may need another box in the chain to get rid of copy protection (macrovision etc) when transferring vhs especially on ntsc tapes.
i also am member of a community who love obscure vhs b movies but membership is closed at the moment. i can give you the irc channel address tho if you want to go and ask for an invite. if you explain you have lots of vhs to rip i am sure they would let you in

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I use one of those Sony dedicated NTSC-based DVD recorder decks, a Sony RDR-GX7 model that was sold in the USA back in 2003-2004. It has the old-school TV turner input/output as well + support for the old-school DVD+RW format that's still supported (but seldomly sold at retail nowadays as most stores don't even carry that DVD recording format anymore which makes having to finalize a DVD+RW disc un-necessary for peace of mind whereas with a DVD-R disc, it'd have to be finalized in order to played on a stand-alone DVD player setup taking a few minutes to do so). The later DVD recorder decks released from Sony omitted the TV turner I/O ports to cut down on production costs.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~