The Best Easy Way to Capture Analog Video (it's a little weird)

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After much annoyance dealing with fiddly capturing methods, I thought I’d show you the method I stumbled upon that works amazingly well, is fairly cheap, and awfully easy. I’ve been thrilled with it, and I think you’ll be too.

This here is the composite to HDMI “upscaler” I got. Note that in the product description, it say’s it can’t improve image quality, even though upscaler in the title. Go figure.

And here’s the capture doodad:

These links worked as of 7/4/19. In the future, you may need to search for similar alternatives.

How about some other links?

Technology Connections 2 (the channel where I sometimes talk about stuff and generally don’t prepare for anything):

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[TechnologyConnections]

*There’s a few extra things to note in this comment, so you might perhaps want to read this*
First, links to the devices shown are in the description. Right up near the top. Just waiting for your click.
You may have noticed that this video was uploaded in 1080p 60fps. That’s so you can get the full effect of the captured video, as much of it is 60i. You might also notice that the frame rate is all over the place for the rest of the video. Yeah, I set my camera to 24fps for a test and didn’t realize I hadn’t changed it back until I was about half way through shooting B-roll. So for those of you who are sensitive to frame rate changes - good luck!
I’m stealing some feedback from a patron when I say that while there are certainly better options out there, you’ll run into diminishing returns quickly. For my money and eyes, this capture method is _fine_ and trying to squeeze any more out of an analog signal is dangerously close to a fool’s errand. That said, I have no idea how well this works to capture things like retro game consoles. This endeavor is mainly for video, so if you’re looking to capture some NES footage or whatever, you should probably look for videos on how to do specifically that.
And one final thing--one of the main reasons I like this is precisely because it’s NOT part of my PC. While great, high-quality PCI capture cards exist (though they often cost far more than my solution) I don’t want to have to bring a VCR or other device to my computer. Having the capture device live amongst my A/V stuff means that it’s always ready and I don’t need to reconfigure anything. Plus, if I want to record something different like a Hi-8 tape from a camcorder, I can just plug it into either the VCR’s front input or my receiver’s front input.
So, while some of you might still start telling me why I’m wrong for liking this solution - as in life, to each their own. The cost spent for the quality produced, along with how this can be incorporated in both my workflow _and_ my A/V setup, makes this the absolute best capture solution for my needs. And I truly think for the average person, this is a 4.5 star, great-to-excellent method.

[vsmash]

Loved the audio synchronization joke! a disjointed track tell more than thousand words.

[AllanSavolainen]

One explanation for the deinterlacing hiccup is that the video captured is saved as 30fps but the source is 29.97fps, that would cause a hiccup every 8-16 minutes.

[NoorquackerInd]

One of the best presentation factors in these videos isn't just the insane detailed information, but also the accurate B-Roll and stock shots displayed to enhance explanations or to show actual examples. It's not just a video of something simple like a CRT showing a fancy picture, it's a photo of a CRT doing fancy things and how it's different than modern displays

[JoshuaHillerup]

Engineers (and programmers) don't say "that will never cause a problem", they say "we'll have to deal with it later otherwise it won't work now".

[LuisSanchez-lzzq]

"If you don't want to, we can't be friends." I just loved this remark.

[briantw]

One problem: You should use an s-video to HDMI converter and make sure you use a VCR with s-video output. Remember: The video recorded on to the tape is not recorded in composite. The luminance and chroma are recorded separately, and anytime you use a composite output, you are worsening the signal by mixing the chroma and luma together unnecessarily, only to have it split out again in the converter afterward. If you want keep-forever archival quality, use S-video, not composite, for VHS and Betamax at least.

[PlayaWebDesign]

Your videos have gotten so much better over time. Not that they were bad before, but your latest videos are just awesome. Great production level, great writing, great sense of humor. Good job, and thanks for your videos.

[SvenAlmgren]

"If you don't want to, we can't be friends" - you sir, are amazing ;)

[Blizky]

I got this equipment and I’m very happy with the results so thank you Alec. Out of curiosity I went to check FFMPEG and I found it very useful. I used it to correct the aspect ratio, fix the audio to mono, because it was just on left channel and rise volume. All on one single command per video:

ffmpeg -i Video.MP4 -crf 18 -filter:a "volume=2", -vf "scale=1440:1080, setdar=4/3" -ac 1 Video_corrected.MP4

To use it on Windows; search and download ffmpeg, copy ffmpeg.exe inside the folder where the videos are (or add it to the windows path variables). Then with Shift pressed right click on an empty space in the folder and select “Open powershell window here”. On a notepad copy the code and replace Video.mp4 by the name of your videos. Then just go changing the correlative number. Enjoy!

[pabloguitano]

Haha.. “we cant be friends” I so agree circles should always be circles... great video

[benbevan]

Crazy how he explains how to record for Nintendo 64 better than most speedruners. Big thanks

[oransands]

As an ex-analog broadcast engineer I was amused and entertained by the also accurate descriptions of how analog works. Kudos! NTSC lives! be glad it's not SECAM.

[MarceldeJong]

I never understood people who can watch 4:3 video that's stretched to 16:9. I always assumed they were secret psychopaths.

[MohamedBadawy]

well im an eye surgeon, and we were looking for the best method to capture composite video digitally out of our microscopes. we tried alot of game captures, converters; you name it we, probably tried it. in my experience and you might find this weird, the best knock out pictures we found out was using DVRs for cctv cameras. the picture is so clear, sharp and vivid. ofc our dvr doesn't record audio as we dont need it. but you can buy one that does.

you should give it a try and tell us your thoughts.

[CUBOSH]

I lose sleep over people neglecting to get aspect ratios correct so thank you for "not being a friend" of them

[thematicschematic]

I've recently started a project that uses old VHS tapes, so this is extremely useful and well-timed, thanks! Also, I am enjoying your EPCOT footage - my childhood wasn't great, but my most cherished and happiest memories are from family holidays to Florida, and EPCOT was by far my favourite theme park. Seeing the Communicore pavilion brought back a whole flood of memories.

[WhiteJarrah]

A tip for the capture card splitting the file into part. I don't know about the capture card you're using but the Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket also records to USB stick. If you are using a USB formatted as FAT32, the video capture will be split into sections if the file gets bigger than 4GB. To avoid the splitting, you need to format the USB stick as NTFS.

[gudenau]

I'M NOT CRAZY

Your analog stuff isn't centered! What a relief.

[fatalassertion]

9:06 Dude, thank you for hating on improperly scaled video. It seems like nobody cares.