Correct settings for capturing VHS - please help a newbie

[Leatuwah]

Hello!
I am new to OBS and to video editing in general, truthfully I will probably only be using the software to convert old VHS tapes into digital format. I hope someone can help me make sure I have the right settings for the purpose.
My current setup has resulted in black bars on both sides of the video, and files too large to manage (I mean, about 30GB file size for a 2-hour video...).
Additionally, the old tapes had lost a lot of clarity, and while the audio is clear, the video has stripes and all kinds of interference, which I suppose cannot be helped now; but tinkering with different aspects of the setup resulted in a video with much worse viewing quality.
I read in the forums that I should only be using 320x240 resolution...

Regarding settings, at the moment I have:
Device: AV to USB2.0
Output
Output Mode: Simple
Recording Quality: High Quality, Medium File Size
Recording Format: mkv
Encoder: Hardware (QSV)
Video
Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1280x720
Qutput (Scaled) Resolution: 1280x720
Downscale Filter: Bicubic
Common FPS Values: 25 PAL

• What should be the optimum settings for capturing VHS?
• How do I make sure I capture video at the best possible quality for its format?
• How do I reduce the resulting file size?
• Should I make use of any video filters, and which?
• How to make sure I have the correct bitrate?
• Perhaps you have some advice if you know of a way to reduce the damage done by time to the VHS tapes (stripes, noise etc.) I tried some software post-processing but it did not seem to do anything.
• Black bars on both sides of the recording: should I remove them, and how (understanding that 16:9 is now the preferred scale and they would probably be added later anyway when uploaded to YouTube etc). Also at the moment I center the input video by hand and position the red and blue frames around the edges of it, but surely there must be a better way of doing this.

I had found a similar thread, but unfortunately it still left me confused.
Thank you for your help - I only have once chance of digitizing those videos and want to make sure I'm doing this right.

 

[Leatuwah]

..anyone? :)

 

[koala]

VHS tapes are aspect ratio 4:3, so there will always be black bars if you display this on a 16:9 monitor. You should record to a video file that most closely matches the source material, so record to a 4:3 aspect ratio file. The black bars are added by any media player at playback, but are not contained in the video file.
For VHS tapes, record to 768x576 (PAL) - depends on what the capture card is able to produce. In OBS, set Settings->Video->Base resolution and output resolution both to one of these resolutions. In Settings->Video set fps to 50 if you have PAL material or to 59.94 if you have NTSC material.
Use simple output mode and set the recording quality to "High Quality" or "Indistinguishable Quality". The latter produces bigger files but the best quality.

Don't use any video filters with OBS. Record the material as closely to the original as possible, with all drops and damage present. Do any beautifying in a postprocessing step with video editing software. This way you can postprocess the same material over and over again until you are satisfied without the need to re-record from tape.

The first postprocessing step would probably be to deinterlace from 50 fps to 25 fps.

The next postprocessing steps would be to correct colors or cut unwanted stuff. Since the effective resolution with VHS is only half of the original video (384x288), you might also downscale to this or to a multiple of your recording resolution - this is something you need to work out with trial and error. This downscaling will lessen artifacts/noise created by bloating up the small VHS resolution to 768x576. When upscaled again to your monitor resolution by your media player, the video will look better.
There are many different resolution variants (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard-definition_television for example), so you might try variants before fully recording hours of material.

There are many details to consider if you want perfect conversion, for example the effective pixel aspect ratio of a VHS recording is not 4:3 - pixels not quadratic. OBS, on the other side, works with quadratic pixels only, so I recommended to record to 768x576. This is aspect ratio 4:3 with pixel aspect ratio 1:1. Actually one should record to 720x576 or 704x480, but this will result in some slightly off aspect ratio, so it's probably better to record 768 horizontally. You can ignore all this and never see any difference during recording and postprocessing. But it may be that after recording and postprocessing, if you actually watch your videos, you might observe circles are ovals actually and wonder why this is.

 

[Leatuwah]

Thank you SO much for the detailed answer, you're a lifesaver! Will try the above suggestions and observe the differences :)

 

[ANTAR]

A year later, but might help someone - being a duffer, I forgot about analogue video so VHS C from thirty years ago that has me young and thin, looked in bad shape to these old eyes. Interference, poor picture. All the advice above is invaluable - but also don't forget to find the tracking (I call it tuning) buttons on your vintage analogue output machine. They were hidden under a cover on my VHS C Camera but having been distressed at some really poor output, discovered it snapped steadily into crystal clear source video when (a lot of) tracking adjustment was made. From there on in, the advice above was excellent to finish it off. It's quite something to see your children again for the first time after 31 years!

 

[Vix332]

Hi all new to this also having trouble with the sound from my tapes in obs (fine when played on TV) it is not exactly garbled but it is not good any suggestions for fixing? Also on a side note I had the VCR hooked up to tv and capture card but could not capture anything until I dropped the tv and just hooked up to the card. Is that a thing? I can only hook vcr up to one output?
Thanks in advance
Vix

 

[Butterflyme57]

Hi all new to this also having trouble with the sound from my tapes in obs (fine when played on TV) it is not exactly garbled but it is not good any suggestions for fixing? Also on a side note I had the VCR hooked up to tv and capture card but could not capture anything until I dropped the tv and just hooked up to the card. Is that a thing? I can only hook vcr up to one output?
Thanks in advance
Vix

I used my laptop and hook the camcorder to the capture card and saved it to an external hard drive, no tv involved. I recorded about 30 of our old tapes before playing one back (like a dummy) and the video lags but the audio plays perfect. I am currently searching for answers on how to fix it.

 

[wulfhalvo]

If the lagging problem is the same that I had, the way I fixed it was

Sources (at the bottom) -> Right click the Video Capture Device -> Properties -> Video Format -> YV12 (Emulated)

I left everything else the same and it seemed to work

The issue I'm having with the above instructions is I'm using a composit to HDMI converter into an HDMI capture card, so I can only select 16:9 or 16:10 resolutions. I'm attempting to shrink file sizes as my first capture was 14 GB for a 2hr home movie. Not really sustainable for the 60 or so home movies I want to convert.

 

[Becker666]

Guys I'm having similar issues mainly the lag do i need a super duper box?? I'm on an i5 Mac tried all the combinations I found on different boards but in the end that lag/jump is always there...any secret hint for OBS??? Or is just that my machine is not up to the task?

I recorded with a phone from the screen & have better results on the lagging dept. the image is not perfect but kinda close

 

[Jokki]

Hello, why is video only show at prewiev when i am fast forwarding the VHS player? when it plays on normal speed, the video does not appear in OBS studio. PAL

 

[OBS572]

VHS tapes are aspect ratio 4:3, so there will always be black bars if you display this on a 16:9 monitor. You should record to a video file that most closely matches the source material, so record to a 4:3 aspect ratio file. The black bars are added by any media player at playback, but are not contained in the video file.
For VHS tapes, record to 768x576 (PAL) - depends on what the capture card is able to produce. In OBS, set Settings->Video->Base resolution and output resolution both to one of these resolutions. In Settings->Video set fps to 50 if you have PAL material or to 59.94 if you have NTSC material.
Use simple output mode and set the recording quality to "High Quality" or "Indistinguishable Quality". The latter produces bigger files but the best quality.

Don't use any video filters with OBS. Record the material as closely to the original as possible, with all drops and damage present. Do any beautifying in a postprocessing step with video editing software. This way you can postprocess the same material over and over again until you are satisfied without the need to re-record from tape.

The first postprocessing step would probably be to deinterlace from 50 fps to 25 fps.

The next postprocessing steps would be to correct colors or cut unwanted stuff. Since the effective resolution with VHS is only half of the original video (384x288), you might also downscale to this or to a multiple of your recording resolution - this is something you need to work out with trial and error. This downscaling will lessen artifacts/noise created by bloating up the small VHS resolution to 768x576. When upscaled again to your monitor resolution by your media player, the video will look better.
There are many different resolution variants (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard-definition_television for example), so you might try variants before fully recording hours of material.

There are many details to consider if you want perfect conversion, for example the effective pixel aspect ratio of a VHS recording is not 4:3 - pixels not quadratic. OBS, on the other side, works with quadratic pixels only, so I recommended to record to 768x576. This is aspect ratio 4:3 with pixel aspect ratio 1:1. Actually one should record to 720x576 or 704x480, but this will result in some slightly off aspect ratio, so it's probably better to record 768 horizontally. You can ignore all this and never see any difference during recording and postprocessing. But it may be that after recording and postprocessing, if you actually watch your videos, you might observe circles are ovals actually and wonder why this is.

@koala how do I perform that first postprocessing step? I have successfully recorded my VHS-C videos using the method you provided and now I would like to deinterlace using QTGMC with hybrid. I am also open to other methods. Doesn't deinterlacing double the frame rate? My fps is currently 59.94 and if I double the file sizes would be massive.

 

[OBS572]

I followed your guide. When I input the file into hybrid for deinterlacing, it says the video is progressive. I am unable to deinterlace a progressive video. Why did OBS record as progressive media (already deinterlaced)?

1. Recording via camcorder
2. Plugged into vhs
3. VHS to blackmagic intensity pro 4k
4. OBS settings exactly as you mentioned.