Looking for RCA/Video capture/USB-C device

MaineMan

MaineMan

New Member
I am looking for a cable with RCA male inputs that will capture and digitize VCR/VHS A/V to 1080P with a USB-C output. I have seen several cables that do one or the other but not both. This requires buying a cable or switch with RCA inputs and an HDMI output then connecting that to an HDMI video capture card with a USB-C output. I have also found most are only 780P and USB-2. Any advice?
 
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AaronD

Active Member
You don't get 1920x1080p60 from a VCR. The format that would have done that, did technically exist, but it didn't take off.
(There's a video on YouTube, somewhere, or at least there was, in 1920x1080, of someone wandering around New York City and catching the World Trade Center towers, so it must have been before Sept. 11, 2001...but it's clearly HD! Normal VHS can't do that!)

A VHS tape is effectively 640x480i60, so there's no point in capturing more than that. It fits in USB 2, so there's no point in making a USB 3 device that is more expensive for no benefit whatsoever.

If you start with that source, and then make it 1080, you're adding a lot more bits for no actual increase in information. (and thus quality)
 
MaineMan

MaineMan

New Member
Thank you, I didn’t know that. YouTube tells me I need an RCA to HDMI converter cable and an HDMI to USB 2.0 capture card but the choices on Amazon are endless? Any recommendations? What do you use to record a VCR tape to MP 4?
 
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AaronD

Active Member
MaineMan said:
YouTube tells me...
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YouTube is the blind leading the blind. Take it with a grain of salt. There is *some* truth there, but you have to evaluate it for yourself and throw out a lot. It's not something to start from scratch with.

MaineMan said:
Any recommendations? What do you use to record a VCR tape to MP 4?
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You only need one box. RCA in, USB 2 out. Lots of those to choose from, with varying quality, and the reviews aren't always reliable either.
Amazon and other places allow the seller to update/correct a listing and keep the reviews, which is easily abused to completely change it from a product that's hard to mess up to something else entirely...and keep the good reviews. Read a bunch, and see if they're talking about the same thing.

There are also "review wars". Originally, the shadier sellers would load themselves up with glowing fake reviews. Then once they started getting taken down for that, they would load *each other* up with glowing fake reviews! Try to see that too, when you find it in-progress. And there are other tricks too. Online retail is the Wild West. There's enough volume that humans can't possibly keep up with policing it, and the automated bots are still stupid.

Anyway, once you have a good RCA -> USB 2 capture device, whatever it takes to do that, you can set OBS to 640x480, and record to MKV - not MP4 yet because of the crash-resiliency - and then File -> Remux... in OBS to convert the finished recording to MP4.

Depending on what you're doing though, you might not need to remux. Any video editor worth its salt can read MKV directly, and most platforms like YouTube will take it too. No need for MP4 in those cases. VLC - the free player that we recommend because Windows' Media Player has fallen from "good" to "junk" status now - also reads MKV just fine. If you're sending it to friends and family who still use WMP, then you might need MP4, and be careful what settings you use in OBS to make the WiMP work.
 
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MaineMan

MaineMan

New Member
Thanks, that’s a wealth of information. I am aware of Amazon reviews, but not to the extent that you explained. I also take what’s on YouTube with a grain, sometimes a pound, of salt. I am recording LPs and cassettes using Audacity and a stereo RCA to 3.5 mm jack that goes into the desktop sound card. I gather to add VHS tapes to the mix all I need is a three input (R, W, Y) RCA to USB output cable. I could then get a switch with three sets of RCA inputs and one USB output that would handle audio and video. Thanks
 
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AaronD

Active Member
MaineMan said:
Thanks, that’s a wealth of information.
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Here's some more. :-)

MaineMan said:
...a stereo RCA to 3.5 mm jack that goes into the desktop sound card.
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The built-in audio of pretty much any computer is going to be noisier than if you used an external interface. Even if you have an "audiophool" system with ridiculously high specs, the digital noise from being in the same box, reduces the analog performance to only about 10-bit equivalent, if even that, compared to a CD's 16 bits. Each additional bit doubles the performance.

The cheapest external interface of decent quality that I know of is the Behringer UCA202. It's a for-real stereo line input - or phono input if you get the UFO202 - on RCA. Not like the cheap things that use the same chip that's designed to be inside the box, and thus have the same poor performance themselves. It's "only" 16-bit, but if you do it right, that's already indistinguishable from good analog.

I have a UCA202 in a church streaming rig, that takes the already-mastered soundtrack from the digital mixing desk, and OBS just passes that through unchanged. And I have a UMC202 in my makeshift studio, that has two professional mic inputs feeding 24-bit converters. 24-bit is far better than analog could ever hope to be, so the bottom few bits of that will always be noise.
OBS converts everything to 32 bits (easy for computers, and better quality still, so that the round-off error from whatever processing you add stays negligible), and then converts that to whatever you set the output format to be.

But of course in your case, you also have tape hiss, vinyl surface noise, and other things to worry about, which reduce your signal/noise ratio to about 6- to 8-bit equivalent before it even gets to the PC at all. So in that context, maybe the built-in sound card isn't so bad.

MaineMan said:
I gather to add VHS tapes to the mix all I need is a three input (R, W, Y) RCA to USB output cable.
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That's pretty much it, as long as you get a good one. That's the hard part in today's market.

MaineMan said:
I could then get a switch with three sets of RCA inputs and one USB output that would handle audio and video. Thanks
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I don't think *that* exists, but I've been surprised before. You'll probably end up with a single-input converter, and do the switching outside of that.
 
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MaineMan

MaineMan

New Member

Thanks. I have the Behringer UMC202 and know Behringer makes affordable components that do a decent job. I think I am going to keep using the RCA to 3.5 mm for LPs and cassettes for now and listen for noise and rumble. The switch and cable I am thinking of using are listed below. I don't know if the OBS forum allows links so I included the product name and URL.​

Yeworth USB to 3RCA Cable, 1.5m USB Male to 3 RCA Male Jack Splitter Audio Video AV Composite Adapter Cable for USB-enabled TVs and PCs​


GE 4-Way RCA Switch AV Splitter Switch for Connecting 4 RCA Output Devices to Your TV, S-Video Support, Audio/Video, Game Consoles, DVD, VCR, 38807​


I know you said VHS tapes don't need a USB-C but will audio quality be improved with an RCA to USB-C cable?
 
qhobbes

qhobbes

Active Member
MaineMan

MaineMan

New Member
That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out. I am recording LP’s and cassette tapes directly to the computers 3.5 mm sound card line in. No analog to digital conversion required there. Another person on this thread said I do not need analog to digital conversion for video either because OSB does the conversion. I ordered a switch with three separate RCA-AV inputs (LP, Cassette, VCR) and one RCA-AV output. I also ordered an RCA-AV to USB cable for the output from the switch to the to the computer’s USB 2.0 input. They’ll be on Tuesday and I’ll let people on the forum here know how it worked out.
 
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AaronD

Active Member
MaineMan said:
...directly to the computers 3.5 mm sound card line in. No analog to digital conversion required there.
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Actually, there is. It's inside the computer, along with the noisy digital stuff (CPU, GPU, RAM, onboard power handling for all of that, etc.). Because it's in the same box, it picks up that noise, before the conversion.

MaineMan said:
Another person on this thread said I do not need analog to digital conversion for video either because OSB does the conversion.
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No, OBS doesn't convert anything from analog. That's what the external box does. The first time OBS sees it, it's already digital.
 
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AaronD

Active Member
MaineMan said:
Yeworth USB to 3RCA Cable, 1.5m USB Male to 3 RCA Male Jack Splitter Audio Video AV Composite Adapter Cable for USB-enabled TVs and PCs
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qhobbes said:
I don't think that cable is going to work. There's no analog-to-digital conversion going on in that cable.
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I'd be curious to know what that cable actually is. Is it a straight-through wiring adapter for a device that grossly misuses a USB connector for analog signals? The pin count is right, for that.
 
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AaronD

Active Member
MaineMan said:
I know you said VHS tapes don't need a USB-C but will audio quality be improved with an RCA to USB-C cable?
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No. USB-C is a connector, not a signalling standard. The connector supports both USB 3, and USB 2 and before.

High quality audio easily fits in USB 2. No need for 3. In fact, the Behringer X32's USB expansion card sends 32 channels each direction of uncompressed 32-bit audio at 48kHz, on USB 2. I'm pretty sure you're not doing that!
 
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bjoernOBS

New Member
most of these capture-sticks use only half of all the interlaced-frames, but some of them use both. if you want to know something about the quality you can get with different hardware you maybe you should watch this:

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
for me it's helpful and it's easy to understand...
 
MaineMan

MaineMan

New Member
Thank you. That is precisely what I need to set up OSB correctly. However, I am at the hardware stage and finding it complicated. I want to connect the turntable, tapedeck, and VCR to a three-input AV switch with one output. This will eliminate having to connect each device as needed. I ordered a 3-way RCA-AV switch but both the Behringer UFO202 and the IO Data GV-USB2 have USB outputs. I haven't looked yet but are there 3-way switches USB in and out ports?
 
MaineMan

MaineMan

New Member
OK, I searched on Amazon for USB switches and didn't find one that has 3 USB inputs and one USB output. Most are for two computers to share the same USB devices. As above, I want to connect the switch between the Behringer and IO Data devices and a single USB output.
 
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