Rank Beginner: I need a pointer to instructions converting Hi8 and VCR input.

[C. N. Alberga]

While I am "computer literate", everything I've done as been system programming. About video I know nothing. I have some tapes, Hi8 and VCR which I wish to digitize. I don't want to compose, stream, etc. I have been reading posts here, but most of the jargon goes right over my head. The best I've done is to convert Hi8, using a Sony HandyCam CCD TR400, to video with the image in the top left corner, less that a quarter of the degitized image, the rest black.

Is there a post, a guide, something, that a beginner can follow to get a full screen image with the correct aspect ratio? I.e., an approximately 3:4 image.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Short answer - you can drag corner to re-scale. HOWEVER, that can also cause a mess ... depending..
make sure lock icon on Video Input isn't on (preventing moving/re-scaling)

Here's the quick-start guide:

OBS Studio Quickstart

OBS Studio - Free and open source software for live streaming and screen recording - obsproject/obs-studio

obsproject.com

I'd also recommend watching the Nerd or Die tutorial video series:

OBS Studio Tutorial Series Introduction | Tutorial 1/13

Welcome to our OBS Studio tutorial series! In this series we're going to cover everything that you'll need to know to make your stream look great.Next Video...

www.youtube.com

As for black space, the issue is the base resolution you have set (or left to default, make 1080p or whatever your monitor resolution is), vs the video source resolution (480p or similar? or are you using a S-Video connection? Depends on native film resolution). So unless you re-scale the video, the unused screen space would be black. There are multiple re-scaling options in OBS, each with their own Pro's & Con's. Or you could try not-rescaling at all and capture at native resolution. Then let playback s/w handle re-scaling? multiple options.

And OBS is a sophisticated compositing tool (ie combine multiple sources). If you aren't adding titles/overlays, etc.... then OBS maybe overkill. There are simpler tools to simply capture the incoming video stream and record it.
And beware de-interlacing and other considerations. There are discussions here on this (not may area) and previously I've Google this and found numerous discussions on how to digitalize analog video tapes).

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

See top of https://obsproject.com/wiki/Sources-Guide for instructions on adjusting Red Box around your source, then for details on what I'm guessing you are using for a Source, https://obsproject.com/wiki/Sources-Guide#video-capture-device

 

[C. N. Alberga]

I want to thank you for the responses, and may return with more "dumb questions". I also apologize for the delay in answering, as some unexpected things have come up which are monopolizing my time.