Video Tape to Digital

[Chip Chester]

I have used DVCPro machines to convert (on the fly) from analog to either SDI or firewire. I've used a Sony DVCam machine for analog to firewire. Also used Pinnacle Video Recorder units to go from analog direct to h.264 files (at various quality settings) on USB drives without a computer.

They all do a reasonable job -- however the source material was recordings of cable and network news programs on consumer VHS machines at various speeds.

Outland's pass-thru approach works well, as stated. The Pinnacle devices were around $100 or so. For one large project, I had about six of them running simultaneously, recording on flash drives. The biggest challenge was record-keeping.

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by mr_rye89

I watched a youtube video where a guy (technology connections?) used an analog video to HDMI scaler plugged into a box that recorded video from HDMI (like what they use to record gameplay from video game consoles). worked great. I might be trying this soon as I have an excellent Monoprice composite/s-video to HDMI scaler already.

No.
No no no no and no.

If you speak to anyone remotely professional you never use an upscaler as part of the capture process. Handle the digital upscaling in post-process where the quality of the scaling is not limited by the low power CPU in the scaler box or even can be performed multi-pass.