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The Fox Report Barry Fox’s technology column A to D: content rescue S afe bet: everyone has a shoebox (or many) full of old analogue audio tapes and video cassettes. Buried among the drossy taped episodes of longforgotten soaps, once-new movies that are now regularly shown free on TV and off-air audio cassette dubs of music that are now free on Spotify, there will surely be a few gems – video tapes of family and friends, bootleg audio of long-disbanded bands and off-air time-shifts of TV documentaries that now have historical value. Anything of real interest or value needs digital dubbing, onto hard disk or memory drive, as soon as possible. Covid-19 lockdown and subsequent restrictions on traditional social activity, such as going to clubs, concerts, theatres and cinemas, has created an unexpected window of unhappy opportunity to get the job done. Assuming the analogue media has not physically disintegrated, and you can find, borrow or buy from eBay a compatible working player, the question becomes – how to capture the best available quality with the least possible hassle, at minimum cost? Some practical tips, generated from hard-labour trial and error during my enforced lockdown, may be of use. Let’s look first at video rescue. Capturing analogue video There are two routes to video capture – analogue and digital. For the analogue route, plug the SCART, phono or S-Video outputs on the tape player into one of the ‘Rescue your VHS tapes’ capture dongles which sell for around £20-£30, and connect by USB lead to a PC. Usually the dongle comes with a disc offering simple PC software to control capture. If there is an option to burn-to-blank DVD, ignore it. DVD is a dying format, and VHS-to-DVD transfer introduces too many opportunities for something to go wrong. Burned DVDs often don’t play reliably on all disc players; the discs don’t last for ever and will need dubbing off again later as reliable DVD players become as rare as hens’ teeth. So, forget about DVD and the MPEG2 compression system used for DVD. Opt instead for hard disk or stick memory with more efficient MP4 (or modern improvements on MP4). All your video tapes will be Standard Definition and the PC software that comes with basic dongles will be SD. If presented with a resolution option, go for PAL 576/25 (or 30). By and large, anything larger is just wasting bits and storage space on coding noise. It’s probably best to ignore the capture software that comes free with a dongle. It will very likely be overly simple and restrictive, and probably MPEG2, DVD-specific. The slightly more upmarket commercial programs ArcSoft Showbiz and Hauppauge Capture are simple and easy to use, but my tip is to go for the excellent free Open Source capture program OBS (Open Broadcaster Software): https://obsproject.com/ Because OBS offers so many user options, it takes a bit of learning, but the effort is well worth it in the end; and a team of gallant volunteer developers keeps on upgrading OBS. If you need to edit what you capture, my recommendation is Shotcut, another excellent Open Source program that also requires, but repays, time spent learning to use it: https://shotcut.org/ Games capture boxes Instead of using a simple SD VHS-tovideo capture dongle it is actually far better to use a gameplay capture device ‘box’, which handles HD video. These Extruded enclosures standard and heatsink www.hammondmfg.com/1455.htm www.hammondmfg.com/1455NHD.htm 01256 812812 sales<at>hammond-electronics.co.uk 8 Practical Electronics | September | 2020 are sold, for instance by Hauppauge, to let computer gamers record their master moves. These device boxes take in analogue Standard or High Definition video and audio (composite or component) from a games console and use custom ICs to deliver a digital bitstream which is sent to a PC by USB. Capture software (Showbiz, OBS or similar) installed on the PC does the rest. Games capture boxes also take in HDMI digital signals from a console, as long as they are unprotected – ie, not movies which are content copy protected by HDCP. Games capture boxes will usually also accept SD analogue video signals from a tape deck, digitise them and send the bits to a PC with installed capture software. It’s all just bitstreams to the boxes. (For the sake of completeness, it is possible to buy separate boxes which convert protected HDMI digits to unprotected analogue component video; but that’s a whole other story). My tip, though, is to go the second and ‘more digital’ route, and get the off-tape analogue video and audio signals into the digital domain as quickly as possible. This is easily done with a simple SCART-to-HDMI converter, costing less than a tenner online (often direct from China). Use a phono-toSCART plug or cable from the tape deck to the £10 converter, and a bog-standard HDMI lead from the converter to the gameplay capture device. The signal from the analogue tape is inherently unprotected, so the HDMI conversion is also unprotected, and the capture box treats it like a gameplay signal – and sends an unprotected bitstream down the USB cable to the PC and any installed capture control software such as OBS. This works well – I’ve been doing it during lockdown. Pricey boxes… The one fly in the ointment is the cost of gameplay capture box. The better ones cost well over £100. Beware cheaper ones (around £50 plus) which will not successfully connect by USB to a PC; instead they record direct to a USB memory. Often there will be limitations on how large the memory can be (max 32GB) and how it must be formatted. It’s not easy to monitor what is being recorded; and very likely the recording will be broken down into 2GB chunks. It then needs stitching together. Although this can be done with software, such as the excellent Avidemux, available free from several sources, it’s more work to be done. Storing a full file, direct to an HDD, is much more convenient: https:// sourceforge.net/projects/avidemux/ …but watch this space! Salvation on capture box cost may however be at hand, in the shape of low-cost HDMI-to-USB converter dongle sticks from China. I hear great things about them and have one on order for under a tenner. Watch this space for news of what hopefully arrives before Christmas by sea mail. In the meantime, be aware. As with the SCART-to-HDMI converters, it looks as if many vendors are packaging the same chipset in slightly different casings, at widely varying prices. You may not get more by paying more. STEWART OF READING Fluke/Philips PM3092 Oscilloscope 2+2 Channel 200MHz Delay TB, Autoset etc – £250 LAMBDA GENESYS LAMBDA GENESYS IFR 2025 IFR 2948B IFR 6843 R&S APN62 Agilent 8712ET HP8903A/B HP8757D HP3325A HP3561A HP6032A HP6622A HP6624A HP6632B HP6644A HP6654A HP8341A HP83630A HP83624A HP8484A HP8560E HP8563A HP8566B HP8662A Marconi 2022E Marconi 2024 Marconi 2030 Marconi 2023A 17A King Street, Mortimer, near Reading, RG7 3RS Telephone: 0118 933 1111 Fax: 0118 933 2375 USED ELECTRONIC TEST EQUIPMENT Check website www.stewart-of-reading.co.uk PSU GEN100-15 100V 15A Boxed As New £400 PSU GEN50-30 50V 30A £400 Signal Generator 9kHz – 2.51GHz Opt 04/11 £900 Communication Service Monitor Opts 03/25 Avionics POA Microwave Systems Analyser 10MHz – 20GHz POA Syn Function Generator 1Hz – 260kHz £295 RF Network Analyser 300kHz – 1300MHz POA Audio Analyser £750 – £950 Scaler Network Analyser POA Synthesised Function Generator £195 Dynamic Signal Analyser £650 PSU 0-60V 0-50A 1000W £750 PSU 0-20V 4A Twice or 0-50V 2A Twice £350 PSU 4 Outputs £400 PSU 0-20V 0-5A £195 PSU 0-60V 3.5A £400 PSU 0-60V 0-9A £500 Synthesised Sweep Generator 10MHz – 20GHz £2,000 Synthesised Sweeper 10MHz – 26.5 GHz POA Synthesised Sweeper 2 – 20GHz POA Power Sensor 0.01-18GHz 3nW-10µW £75 Spectrum Analyser Synthesised 30Hz – 2.9GHz £1,750 Spectrum Analyser Synthesised 9kHz – 22GHz £2,250 Spectrum Analsyer 100Hz – 22GHz £1,200 RF Generator 10kHz – 1280MHz £750 Synthesised AM/FM Signal Generator 10kHz – 1.01GHz £325 Synthesised Signal Generator 9kHz – 2.4GHz £800 Synthesised Signal Generator 10kHz – 1.35GHz £750 Signal Generator 9kHz – 1.2GHz £700 HP/Agilent HP 34401A Digital Multimeter 6½ Digit £325 – £375 HP 54600B Oscilloscope Analogue/Digital Dual Trace 100MHz Only £75, with accessories £125 (ALL PRICES PLUS CARRIAGE & VAT) Please check availability before ordering or calling in HP33120A HP53131A HP53131A Audio Precision Datron 4708 Druck DPI 515 Datron 1081 ENI 325LA Keithley 228 Time 9818 Practical Electronics | September | 2020 Marconi 2305 Modulation Meter £250 Marconi 2440 Counter 20GHz £295 Marconi 2945/A/B Communications Test Set Various Options POA Marconi 2955 Radio Communications Test Set £595 Marconi 2955A Radio Communications Test Set £725 Marconi 2955B Radio Communications Test Set £800 Marconi 6200 Microwave Test Set £1,500 Marconi 6200A Microwave Test Set 10MHz – 20GHz £1,950 Marconi 6200B Microwave Test Set £2,300 Marconi 6960B Power Meter with 6910 sensor £295 Tektronix TDS3052B Oscilloscope 500MHz 2.5GS/s £1,250 Tektronix TDS3032 Oscilloscope 300MHz 2.5GS/s £995 Tektronix TDS3012 Oscilloscope 2 Channel 100MHz 1.25GS/s £450 Tektronix 2430A Oscilloscope Dual Trace 150MHz 100MS/s £350 Tektronix 2465B Oscilloscope 4 Channel 400MHz £600 Farnell AP60/50 PSU 0-60V 0-50A 1kW Switch Mode £300 Farnell XA35/2T PSU 0-35V 0-2A Twice Digital £75 Farnell AP100-90 Power Supply 100V 90A £900 Farnell LF1 Sine/Sq Oscillator 10Hz – 1MHz £45 Racal 1991 Counter/Timer 160MHz 9 Digit £150 Racal 2101 Counter 20GHz LED £295 Racal 9300 True RMS Millivoltmeter 5Hz – 20MHz etc £45 Racal 9300B As 9300 £75 Solartron 7150/PLUS 6½ Digit DMM True RMS IEEE £65/£75 Solatron 1253 Gain Phase Analyser 1mHz – 20kHz £600 Solartron SI 1255 HF Frequency Response Analyser POA Tasakago TM035-2 PSU 0-35V 0-2A 2 Meters £30 Thurlby PL320QMD PSU 0-30V 0-2A Twice £160 – £200 Thurlby TG210 Function Generator 0.002-2MHz TTL etc Kenwood Badged £ 6 5 Function Generator 100 microHz – 15MHz Universal Counter 3GHz Boxed unused Universal Counter 225MHz SYS2712 Audio Analyser – in original box Autocal Multifunction Standard Pressure Calibrator/Controller Autocal Standards Multimeter RF Power Amplifier 250kHz – 150MHz 25W 50dB Voltage/Current Source DC Current & Voltage Calibrator £350 £600 £350 POA POA £400 POA POA POA POA Marconi 2955B Radio Communications Test Set – £800 9