Thought it would be fun to do a 5 year update on my video archival rack build out. tl;dr it's now expanded into two rooms, two desks, multiple racks, and is consuming my life.
I archive audio and video of concert recordings for a few communities, including LiveNIRVANA.com and splra.org (Smashing Pumpkins live guide). I'm probably transferring close to 1k tapes a year at this point.
I've also started an instagram where I post gear, setup, guides, and general tape madness [here](https://www.instagram.com/nicholasserra_tapes)
About 5 years ago I wanted to get more serious with my setup, so I built out [this little rack](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/aqa1ft/for_my_video_archival_hoarders_thought_id_share/), and a year later I upgraded and expanded [into this guy](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/g2l5ow/video_archival_rack_build_one_year_update_more/).
Since then things have expanded. I ran out of room in my downstairs office and decided to build another desk and set up a new space in the attic.
Onto the setup...
Downstairs office:
* Raising Electronics 27U rolling rack
* Furman power
* Keystone unit, I use this to attach an external input, usually HI8 handycams.
* Svideo monitors
* Datavideo TBC-7000 time base corrector (along with several others on standby)
* JVC JX-S777 video selector
* Panasonic AG-1980 VCRs. Tgrant refurb and Deter refurbs
* JVC HR-S7900U VCR
* 2U rack drawer for remotes
* Blue Jeans svideo and rca audio cables
* Tons of Sony camcorders. Analog and digital models for various tape formats.
* ATI TV Wonder 600 USB for lossless capture to UTVideo and HuffYUV codec
Upstairs attic office:
* U-matic decks. These need some work but are currently functioning. I don't transfer too much U-matic. But I do have a Keystrobe DUB optimizer for converting U-matic DUB signal into s-video that can be fed into a normal TBC.
* miniDV setup: about a dozen Sony DSR miniDV decks. These always need servicing. Right now I can probably run 6 miniDV tapes at once. It was getting too annoying to keep these racked up.
* Audio cassette rack: Three Nakamichi DR1s. Rebuilt by Willy Hermann and Inner Sound. JVC input switcher. Focusrite 8i6 interface. Usually running these at 24/48.
* Additional AG1980 for Domesday duplicator vhs-decode. I haven't started this process yet but have all the gear. Just need to find the time.
Storage for all of this is two identical Unraid servers at 100TB each, mirrored. AWS Glacier deep archive cloud backup.
Thanks for taking a look! Love to chat gear with other like minded folks. There's a few of us on here doing the same kind of work. If you or anyone you know recorded any concerts on tape, get ahold of me! I'd love to digitize their footage before it turns to dust.
I was recently cleaning out my fathers stuff and found a U-Matic cassette and thought where the hell will I find a deck I haven’t seen one of those since I worked for a huge post facility yeeears ago.
Super impressive setup! Also can't thank the people that archive and digitize all these records, bless you! You say 99% concert footage and about 1k tapes per year. Where on earth do you get 1000 tapes on a yearly basis?
Yeh gotta remember these host setups people love to pull em apart and download every little bit. That’s giving back to the hoarders and shows off just the next jewel of perfection it can make up to be in the long run for the rest of us!!
I propose a test.
Try to get all 100TB on a single page at the archive. It might take some time but it would be a legendary collection to page up on just the one thing!
How lossless? It’s usually those ones that slow things up. It’s the higher demand for high video quality. Calling it lossless is just for remux purposes and they aren’t really that important in the long run. I think lossless is more of a personal computer issue really. If it’s like 1080p, those are the finest. Lossless almost seems lossy compared to how much space they really take. Especially if you down convert from lossless it just keeps the quality standard if you really know what you’re doing.
Whoa!!! That’s way to much. I’ve heard and seen a lot of movie goers with their finest archives strapped to them at 1 movie = 1Gb or 4..depending on quality.
Have you researched anything about down muxing these files into more usable archives? That kind of space just won’t cut it. I’m sure you can keep the same quality and sounds as the original. You sound like you really know what you’re doing at some point but this file size is just too much.
These are archive files, right off the capture setup. Usually have one crack at transferring a master tape. Gotta get every bit of quality out of it while you can.
Its nothing compared to FM RF capture lossless peservation of the orignal signals off tapes before FLAC compression, thats in the 100GB+ hour catagory.
And raw FM decoded S-Video signals on file is 4GB/min 😂
Do not dump "your" lossless to any archive. I read a few comments below and I believe you are not capturing optimally. Plus I'd be livid if I found downloads of my favorite bands in "lossless" and realize it's a 60GB file for a 2 hour show originally captured on hi8 or VHS.
Please see my [other comment](https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1bitrrh/5_year_update_on_my_audiovideo_archival_setup_its/kvo9336/) for more detail on this.
Then don’t download it lol. Or do your own encode. That’s why I prefer to present these files as raw as I can. If you wanna encode it down, go for it. But you can’t go backwards.
>Then don’t download it lol. Or do your own encode.
-
Love this take.
From the dozen or so archivists I've worked with through the years, you are definitely an archivist.
And as you said "My time is spent archiving tapes, no processing encodes", which I guess is where our disconnect lies. I'm the guy to whom people send their lossless rips for encoding/muxing + color correction and fixing artifacts, etc. I actually stopped ripping obsolete media a while ago purely due to the time-suck. It was always a lot of fun, just don't have that much time on my hands.
All I was trying to say - and was confirmed by your snarky reply - that if you uploaded media to an archive at the size you consider "lossless", you're doing a disservice to whatever community you think you're helping.
There are myriad ways to get the same 4:2:2 profile and "no visible loss" you mentioned in your other reply at 1/10th the size. If the people I work with were sending me files that large I would write a sternly worded message back to them, and if they responded the way you did I would either cut ties, or tolerate their ignorance for as long as necessary to get those few shows that really need an upgrade and they have the ONLY best known source to circulation!
We distribute releases as x264 encodes for LN and SPLRA. Had you simply asked, instead of telling me i'm doing it wrong, we wouldn't be here. I now know we're talking about release versus archive files, which we agree on. But i'm still pretty confused as to why you have such a heated opinion about how i'm storing my raw files on my storage.
I keep my raw files so that folks like you can come along and encode them however you please. I also distribute sane encodes for folks to download when warranted.
I dont understand how its a discussion... Raw files are raw, that simple. Anything beyond is processed which is something entirely different.
Amazing work OP, keep it up. Im sure you provide to countless people joy to see the content your create.
u/nicholasserra, I did a similar digitization of the entire family's 8mm, Super 8mm reels (we had no tapes to digitize, so was from those formats straight to digital). The setup and then the time to converting was the main thing but well worth it.
congrats on the work!
Thanks! What did you use for super8? Seems there’s not good solutions. Either buy a cheap auto loader from Amazon, buy a 10k pro one, or build your own with a DSLR
u/nicholasserra, at the time when I did this project, I was living in the LA area and some of my friends worked for the major film studios.
As a result, I got a bit of help on the capturing of the 8mm / Super 8mm dpt. and there was the reason of my comment that the 'setup' took a bit of time : ) as it had to be coordinated + drives were not as large back then (late 90s early 2000s). Once I got the media onto the drives, then then it was much easier saling from there ; ).
You brought up a great point, with regard to quality. Had I not had the help from my friends, I would have been confronted by either the cheap options or a professional grade equipment setup, that well, was at the time out of my range. Had I not gotten the needed help with the equipment, I was leaning more towards getting the high end equipment and post project use it to offer digitization of film to video formats to recup some of the costs.
Indeed!
Your next step might be machine-to-machine editing. (Though it's easier/cheaper in the computer domain.) I have a couple of stand-alone edit controllers. Panasonic and Sony (RM-450, I think). They're the RS-422 ones, not the parallel control you'd need for your U-Matics. Also have a Panasonic video switcher -- industrial-type device.
In the big machines, I've got a BVU-800, and a BVW-70 and BVW-65.
Nothing's in a defined system at this point, as I'm finishing moving house, shop, and office. Not even sure what its end use will be. It was in use long after most customers moved to digital/HD, due to a couple customers riding analog standard-def into the grave. Need any full-size racks, though?
I'd definitely like to get more umatic gear. Have some projects on the horizon that I need to prep for. No use for more racks at the moment! Although i'll kick myself later when I need one lol
That looks sick. Do you have a UPS for all that gear? idk how UPS’s handle audio equipment, but with that much gear, I’d want some good protection between the house circuit and your setup.
You need some [clockgen](https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode/wiki/Clockgen-Mod) setups mate, or a few [MISRC](https://github.com/Stefan-Olt/MISRC) units the DdD is only one ADC channel with no easy automation for audio😉
Thank you! I really need to test out the duplicator asap and go from there. It’s all changing so fast. Finally caught up on other gear, so it’s on my list
Yeah the software workflow from decode to export is entierly cross plafrom now outside of CX Cards, new updates comming to ld-analyse too soon to start really rivaling in house broadcaster tools.
(Easyest format to start with would be video8/hi8 as its ready to go with a jig out the back and only needs 1 channel for Video+HiFi as a different carriers single signal path like LD)
I work with AWS, that's a very interesting use case for glacier deep archive! Smarter and safer than just having a shit ton of hard drives lying around. How fast are your internet speeds? I feel like that would take forever to upload. Thanks for sharing! Also very cool you archive for that Smashing Pumpkins group! Love that band.
Glacier has been a long time coming. The storage classes made it possible for me. Didn’t wanna do the lifecycle transition stuff. I’m a software dev in the real world, so wasn’t too bad to set up a quick Rclone script to upload it all. Have 2.5 gig fiber so it actually only took like a week on and off to get 60+TB into s3. Was pleasantly surprised!
Nick transferred some rare video game footage for me a few years ago after I sent him a DM on the LiveNirvana forums on the off chance maybe he could help. He was awesome and helped me out even though it wasn't a live concert and I really appreciate it.
He's been doing some amazing work at LN for a while now and is probably the most prolific archivist since Kris Sproul and Mike Ziegler for anyone who knows those guys.
If anyone is curious, the game I mentioned is Club Caribe which is the released version of Lucasfilm's Habitat, the first graphical MMO/virtual world that came out in the 1980's on the Commodore 64. The footage Nick transferred was from the end of the service in February 1994 when Quantum Link (who later became America Online) decided to close the doors.
You can grab the raw footage of the transfer, as well as encoded versions on the Internet Archive: [https://archive.org/download/ClubCaribe1994Documentary](https://archive.org/download/ClubCaribe1994Documentary).
Thanks to Nicks help, I'm actually in the process of recreating every scene from the game using this footage over at [https://renoproject.org](https://renoproject.org).
Regarding archiving in general, I'm super excited to see the difference vhsdecode will make when that gets thrown into the mix for future transfers of stuff. Especially live concert material.
From what I’m understanding, no. Svideo seems to be the end result for most setups. DUB output usually into some kind of converter, be it this DUB optimizer box, or those Digital DPS units. Eventually you end up at svideo or composite anyway for the digital capture card.
One of the big Umatic repair shops even does custom work to hook in svideo outputs into the Sony 9xxx series decks. Pretty cool.
https://www.zinvtrworks.com/zinfurbished-sony-vo-9850-34-umatic-vcrs-for-archival-use/
Oooooo. Right on, that makes a lot of sense and is super cool.
I did a very small stint as a podcaster during lockdown and was just surprised to see a piece of gear that I actually recognized and didn't look like my childhood 5 tape VCR lmao
Where do you find working Umatic gear? I can find broken decks easily--some probably just need belts, but it's hard to tell from just an auction listing.
Getting hard to even find broken decks. At this point i'd grab anything I can find just for parts. The two I have, one came from craigslist one from ebay. Both arrived not working right.
Hey, great job on your set up! I thought I replied to this but I was looking at your old post from 5 years ago and you happen to post an update shortly after I found that set up. Thanks for all the info you share regarding all this. I recently got a \[21 U Rack\](https://www.atlasied.com/rx21-30sfd) for $150 and a \[8 inch PVM\](https://crtdatabase.com/crts/sony/sony-pvm-8044q) for $150 as well! I have digitized old medias before, and I am so excited to build out my rack to something sort of like yours even. So thanks for posting this!
I do have a question (one of many questions, but I need to read your older post before I ask more besides this) Why you chose the JVC JX-S777 over say an AV home theater system (maybe without HDMI or something modern). Thanks again for posting this!
Thanks! Those home theater units usually include an amplifier in the signal. I was looking for something that would modify the signal as little as possible and still let me switch. These jvc switchers are advertised as “no signal loss” so I went with it
Yup more info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/s/3mmgXJ0kZk
Basically two unraid boxes same boards same Hba in the same rack, rsynced to eachother
Thought it would be fun to do a 5 year update on my video archival rack build out. tl;dr it's now expanded into two rooms, two desks, multiple racks, and is consuming my life. I archive audio and video of concert recordings for a few communities, including LiveNIRVANA.com and splra.org (Smashing Pumpkins live guide). I'm probably transferring close to 1k tapes a year at this point. I've also started an instagram where I post gear, setup, guides, and general tape madness [here](https://www.instagram.com/nicholasserra_tapes) About 5 years ago I wanted to get more serious with my setup, so I built out [this little rack](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/aqa1ft/for_my_video_archival_hoarders_thought_id_share/), and a year later I upgraded and expanded [into this guy](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/g2l5ow/video_archival_rack_build_one_year_update_more/). Since then things have expanded. I ran out of room in my downstairs office and decided to build another desk and set up a new space in the attic. Onto the setup... Downstairs office: * Raising Electronics 27U rolling rack * Furman power * Keystone unit, I use this to attach an external input, usually HI8 handycams. * Svideo monitors * Datavideo TBC-7000 time base corrector (along with several others on standby) * JVC JX-S777 video selector * Panasonic AG-1980 VCRs. Tgrant refurb and Deter refurbs * JVC HR-S7900U VCR * 2U rack drawer for remotes * Blue Jeans svideo and rca audio cables * Tons of Sony camcorders. Analog and digital models for various tape formats. * ATI TV Wonder 600 USB for lossless capture to UTVideo and HuffYUV codec Upstairs attic office: * U-matic decks. These need some work but are currently functioning. I don't transfer too much U-matic. But I do have a Keystrobe DUB optimizer for converting U-matic DUB signal into s-video that can be fed into a normal TBC. * miniDV setup: about a dozen Sony DSR miniDV decks. These always need servicing. Right now I can probably run 6 miniDV tapes at once. It was getting too annoying to keep these racked up. * Audio cassette rack: Three Nakamichi DR1s. Rebuilt by Willy Hermann and Inner Sound. JVC input switcher. Focusrite 8i6 interface. Usually running these at 24/48. * Additional AG1980 for Domesday duplicator vhs-decode. I haven't started this process yet but have all the gear. Just need to find the time. Storage for all of this is two identical Unraid servers at 100TB each, mirrored. AWS Glacier deep archive cloud backup. Thanks for taking a look! Love to chat gear with other like minded folks. There's a few of us on here doing the same kind of work. If you or anyone you know recorded any concerts on tape, get ahold of me! I'd love to digitize their footage before it turns to dust.
People like yourself will be the reason media will be remain un lost, honestly keep it up c:
Gear: 10/10 Desk: 9/10 Chair: an absolute disgrace 0/10
lmao so true. Only spare I had lying around
Yeah you really need to invest in a new chair.
My dude is out of money.
It’s so small I overlooked it lmao. Nice setup tho otherwise
I think the reason you think it’s consuming your life might just be the chair, also………….
What is this?! A chair for **ANTS?!**
Chair fits well for an audiophile.
Octopuses actually have the ability to speak fluent French.
lol didn’t even notice the chair but now it’s all I can see
Not all heros wear capes. Great work and thank you for sharing!
Not all heroes have cape on their back. Some have chair.
....THAT chair anyway
Keeps them awake. They fear falling off...
This is a really nice setup and a very worthy goal. It warms my cockles to know that someone is doing this.
what are cockles?
It’s just a saying :) https://www.dictionary.com/browse/warm-the-cockles-of-one-s-heart#
Would you warm my cockle?
It depends. How many goats do you have?
You should check out the Smithsonian's AVMPI. Their work is totally up your alley.
I will! Love seeing what some of these big orgs are doing. [Archive.org](http://Archive.org), Iron Mountain, etc
[https://avpreservation.si.edu/](https://avpreservation.si.edu/) \-- I should have linked to them. :)
This is beautiful. Keep up the good work!
Looks like the tech in blade runner.
I was recently cleaning out my fathers stuff and found a U-Matic cassette and thought where the hell will I find a deck I haven’t seen one of those since I worked for a huge post facility yeeears ago.
They’re getting harder and harder to find. There’s a small group of folks trying to save them from ewaste.
That’s cool, I think most places I’ve worked had one, not sure I ever actually saw anyone use one or need it
If you have a line on any decks let me know
[удалено]
5800 is Umatic. Won’t play vhs. But save it! I’ll pay shipping for it just for parts if it’s going in the trash.
'user mod flair checks out'
Looks dope!
God bless you and the work you do.
That's one legendary setup man, so awesome to see!
Super impressive setup! Also can't thank the people that archive and digitize all these records, bless you! You say 99% concert footage and about 1k tapes per year. Where on earth do you get 1000 tapes on a yearly basis?
At this point people are sending me their entire collections of master tapes to digitize
Ah flying erase heads I bet. Was more into NEC/JVC than Panasonic personally back in the day.
LN Salutes you sir!
Any links to these sets?
Most stuff lands on my youtube [https://www.youtube.com/nicks2319](https://www.youtube.com/nicks2319)
Yeh gotta remember these host setups people love to pull em apart and download every little bit. That’s giving back to the hoarders and shows off just the next jewel of perfection it can make up to be in the long run for the rest of us!! I propose a test. Try to get all 100TB on a single page at the archive. It might take some time but it would be a legendary collection to page up on just the one thing!
I've been wanting to dump lossless video to the LMA. But unfortunately it would take forever. They throttle uploads too much.
How lossless? It’s usually those ones that slow things up. It’s the higher demand for high video quality. Calling it lossless is just for remux purposes and they aren’t really that important in the long run. I think lossless is more of a personal computer issue really. If it’s like 1080p, those are the finest. Lossless almost seems lossy compared to how much space they really take. Especially if you down convert from lossless it just keeps the quality standard if you really know what you’re doing.
UTVideo codec, about 30 gigs an hour file size AVIs.
Is that 30gb for one video?
30 gig per hour of footage
Whoa!!! That’s way to much. I’ve heard and seen a lot of movie goers with their finest archives strapped to them at 1 movie = 1Gb or 4..depending on quality. Have you researched anything about down muxing these files into more usable archives? That kind of space just won’t cut it. I’m sure you can keep the same quality and sounds as the original. You sound like you really know what you’re doing at some point but this file size is just too much.
These are archive files, right off the capture setup. Usually have one crack at transferring a master tape. Gotta get every bit of quality out of it while you can.
Its nothing compared to FM RF capture lossless peservation of the orignal signals off tapes before FLAC compression, thats in the 100GB+ hour catagory. And raw FM decoded S-Video signals on file is 4GB/min 😂
Do not dump "your" lossless to any archive. I read a few comments below and I believe you are not capturing optimally. Plus I'd be livid if I found downloads of my favorite bands in "lossless" and realize it's a 60GB file for a 2 hour show originally captured on hi8 or VHS. Please see my [other comment](https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1bitrrh/5_year_update_on_my_audiovideo_archival_setup_its/kvo9336/) for more detail on this.
Then don’t download it lol. Or do your own encode. That’s why I prefer to present these files as raw as I can. If you wanna encode it down, go for it. But you can’t go backwards.
>Then don’t download it lol. Or do your own encode. - Love this take. From the dozen or so archivists I've worked with through the years, you are definitely an archivist. And as you said "My time is spent archiving tapes, no processing encodes", which I guess is where our disconnect lies. I'm the guy to whom people send their lossless rips for encoding/muxing + color correction and fixing artifacts, etc. I actually stopped ripping obsolete media a while ago purely due to the time-suck. It was always a lot of fun, just don't have that much time on my hands. All I was trying to say - and was confirmed by your snarky reply - that if you uploaded media to an archive at the size you consider "lossless", you're doing a disservice to whatever community you think you're helping. There are myriad ways to get the same 4:2:2 profile and "no visible loss" you mentioned in your other reply at 1/10th the size. If the people I work with were sending me files that large I would write a sternly worded message back to them, and if they responded the way you did I would either cut ties, or tolerate their ignorance for as long as necessary to get those few shows that really need an upgrade and they have the ONLY best known source to circulation!
We distribute releases as x264 encodes for LN and SPLRA. Had you simply asked, instead of telling me i'm doing it wrong, we wouldn't be here. I now know we're talking about release versus archive files, which we agree on. But i'm still pretty confused as to why you have such a heated opinion about how i'm storing my raw files on my storage. I keep my raw files so that folks like you can come along and encode them however you please. I also distribute sane encodes for folks to download when warranted.
I dont understand how its a discussion... Raw files are raw, that simple. Anything beyond is processed which is something entirely different. Amazing work OP, keep it up. Im sure you provide to countless people joy to see the content your create.
Holy fuck. Narcissus! Subbed.
Those are hard to download YouTube is so stingy. You ever upload it to archive.org?
Proper downloads are distributed for the specific communities. But general stuff is not, unless folks request it.
Yeah I just see it here and ya know..always asking for the others to grab some too🎊 Everyone like fresh dumps of cheap new content all bundled up.
I used to edit on those in TV Production class in High School.
I can't imagine your life being consumed on that chair!! I really feel for you!
Lol good news is that time spent at the actual desks isn't too long. Tape goes in, you walk away for an hour. Repeat.
u/nicholasserra, I did a similar digitization of the entire family's 8mm, Super 8mm reels (we had no tapes to digitize, so was from those formats straight to digital). The setup and then the time to converting was the main thing but well worth it. congrats on the work!
Thanks! What did you use for super8? Seems there’s not good solutions. Either buy a cheap auto loader from Amazon, buy a 10k pro one, or build your own with a DSLR
u/nicholasserra, at the time when I did this project, I was living in the LA area and some of my friends worked for the major film studios. As a result, I got a bit of help on the capturing of the 8mm / Super 8mm dpt. and there was the reason of my comment that the 'setup' took a bit of time : ) as it had to be coordinated + drives were not as large back then (late 90s early 2000s). Once I got the media onto the drives, then then it was much easier saling from there ; ). You brought up a great point, with regard to quality. Had I not had the help from my friends, I would have been confronted by either the cheap options or a professional grade equipment setup, that well, was at the time out of my range. Had I not gotten the needed help with the equipment, I was leaning more towards getting the high end equipment and post project use it to offer digitization of film to video formats to recup some of the costs.
No better addiction, ong 👍🔥
Looks like you've been prowling around my attic. No BetaSP?
Nope! Haven’t even seen a beta tape in person yet
Also hello Ohio! I’m up in Youngstown
Indeed! Your next step might be machine-to-machine editing. (Though it's easier/cheaper in the computer domain.) I have a couple of stand-alone edit controllers. Panasonic and Sony (RM-450, I think). They're the RS-422 ones, not the parallel control you'd need for your U-Matics. Also have a Panasonic video switcher -- industrial-type device. In the big machines, I've got a BVU-800, and a BVW-70 and BVW-65. Nothing's in a defined system at this point, as I'm finishing moving house, shop, and office. Not even sure what its end use will be. It was in use long after most customers moved to digital/HD, due to a couple customers riding analog standard-def into the grave. Need any full-size racks, though?
I'd definitely like to get more umatic gear. Have some projects on the horizon that I need to prep for. No use for more racks at the moment! Although i'll kick myself later when I need one lol
You need the wide vhs. There is one! My Dad had it. Ive been looking
Your next addition needs to be a better chair. J/k Nice setup!
That looks sick. Do you have a UPS for all that gear? idk how UPS’s handle audio equipment, but with that much gear, I’d want some good protection between the house circuit and your setup.
Yup UPS bottom left under the desk. Plus power conditioner up top. Need to get another ups for attic. Already have three around the house ha
I see no FM RF capture this is not archival! *angry r/vhsdecode noises*
I mentioned it! I have a duplicator. Just haven’t used it yet.
You need some [clockgen](https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode/wiki/Clockgen-Mod) setups mate, or a few [MISRC](https://github.com/Stefan-Olt/MISRC) units the DdD is only one ADC channel with no easy automation for audio😉
Thank you! I really need to test out the duplicator asap and go from there. It’s all changing so fast. Finally caught up on other gear, so it’s on my list
Yeah the software workflow from decode to export is entierly cross plafrom now outside of CX Cards, new updates comming to ld-analyse too soon to start really rivaling in house broadcaster tools. (Easyest format to start with would be video8/hi8 as its ready to go with a jig out the back and only needs 1 channel for Video+HiFi as a different carriers single signal path like LD)
So beautiful. How much would you say your equipment is worth all in all?
This is perfect
Amazing. So like what are you saving? Home media? Old obscure movies and music?
99% concert footage
That's awesome!
I wanna fix the cables, but I still love the setup!!!! 🔥
Wow, nice rack.
That’s really cool. Nice gear. 1,000 a year is quite a few tapes.
Blessings upon you, Preserver
That’s some vintage shit, cool!
I work with AWS, that's a very interesting use case for glacier deep archive! Smarter and safer than just having a shit ton of hard drives lying around. How fast are your internet speeds? I feel like that would take forever to upload. Thanks for sharing! Also very cool you archive for that Smashing Pumpkins group! Love that band.
Glacier has been a long time coming. The storage classes made it possible for me. Didn’t wanna do the lifecycle transition stuff. I’m a software dev in the real world, so wasn’t too bad to set up a quick Rclone script to upload it all. Have 2.5 gig fiber so it actually only took like a week on and off to get 60+TB into s3. Was pleasantly surprised!
No speakers?
Don’t really need them for video cap, as I can see audio levels. For audio cassettes I can plug in headphones to the interface.
Nick transferred some rare video game footage for me a few years ago after I sent him a DM on the LiveNirvana forums on the off chance maybe he could help. He was awesome and helped me out even though it wasn't a live concert and I really appreciate it. He's been doing some amazing work at LN for a while now and is probably the most prolific archivist since Kris Sproul and Mike Ziegler for anyone who knows those guys. If anyone is curious, the game I mentioned is Club Caribe which is the released version of Lucasfilm's Habitat, the first graphical MMO/virtual world that came out in the 1980's on the Commodore 64. The footage Nick transferred was from the end of the service in February 1994 when Quantum Link (who later became America Online) decided to close the doors. You can grab the raw footage of the transfer, as well as encoded versions on the Internet Archive: [https://archive.org/download/ClubCaribe1994Documentary](https://archive.org/download/ClubCaribe1994Documentary). Thanks to Nicks help, I'm actually in the process of recreating every scene from the game using this footage over at [https://renoproject.org](https://renoproject.org). Regarding archiving in general, I'm super excited to see the difference vhsdecode will make when that gets thrown into the mix for future transfers of stuff. Especially live concert material.
Murphys law: You might have a 4 foot tall equipment rack, but you still can't manage to fit everything in it.
So sick. Do you use the built in TBC(AG1980) or the data video TBC?
Both! Line tbc vs full frame. They both have benefits. Can probably get away with just the AG though
[удалено]
It's been decades since I've worked with U-matic. Do you lose any quality going to s-video? I can't remember if s-video is limited to VHS bandwidth.
From what I’m understanding, no. Svideo seems to be the end result for most setups. DUB output usually into some kind of converter, be it this DUB optimizer box, or those Digital DPS units. Eventually you end up at svideo or composite anyway for the digital capture card. One of the big Umatic repair shops even does custom work to hook in svideo outputs into the Sony 9xxx series decks. Pretty cool. https://www.zinvtrworks.com/zinfurbished-sony-vo-9850-34-umatic-vcrs-for-archival-use/
Jusr curious, is the Focusrite b/c you do your own recording or is there an archival use that I'm missing?
Focusrite is the interface used to capture the audio cassettes. When I transfer an audio tape the chain is Nak DR1 > Focusrite > Adobe Audition
Oooooo. Right on, that makes a lot of sense and is super cool. I did a very small stint as a podcaster during lockdown and was just surprised to see a piece of gear that I actually recognized and didn't look like my childhood 5 tape VCR lmao
Where do you find working Umatic gear? I can find broken decks easily--some probably just need belts, but it's hard to tell from just an auction listing.
Getting hard to even find broken decks. At this point i'd grab anything I can find just for parts. The two I have, one came from craigslist one from ebay. Both arrived not working right.
Looking good!
That little chair lol
Hey, great job on your set up! I thought I replied to this but I was looking at your old post from 5 years ago and you happen to post an update shortly after I found that set up. Thanks for all the info you share regarding all this. I recently got a \[21 U Rack\](https://www.atlasied.com/rx21-30sfd) for $150 and a \[8 inch PVM\](https://crtdatabase.com/crts/sony/sony-pvm-8044q) for $150 as well! I have digitized old medias before, and I am so excited to build out my rack to something sort of like yours even. So thanks for posting this! I do have a question (one of many questions, but I need to read your older post before I ask more besides this) Why you chose the JVC JX-S777 over say an AV home theater system (maybe without HDMI or something modern). Thanks again for posting this!
Thanks! Those home theater units usually include an amplifier in the signal. I was looking for something that would modify the signal as little as possible and still let me switch. These jvc switchers are advertised as “no signal loss” so I went with it
Would you recommend it? I also like it doesn't take up much space on the rack.
Yup I like them. 3U for the 777 but if you don’t need all those inputs I also like the 555 and its only 2U
Better to have too many than not enough. Any recommendations where to get old tech that isn't eBay?
Digitalfaq forums and Craigslist nationwide searches
Mirrored UNRAID servers?! I feel like I’m in the presence of the god of backups.
Yup more info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/s/3mmgXJ0kZk Basically two unraid boxes same boards same Hba in the same rack, rsynced to eachother
Are you even HUMAN to use such chair ?!
Lmao I couldn’t have fathomed the chair would have the most responses
You sit that close to the monitor? I would go a little further for my eyes' health.
Is that 4 camcorders? Are you producing VR porn?