Who else wants to digitally migrate their old photos, tapes, documents, and other media?

Digital Media
#1

Who else is interested in taking their old documents, slides, video cassettes, DV tapes, photos, etc. and migrating them to digital formats that can be more easily shared and stored?

I thought it would be nice for the Makerspace to have that capability for our members. So . . . I’m hunting for adapters, old video cameras that play big 'ol tapes, unused VCRs, slide scanners, document scanners, 8-millimeter projectors, etc.

Do you have any that you’d care to donate or lend to the Digital Media group? We can probably pick up a few simple adapters (e.g., VCR connector to USB) from Fry’s, but the old stuff may be harder to pick up.

My hope is that, in addition to actually migrating the images and video, we could do a basic class on restoration and enhancement tools in Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. Maybe we could have a pro show us the wonders that professional color correction can achieve.

Gimme a “show of hands” by replying to let me know how interested the Makerspace community is. Otherwise, I’ll just try to take care of my migration project personally.

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Digitizing VHS tapes - can DMS do this?
#2

Slides and photos (…20 characters.)

#3

I would just like to figure out how to get the picturse off my old computer and to my new one

Mostly my jewelry and con pics I dont care about my hubbys porn collection

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#4

I have a cassette tape (wedding vows) I’d like to convert to cd.

I also have some vhs tapes (tutorials) I’d like on dvd.

#5

I have a bunch of vhs tapes that need to be converted and was going to buy equipment but I’d be interested in contributing to DMS equipment instead. ETA that I have had a lot of luck finding old adapters on eBay.

#6

I picked up a VHS to USB adapter and related software at Fry’s for $35.
It simply records the stream the VHS machine puts out.
DT

#7

What size cassette tape? VHS? DV? an inbetween size?

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#8

There’s also a need for migrating data from older computer formats.

I have some PowerPoint slides from TI on version 4.0 that refuse to open, even after doing the registry hacks on a PP 2003 installation that MS has listed on their web site.

#9

I think I have a VHS to DVD converter. I’ll dig it up and loan it to DMS if there is a need for it.

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#10

I am interested in digitizing a box full of old photographs. It would be great if Makerspace came up with a way to do this on my own. I have looked into services that do this but I’m not really sure what I’ll get back in terms of quality.

I would also be interested in restoration and photo quality improvement.

#11

I have years of slides and photos. I would be in for sure

#12

Audio is pretty easy to do. Take line output/earphone and feed into line input on sound card. Use open source audio recording/editing pgm such as Audacity. Digital Media has Adobe creative Suite which has Audition. Set the sampling rate and levels and record. Use .wav format for recording and editing. Create mp3s as needed. Archive original and edited .wav files.

The old Nikon CoolScan slide scanners w/ stackloader were/are good way to go for digitizing slides. Some flatbed scanners have adapters for scanning slides. There are also adapters for DLSRs that allow you to take a digital photo of your slide. SilverFast by LaserSoft Imaging ( http://www.silverfast.com/ ) is worth looking into. HDR capability/control of your scanner.

#13

Thanks so much! I’ll be in touch if and when this project gets rolling.

#14

Those sound hunky dory. But who at the Makerspace has got 'em?

#15

Re details/my media I’m hoping to convert

Just a normal audio cassette style for the one with wedding vows

The others are vhs recordings of a tutorial series I bought ages ago and want to preserve, be able to view again (we got rid of vcr ages ago)

#16

It would be great to have a nice scanner for scanning in negatives and slides!

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#17

I purchased some photo scanning software so I can put multiple photos on the scan bed and it’s supposed to auto separate and rotate. I haven’t used it yet, but it would be a nice addition if a standalone flatbed scanner is purchased.

https://scanspeeder.com/

#18

I’ve got a flatbed scanner. Could really use a slide scanner if someone has one.

#19

I have a favorite audio book on cassette tape that I’d LOVE to digitize into MP3 - but would need a special rig to put the reels on as the cassettes no longer play - they’ve been played too often with starts & stops which miss-aligns the tape until it no longer spools correctly - If we can overcome that - I’m there with bells on -

I Strahd - P.N. Elrod

#20

On the topic of VCR to digital conversion: certainly not everyone will want to go to the expense of a pro shop to do this, but they would typically run the tape through a much higher quality transport than a consumer product would typically have and then run that signal through a TBC before converting to video. (Shorter: their end result would be noticeably higher quality than DIY.) A good pro shop would actually run a portion of your tape through two or three transports and pick a few of their TBCs to try with them, because there is a bit of a mystic art to what TBC will respond well to a particular video type. (The real ninjas could tell you exactly which transport and TBC they’d use by merely asking what camera you used to record and how long ago it was. Or so I’m told – never met one of those. They’re stealthy.)

I have a prosumer VCR that is good enough to be a decent (not great) transport; it was also fairly well-maintained while used (if I do say so myself) but has sat unused for a couple of years now so may need a bit of a tune-up. I do not have a good TBC, unfortunately.

For those who want more info on the matter, this would be the Cliff’s Notes version:

And here’s the detail – these two links, and really that entire forum:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-restore/1567-vcr-buying-guide.html
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-restore/2251-tbc-time-base.html

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