The A/V Thread

cardy

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Oh yes, S-Video has two signals on two wires for video whereas composite just has one (and component has three)
I hope you were using S-Video end-to-end when you were doing ripping ::erm::


Yeah I sort of assumed the same, that whatever's in the capture card is good enough, but I saw some people on Digitalfaq mentioning separate audio cards. Not sure if it really matters or if it's just a sort of belt-and-suspenders approach.

Yes, I definitely used S-Video between all of the devices. I was trying to squeeze as much quality out of those tapes as I could ^^

I had never come across that discussion about using audio cards but I wonder if it makes a difference or if it's similar to ripping vinyl or cassette at 24bit / 96khz. There's no information abovea certain point and you're just capturing to allow flexibility for any post processing.
 

heutre

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Just wanted to say that OBS is much better than VLC in my experience to capture VHS footage. It's stable, reliable and effective. I had numerous issues with VLC, from it crashing randomly, to recognizing my capture device half of the time, to having difficulty monitoring recordings etc..
 

heutre

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Currently capturing footage, I love the idea of finding old tapes in thrift stores and digitizing them to see if they have any hidden gems. Mostly find old commercials, but sometimes there's interesting documentaries as well. Also I really like old TV show intros with dated CGI effects, they're always really nice to witness. I don't know if any of you like or know about this youtuber, but he's one of my favorites, and if I were to invest more money into digitizing tapes, his method of using an upscaler with a capture device seems pretty tempting. I wonder if it could fix some glitches I'm still currently experiencing (flicker + audio delay)

 

cardy

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For people interested in tape players, there's a newish book out on Nakamichis:
Nakamichi Complete Book
Also available on Kindle, CDJapan/Neowing, etc. I might pick up a copy.

Nice. This looks interesting as I recently picked up a Nakamichi DR-1, with Azimuth control, and I'm capturing my tapes over again.
I'm relatively new to the world of capturing tapes, having done so in the past very haphazardly and without much consideration for quality, and I'm finding it technically challenging. If anyone can chime in about the following, it would be great to hear your thoughts:

-Does anyone have experience with players with an azimuth control? If so, do you find you have to adjust it by ear or trial and error to find that sweet-spot for each tape?

-Does any frequency data exist higher than 16khz on cassette tapes? All of my captures are below that cutoff and everything I've downloaded through the years of tapes captured by others is lower than that as well.
The only exceptions are two tapes I've downloaded of kuroyume that were shared on jpopsuki recently, they seem to have data extending past 16khz all the way to 22khz. I'm just wondering, is that just false data or just data that's been stretched from the upper frequencies that is essentially fake noise?

-Another thing I'm still uncertain of is Dolby Noise Reduction. Does it make sense to keep it off on tapes that were recorded with it and do noise reduction in software? I find that the Dolby switch turned on does indeed reduce noise but it also sounds like it's muffling the overall sound too much compared to a more intelligent noise analysis and reduction pass in something like Adobe Audition.
 

flowersofnight

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-Does anyone have experience with players with an azimuth control? If so, do you find you have to adjust it by ear or trial and error to find that sweet-spot for each tape?
Nope, I'm using the DR-2 which doesn't have one. I'm not sure how much azimuth adjustments really matter for most tapes (unless you're playing something recorded really strangely) but either way I'm not able to experiment with it.

Does any frequency data exist higher than 16khz on cassette tapes?
Everything I've seen would indicate that the answer is no, and whatever you were seeing on those audio files is presumably just random noise of one kind or another.

Another thing I'm still uncertain of is Dolby Noise Reduction. Does it make sense to keep it off on tapes that were recorded with it and do noise reduction in software?
(EDIT to clarify)
It seems like if you actually had a tape recorded with Dolby NR, it's not just "noise reduction", but a specific sequence of frequency transformations, which you would need to "undo" on playback to get the original audio back.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_noise-reduction_system
So I would say yes, if you have a tape like that, use the hardware switch. (Adobe Audition doesn't seem to have a preset to do this for you)
But for a non-Dolby tape, I'd say leave it off and do the noise reduction yourself in software.
 
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cardy

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Nope, I'm using the DR-2 which doesn't have one. I'm not sure how much azimuth adjustments really matter for most tapes (unless you're playing something recorded really strangely) but either way I'm not able to experiment with it.


Everything I've seen would indicate that the answer is no, and whatever you were seeing on those audio files is presumably just random noise of one kind or another.


(EDIT to clarify)
It seems like if you actually had a tape recorded with Dolby NR, it's not just "noise reduction", but a specific sequence of frequency transformations, which you would need to "undo" on playback to get the original audio back.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_noise-reduction_system
So I would say yes, if you have a tape like that, use the hardware switch. (Adobe Audition doesn't seem to have a preset to do this for you)
But for a non-Dolby tape, I'd say leave it off and do the noise reduction yourself in software.

Here are my experiences in what the Azimuth knob has done. Everything I've read online suggests that homemade tapes are recorded with at a different recording-head angle depending on each player's characteristics or age. Adjusting the playback Azimuth can be found externally on some players like the Nakamichi DR-1. When I control the Playback Azimuth knob while playing a tape, the default position is in the center or 12 o'clock. When I rotate counterclockwise to the maximum, from 12 o'clock to about 7 o' clock, nearly every tape plays back muffled and not sounding good at all with the frequencies squashed from the normal 15-16khz to about 5-10khz. When I turn the knob between 12 o'clock to 5 o'clock I seem to get better results. Sometimes I leave it in the default position and sometimes I turn it to 3 o'clock. It seems to be raising the treble / high frequencies which is what other internet forums have said the azimuth will help recover when adjusting. For official tapes, the difference isn't so noticeable or downright unnoticeable. For the few demotapes I have there is more of a difference but it's still slight. The biggest difference I found out was that simply upgrading to a better player made certain tapes play better. My first cassette deck was an old consumer grade model from the 80s that a relative was going to throw out. The tapes I played on that old player seemed to have suffered a complete loss of high frequencies which an external playback azimuth would have potentially fixed. Once I got my DR-1, the overall playback sound was brighter even before I start fiddling with the Azimuth control. So perhaps having a 2 or 3 head deck is more important since it minimizes the amount the playback head will receive during it's life.

And I just did some more experiments with the 'Output Level' knob while playing back a tape (David Sylvian's Secrets of the Beehive), the lower I have the output volume the more clearer you see the cutoff at around 15-16khz. As soon as I turn up the output volume the more the cutoff becomes blended into spectals of the 16khz and higher frequencies. So I guess that confirms that's it's really just needless gain noise.

And I had one demo tape that had marked 'Dolby B' on the printed label that sounded worse to my ears with Dolby NR turned on while playing back. I was never quite sure if the tape was actually recorded that way or if it was just simply printed on the label.When I turned on Dolby NR, it just felt like it was cutting off the high frequencies. I captured that tape nonetheless with Dolby turned off and did a noise reduction via Audition. I'll need to read that wiki entry again to double check the points you referenced.
 

flowersofnight

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Everything I've read online suggests that homemade tapes are recorded with at a different recording-head angle depending on each player's characteristics or age.
Yeah, that's the thing, even here I think most of the tapes we deal with aren't homemade, they came from some sort of professional service. I assume none of these bands were cranking out hundreds or thousands of tapes in their garages XD

And I had one demo tape that had marked 'Dolby B' on the printed label
What tape was that? I don't think I've ever seen one that had it.
 

cardy

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It is a demo tape by a band called 'Cock Roach' who were around from 96 to 05 and just reformed 2 years ago. They toured with bands like the Back Horn, honeydip and REDRUM.
You can see the tape with the 'Dolby B' labeled on it in this mercari posting.
https://www.mercari.com/jp/items/m2...eYUKvkuR7y3Zj9iueComvX9n0B-MNntG5IB02mSVzT75-

m29092741623_3.jpg
 

flowersofnight

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Oh, also:
When I turned on Dolby NR, it just felt like it was cutting off the high frequencies.
Your ears are in the right place but the high frequencies were just not that loud in the original, and knocking them down is probably correct. From the wiki again:

"Dolby B recordings are acceptable when played back on equipment that does not possess a Dolby B decoder, such as most inexpensive portable and car cassette players. Without the de-emphasis of the decoder, the sound will be perceived as brighter as high frequencies are emphasized"
 

cardy

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Oh, also:

Your ears are in the right place but the high frequencies were just not that loud in the original, and knocking them down is probably correct. From the wiki again:

"Dolby B recordings are acceptable when played back on equipment that does not possess a Dolby B decoder, such as most inexpensive portable and car cassette players. Without the de-emphasis of the decoder, the sound will be perceived as brighter as high frequencies are emphasized"

Thanks, It's good to know I don't need it on then.

And I just realized today that my Nakamichi is playing tapes fast. I calculated 2.5% faster than the CD versions of David Sylvian's Secret of the Beehives tapes and some other songs. Now I'm going down this rabbit hole of trying to figure out to fix that or to simply bring it to a repair shop.
 

heutre

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Thanks, It's good to know I don't need it on then.

And I just realized today that my Nakamichi is playing tapes fast. I calculated 2.5% faster than the CD versions of David Sylvian's Secret of the Beehives tapes and some other songs. Now I'm going down this rabbit hole of trying to figure out to fix that or to simply bring it to a repair shop.
I think your tape player is fine you just got the Nightcore model
 

sanctum

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Hey moonlight drifters and cats with whiskers, the allure of a cassette deck is growing too strong and I'm thinking of finally buying one.

Does anyone know where the best place in Japan to buy one is, or what I should keep in mind while shopping for one?
 
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flowersofnight

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what I should keep in mind while shopping for one?
If you're looking for a good one, find one that at least has separate read and write heads. (I think some higher-end models have a separate erase head as well, but you're presumably not recording or erasing anything)
Having support for different tape types (like type II, IV, etc) and the Dolby NR we were discussing upthread is also nice, though it doesn't seem to come up particularly often for the stuff we're interested in here. I have maybe two or three tapes that aren't plain old type I's.
 

Hampo

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*High pitched stress sigh*

So I have a region free bluray player (it's been hacked somehow) and it's been working pretty well for the most part, but I have one bluray it just refuses to play; "The Third Wife", a Vietnamese film from the 2018.
It just complains about wrong region code and doesn't let me proceed, no matter how many times I change the region code to the right one. My player did the same thing with Shudder's release of "One Cut of the Dead", but one day that bluray just decided to work and I was able to watch it. No luck with this film, however.

The biggest thing that pisses me off is the fact that this is an Eureka Video release, so from the UK where the region code is B. My hacked player is from the UK, so its build-in region code should be B as well, yet it still doesn't work.

Why is everything so garbage and terrible always? Why can't things go my way ever?

I'm not expecting any of you to help me with this or even respond to me. I just want you guys to know the reason why I commited suicide if I ever stop posting here.
 

flowersofnight

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So I have a region free bluray player (it's been hacked somehow)
From what I understand these are generally much more finicky than DVDs for whatever reason. The details are probably specific to your brand of player and mod chip (or whatever).
These days, hardware is cheap enough that you might actually want to just buy a second unmodded player or drive set to another region if you play out-of-region media often.

I've never had any trouble with my region mod, but I also make very little use of it on blu-ray since Japan and the US are now in the same region.
 

Hampo

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The player plays DVDs without any problem. It's just this one bluray. I'm now afraid to buy more from Eureka in case they're all like this.

I find it amazing that people still release something with a region code in it. I suppose it's legal issues about publishing rights, but come on. Piracy and streaming is already killing physical sales, so it's not a good idea to handicap it more.
 

flowersofnight

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Piracy and streaming is already killing physical sales, so it's not a good idea to handicap it more.
The RIAA is actually back at it again, they just DMCA'ed YTDL on Github.
I've read theories that they're feeling pressure because live concerts (and their accompanying revenues) are pretty much nonexistent due to the plague.
 

flowersofnight

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For people interested in tape players, there's a newish book out on Nakamichis:
Nakamichi Complete Book
Also available on Kindle, CDJapan/Neowing, etc. I might pick up a copy.
I did pick up a copy, but it's more or less worthless unless you just want to look at pictures of dozens of near-identical 1970s tape players. Some of them are indeed stylish, but you won't consult this book. In practice, you'd be better off just collecting info online about the '90s DR-1 through DR-3 models.
 
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