VHS Digitization Process

For more information and details on the analog-to-digital digitization steps for VHS, please consult our User-Friendly Digitization and Preservation Guide. 

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Our digitization process for our went very smoothly. ARCS already owned the equipment required:

  • A PC with a monitor 
  • A prosumer VCR (JVC Pro-Cision 90u Head), which includes a Time Base Corrector 
  • A digitization device (Diamond Multimedia One-Touch Video Capture VC5000)
  • Component cables to connect the digitization device, the VCR, and the computer
  • An external hard-drive 

Once we arrived, the equipment was already correctly set up and wired. We first evaluated the VCR; as it was dusty, Amanda cleaned it with small cleaning tools provided by Marina. 

We then evaluated our two VHS tapes. They were free of dust, did not smell bad, were not cracked, did not have peeling labels, had tightly wound magnetic tape, did not make unusual sounds when shaken (to check if there are loose pieces), and had been out in the room for a while (thus were the same temperature as the room). We took three (3) pictures of each tape: their case, their side label, and the front of the VHS (in this case, neither tape had information written on the front label).