Digitalization

Digitalization of old videos

My dad is hospitalized and in a critical condition. I need to digitalize old videos of my family into files to be watched on an iPad.

I’ve searched for some lost videos stored in drawers at home. I’ve searched for a VHS-C adapter to play VHS-C videos, but the place is forgotten at home. I’ve searched for some VHS-C adapter on the auction sites and found they are expensive. I’ve tried to play VHS-C video tape with VHS video camera and put out the camera from the closet. I’ve found some blue particles of rust on the metal part of the connecter of the battery. I’ve tried to recharge the battery for a whole day and found out that the power woun’t be recharged. I’ve tried to search for the VHS-C adapter in the closet at home and finally found it. I’ve put VHS-C video tape inside the adapter and decided to play it with a video deck. As a trial, I inserted another video tape into the deck and found that the tape have been jammed. I disassembled the video deck with a screw driver and drew the tape forcibly. I’ve inserted another video into the same deck and found that the screen is disrupted and hard to watch. The symptom of the problem was that if I push the forward button while it’s playing, the colors of the video have been fixed, but at an ordinary speed, the color remains black and white. I’ve search for a solution on the net and the tracking part of the deck would be wrong. Also corrugated part of the video tape would be problematic. A professional technician can fix these problems. Some chemical liquid would fix the corrugated part of the tape, or another technician would cut the corrugated part of the tape and concatenate the tape again. The mechanical parts of the video deck especially the part of the tracking bar are intricate, the chemical property of the material of the video tape, and the printed circuit board of the deck. They are really complex. There are some people who can fix those problems. They are analogue technology. Already obsolete. too inefficient and time consuming. Deep knowledge is needed to maintain those things. But I need to revive the video. I went to a camera shop in my town and found that they’ll convert a VHS-C video into a DVD with 1680 yen. They’l send the video to a special factory to make the video and it’l take a month, and another shipping costs of the video. If I ask some shops on the net, they say that they’l make a DVD video from your video tape. But it will take about a month. The precious tape would be lost in the process of shipment. I know some post delivery workers are unreliable and throw away precious new years cards into thicket or somewhere. If a novice technician deals with your video, your video might be damaged or unnecessarily cut the precious part of the tape. If I was such a technician, I might damage such precious videos and apologize to the customer. I know I’m not reliable enough too, perhaps other technicians would also be so, and I need to achieve this mission properly. My dad is in critical condition at hospital. I can’t wait one month. Precious time was running out. I knew I had to do something good for him, but just searching for a solution of how to fix the video tape on the net. I feel like I’m just wasting time doing net surfing idly neglecting my dad in his crisis. I need to grasp the problem by myself before asking a shop to digitalize my videos. Judging from the symptoms of my video, the problem would be the tracking part of the deck. TBC(Time Base Corrector), DNR(Digital Noise Reduction), such technology would be promising. Looking for a solution, I found another video deck at home. There are lots of home appliance devices left unused in a room as if the time in the room have been stopped. A newer video deck with a DVD slot can play the tape properly without a glitch. Probably TBC and DNR functions are attached. I’ve learned that such digital technologies are great. Confirmation of the video tape has been done, but I need to digitalize them. A video capturing device is needed, so I searched for the devices at home again. Capturing Devices and corresponding AC adapters. It took me lots of time to search for them again. Every gadgets at home are already unused and inaccessible at home. I’ve found out that those capturing devices are not compatible with windows10. the OS is unknown to the installer of the legacy devices. Some drivers are not already downloadable. I can’t utilize them. I searched for a net and found some video capturing devices which are compatible with the current PC. But do I have to order one? I need to confirm that the capturing devices at home can’t be utilized anymore. I search for Windows98 Note PC and its AC adapter and WindowsXP Note PC and AC adapter. I found that they are frustrating to use. They’ll crash sometimes and reboot again. But I’ve found out that the WindowsXP is usable to capture the video. But how to transfer the file from WindowsXP to Windows10. Connecting them on the same home network is difficult and complicated. File sharing system called samba, I only know the name of it and I tried to boot some Linux OS to share the file, but it seems difficult. I’ve already forgotten how to transfer the file from old PC to the current PC. I’ve found an IDE external hard disk which can save the large video files. Finally, preparation of every gadgets to revive the video has been done. After creating the video, I found that the size of the videos are too large to be saved on an iPad. I need to reduce the size of them. I searched for some free softs to do this, but I’ve found that the function of the most of such free softs are limited and only 5 minutes video can be converted. A free software called AVIUtil can be used all the functions freely. but how to use the software is relatively complicated. I’ve read the instruction of some sites and achieved to reduce the sizes of the videos. I saved those video files on google drive and shared them with family and relatives. But I still don’t show the video to my dad. He is almost unconscious. I’ve heard that people facing death will see their whole life quickly. I want to make him recap his life properly with digital gadgets before he dies. I’m not a medical doctor and I can’t cure his disease. All the things I can do is to do ordinary things properly in ordinary ways. Gazing into gaudy colors of a screen makes me dizzy, sick, badly drunken and depressed. This is a symptom of Techno stress. It sometimes drive people crazy. Before committing something terrible, users need to be aware of such possibilities. This is why I could’t love IT culture although I’ve studied it as my major. I thought that IT technology is just like a hobby and not so great compared with other fields, but this time, I can utilize such technologies in a great way. This is also a worthwhile job. Now I could understand such way. Looking back the process, what I’ve done was just to use old gadgets properly as their intended ways. but Preparation to set up all the gadgets properly took time. They are already left unused at home and forgotten. Those things aren’t difficult but inefficient to set up all. I guess not many people can prepare all the devices properly like me. If you have old videos, I think you’d better to ask a shop immediately. They have such preparations ready to be used properly. Those analogue technologies are already obsolete and woun’t suite the current trend of digital society. I’ve learned that digitalization of old records need to be done quickly. The chemical material of video tapes and metal parts of the home appliances are damaged by the moist atmosphere. An inundation, deluge or a fire can damage them. Digital data can be copied infinitely. they are robust agains such incidents.

Old videos and albums are like a time machine. I could recall good old days. I think we need to review our life sometimes to lead our life properly like our study or work.