Sad News Alert

ive kinda made a way to parallel decode the same tape capture with x number of processes.
Ive been running it on some test captures and its working great, im just now trying it on a real capture. Each process is going slightly slower than if it was running by itself, but in total i think ive gone from 3.5ish fps to 8-10fps. Not a massive increase, but it makes a difference when you have 3 hour captures lol

It takes sooooo long to decode a tape. Its running at 3.4ish fps. which is REALLY fucking slow, and my cpu isnt exactly underpowered. 😭

I like ketchup, but the pre-kum is pretty off putting.

I figured hooking the buttons up would be way easier that it actually was, They are multiplexing the buttons, instead of just pulling io pins high or low.

Anyway i got it worked out in the end.

Function - Pins
FF = AN2 / ANF
REW = GND / AN2
STOP = AN3 / ANF
PLAY = AN3 / GND

I printed a couple of these spacers, they mount on some existing mount holes on the back of the vcr.
They keep me from pushing the vcr to far against the wall, so i dont crush the BNC cables.

The mini pc, the box with the pcie card and the lid with the fan. (ignore the wonky display port)

There is a guy outside just shouting at his phone and swearing. Not on the phone, but just looking at it 😂

OMG I just realized, I can close like 40 tabs in firefox now i have the audio issue sorted😈

Ive never done a multi colored print before, so thought if give it ago to make the buttons stand out. Turns out you put the pause to switch filament on the layer you want it to change... who would have guessed 😭

Ive done a couple of things.

Ive changed the rca connector on the back of the vcr with a bnc connector for the audio (note to self, video is on the left as you look at the back of the player). It stuck out way to far, and the shelf im planning on putting it on is kinda shallow already.

Ive designed a little box that im planning on wiring up to the vcr so i can control the buttons without being near the player or using the remote control, which i dont have.

Test has been done, and the audio is sounding way better. Its linear mono audio from a vhs tape, not exactly high quality to begin with though 😂

Well... I checked the mode pins, and there must have been the absolute tiniest little bit of a short between 3v3 and mode1 because i just re-soldered the pads and now im getting the 78125hz expected output, thank fuck.

Im gonna record something and see how the audio sounds 🤞

Im just probing the pcm1802 board with the scope, with a 40mhz clock and 512x mode should output 78125hz, its not, its showing 156.2, which is double the frequency..., so if its recording at 156.2, and playing back at 78.125, it would have half the... pitch? i dunno if that makes any sense, hmm

I spent a long ass time last night just capturing random shit from tapes. I found one tape that is basically just full of recordings of music performances on things like cd:uk, citv, nick, top of the pops and such, Which are kinda cool.

TV studio sets back then were way more creative. Now everything is just giant LED video walls, which make them basically all look the same. But skimming through these tapes, they had actual fucking tv sets, with actual props and things.

Oh, ive been making some bat scripts / files too, That way i haven't got to remember the 10 billion commands to do basic shit.
Why the fuck they don't just make a nice, simple UI that lets you do all the basics with a few clicks i have no idea 🤷‍♂️

Im Still trying to work out the linear audio issue. Im gonna get the scope out and double check that everything looks ok. I cant see anyone else having the "super deep voice but still the correct length / speed" issue.

I asked chatgpt, Which is basically saying "its the clock", "its the mode", "its the ground", basically throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks. So im just gonna poke around and see if i cant find anythig that looks sus on the hardware side.

I cannot work out this fucking linear audio shit. Ive tried capturing 3 different ways, all have the correct sound except the linear audio captured using vhsdecode😑

Ive been capturing some test stuff just to see how to whole workflow will go without having to do an entire tape.

Once again, the wiki is fucking crap. I know Harry (the guy who wrote most of it) words hard on it, but fuck me if its not like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Im trying to work out how the linear audio post capture workflow works.
Im using the clockgen mod lite, which outputs audio at 78125hz, and when i listen to the audio, i can hear the video, But i dont understand where the "sync the audio with the video" part comes into play. There are instructions about using the "AutoAudioAlign" tool, but they all seem to assume your using the original clockgen, which doesn't use the same sampling rate, and the output is usually significantly different than the runtime of the video.

I really have no idea what to do next other than ask in the discord, but i really dont wanna do that. I cant really put into words the issue so that it make sense, which makes it harder to explain to people that apparently know what they are talking about.

It was the panel mount usb3 adapter thing. I just plugged the hardwired cable back into the pcie adapter and it works fine.

Im testing the setup for the vhs player but its hanging when i boot, so that adapter is either a dud (likely) or the pcie signalling cant handle more that the extra cable length.
Im guessing the adapter is just crap, purely because the port on it looks cheap.
Oh well, was worth a try. Back to it being hardwired together🤷‍♂️

I have no idea where im gonna put this vhs player / pc monstrosity i have. I dont have room in my usual place. I think im gonna have to put it on the shelf above my bed, but then im gonna have to have a power cable dangling from the shelf 😭

Urgh, i need to update the site to handle more than 9 pages 😭