AmaRecTV Setup Guide and our analog capture workflow (nasin pi sitelen tawa)
Prelude
This guide details how to set up AmaRecTV with the Lagarith Lossless Video Codec.
It also details other aspects of our analog video capture workflow, such as how we process the video and the other gear we use.
Some technical knowledge is expected.
This guide was tested on Microsoft Windows 10/11.
Downloads
AmaRecTV English (mirror)
Lagarith Codec (mirror)
FFmpeg for Windows
Installation and setup
1. Install Lagarith first, then extract AmaRecTV and FFmpeg to a place you can use them.
2. Connect your capture card to your PC and a video source to ensure it works later.
3. Launch AmaRecTV, and ignore the error it gives about not finding your video capture device.
4. Open the settings, which is the first item on the top bar.
5. Settings
1. General
- Path: This is where your video is saved.
- File Name: You can change the base filename, but you usually won't need to.
- You can also change mouse binds here.
2. Graph 1 (Device)
- Video Capture Device: Select your video capture device.
- Input: If your capture device has multiple inputs, select the one you are connected to.
- Format: If you are capturing from an NTSC source, select *w= 720, h= 480, fps=29.97, fcc=UYVY, bit=16
- If you are capturing from an PAL source, select *w= 720, h= 576, fps=25.00, fcc=UYVY, bit=16
- Audio Capture Device: Select your audio input.
- Right of this, you can select the sampling rate of the audio. For most purposes, choose *sample= 48000, bit=16, ch= 2
3. Graph 2 (Preview)
- Aspect Ratio: For VHS, set this to 4:3.
- Scan mode: Set to Underscan
- Deinterlacing: Set to Not use
- The other options are not needed.
4. Graph 3 (Live), Preset
- These settings are not needed for this purpose.
5. Recording
- Frame rate: Set to 30fps for NTSC and 25fps for PAL.
- Filter Processing: Set to Filter Off
- Replay: Not needed, leave disabled.
- Video Compressor: Set to Other Codec, then click Update Codec List and choose LAGS
- Audio Compressor: Leave as (Uncompress)
6. Screen Shot, Hotkey, Advanced
- These settings do not need to be modified.
7. Click Apply, then Ok to exit settings
6. AmaRecTV is now set up for capture in Lagarith.
- Each raw video will be 20 to 25 gigabytes per hour, or around 150 gigabytes for a T-120 on extended play.
7. You can begin capturing by pressing the play button on the top bar. Pressing it again will stop the recording.
- If you want to mute the monitoring audio, press the music note button.
Post Processing
This is the script we use to batch process our Lagarith AVI files
FOR /F "tokens=*" %G IN ('dir /b *.avi') DO ffmpeg -i "%G" -vf "yadif=0:0:0, scale=720:480, setdar=4/3" -c:v libx264 -b:v 5000k -c:a aac -b:a 320k "%~nG.mp4"
An explaination of each part:
- FOR /F "tokens=*" %G IN ('dir /b *.avi') DO: This is a for loop, which runs a program for every value in an array.
- In this case, it searches for all .avi files in the folder it is ran in.
- ffmpeg -i "%G": -i is the argument for the input file, and %G is the AVI file that the for loop picked.
- -vf "yadif=0:0:0, scale=720:480, setdar=4/3": -vf is the argument for video filters
- YADIF is the deinterlacing filter, 0:0:0 sets it to bob mode, top field first, with no denoising.
- Scale sets the video size, this ensures it stays as 720x480.
- Set DAR is a flag that tells the media player to display the video as 4:3, even when 720x480 is 3:2.
- -c:v libx264: Sets the video encoder to x264, which is an encoder for H.264.
- -b:v 5000k: Sets the video bitrate to 5 megabits per second.
- -c:a aac: Sets the audio codec to AAC.
- -b:a 320k: Sets the audio bitrate to 320 kilobits per seconds.
- "%~nG.mp4": Sets the name of the output file, while removing the .avi extension.
Our other gear and software
We use a Panasonic PV-9451 connected to an Elgato Video Capture (analog) through a Sylvania branded Funai SV2000 DVD Recorder.
The DVD Recorder serves as a time base corrector (TBC), which makes the picture from the tape more stable.
To make thumbnail sheets, we use the media player MPC-HC.
Thank You!
Thank you for taking the time to read this, this is our first real blog post and we had a lot of fun writing it.
We hope you got informative value out of it.
If you have any issues, you can make an attempt to contact us.
Made with love by the KawaiiZenbos (kulupu Senpo). (2021-2024)
Last updated: 2024-12-17
