Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-08-16, 22:30:

... If you haven't already, make sure to crack open that PSU and check for swollen\leaky caps ...

Good point, and I have to say it's "on my list" (ie: I plan to check but haven't done so yet)

I did at least do what I always do when putting any older power supply back in service - I touched all the power outputs with scopemeter to check that voltages were in range and outputs weren't noisy. I know that supplies with "bad caps" can look good for a while ... but I felt OK powering it up today.

I've had good luck with Corsair & Antec PSUs over the years - they tended to use good quality caps and don't think I've ever seen one of those actually fail.
Cheap no/off brand ones not so much!

DaveDDS wrote on 2026-08-17, 04:25:

Good point, and I have to say it's "on my list" (ie: I plan to check but haven't done so yet) […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-08-16, 22:30:

... If you haven't already, make sure to crack open that PSU and check for swollen\leaky caps ...

Good point, and I have to say it's "on my list" (ie: I plan to check but haven't done so yet)

I did at least do what I always do when putting any older power supply back in service - I touched all the power outputs with scopemeter to check that voltages were in range and outputs weren't noisy. I know that supplies with "bad caps" can look good for a while ... but I felt OK powering it up today.

I've had good luck with Corsair & Antec PSUs over the years - they tended to use good quality caps and don't think I've ever seen one of those actually fail.
Cheap no/off brand ones not so much!

Yeah, I'm not sure about the True series... my old True Power 430W (purchased from NewEgg in 2003) either died or was moved on to someone else's machine many, many years ago. But the Smart Power (2.0 in particular) series are notorious for bad caps. I think they tended to use Fuhjyyu caps, which are among the worst possible. Antec Earthwatts models can also be hit or miss, though the ones I've personally owned have generally been okay.

1999-2008 was a very sad and unpredictable time.

I am simple man, I see older NIB stuff at the thrift, I buy the older NIB stuff at the thrift...

Pinnacle Studio Deluxe Edition (Version 8 NTSC Retail CDN) ... with included capture card and breakout dongle, or I guess this wouldn't belong in hardware.

Bottom of box says it works on 98 thru XP and needs 800Mhz and DX support minimum, but recommends 1.5Ghz and Geforce3 or Radeon 9700.

Dang, by the time I ACTUALLY get my VHS converted to digital, I will have bought 11 ways to do it 🤣

Edit: Think this is the card they put in the box, might be variant/version differences https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/pinn … tems-studio-700

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-21, 00:05:

I am simple man, I see older NIB stuff at the thrift, I buy the older NIB stuff at the thrift... […]
Show full quote

I am simple man, I see older NIB stuff at the thrift, I buy the older NIB stuff at the thrift...

Pinnacle Studio Deluxe Edition (Version 8 NTSC Retail CDN) ... with included capture card and breakout dongle, or I guess this wouldn't belong in hardware.

Bottom of box says it works on 98 thru XP and needs 800Mhz and DX support minimum, but recommends 1.5Ghz and Geforce3 or Radeon 9700.

Dang, by the time I ACTUALLY get my VHS converted to digital, I will have bought 11 ways to do it 🤣

Edit: Think this is the card they put in the box, might be variant/version differences https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/pinn … tems-studio-700

That makes me smile! 😀

I am in the process of building a Pinnacle video production workstation from the Liquid Edition era. Unfortunately I found no surviving Pinnacle PC case (my understanding is a subsidiary of Pinnacle manufactured cases in Korea) but I have the software, AIB parts, and peripherals. In the absence of a Pinnacle-sold case, I selected a Thermaltake case that has a liquid aesthetic. The workstation will need to run Windows XP RTM; I understand SP2 made enough changes that it broke the driver stack. Video workstations may have been operated in a booth, so I'm tempted to double it up as a Digigram audio workstation, but the Pinnacle app has its own desktop environment so not sure yet.

Has anyone a copy of WinXP SP1?

I should qualify this with a photo. It's not assembled yet.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-21, 00:05:

Dang, by the time I ACTUALLY get my VHS converted to digital, I will have bought 11 ways to do it 🤣

Whew... boy... I am sorry to do this to you but I recently discovered this:
https://digital-archivist.com/capturing-analo … re-differences/

https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode

As far as I can tell, that is the end-all be-all of recording from VHS or other analog tape formations (like Video8).

I just stumbled upon all this a few weeks ago when I discovered a camcorder that was owned by a sibling of mine that passed away several years ago. There is a whole bunch of footage from the 90s that I'd totally forgotten about. I need a slightly higher end Sony camcorder with the proper pin connector to do one of these RF FM direct captures, but I plan to do it as soon as a find one. I was not at all impressed with the quality I was getting from a simple Elgato USB capture device I borrowed from a friend.

Anyway... if this is way number 12, at least you can tell yourself the search is over. It doesn't get better than this and it isn't even very expensive (assuming you have a decent device to actually play the tapes).

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-08-21, 05:58:

Whew... boy... I am sorry to do this to you but I recently discovered this: https://digital-archivist.com/capturing-analo … re-d […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-21, 00:05:

Dang, by the time I ACTUALLY get my VHS converted to digital, I will have bought 11 ways to do it 🤣

Whew... boy... I am sorry to do this to you but I recently discovered this:
https://digital-archivist.com/capturing-analo … re-differences/

https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode

As far as I can tell, that is the end-all be-all of recording from VHS or other analog tape formations (like Video8).

I just stumbled upon all this a few weeks ago when I discovered a camcorder that was owned by a sibling of mine that passed away several years ago. There is a whole bunch of footage from the 90s that I'd totally forgotten about. I need a slightly higher end Sony camcorder with the proper pin connector to do one of these RF FM direct captures, but I plan to do it as soon as a find one. I was not at all impressed with the quality I was getting from a simple Elgato USB capture device I borrowed from a friend.

Anyway... if this is way number 12, at least you can tell yourself the search is over. It doesn't get better than this and it isn't even very expensive (assuming you have a decent device to actually play the tapes).

Hmmm, it does not seem very time or storage space efficient. I am not up for devoting a quarter of a terabyte per tape, then have conversion speeds equivalent to rendering a Pixar movie. I have got maybe two tapes it could be worth it on, but for the rest I'm looking for something that gives me something I can watch without annoying me too much, and takes only hours per tape not days.

Which USB convertors of all types and flavors will definitely not do, some of them only have 6 bit DACs. Few of them do full framerate/resolution, many of them overheat and crash from heavy use. Oddly, the general hardware and home electronic reviewer types seem fixated on them, like nothing else exists.

That may be a reason why that page reads like "If you want personal transportation, the choices are, roller skates, skateboard, or a Rolls Royce Phantom." missing a HELL of a lot in the middle there buddy. So since his range of comparison is strange to say the least, it is hard to know whether his solution compares more to the nailed together push scooter end, or a full fledged motor vehicle. I mean it's probably the cryoflux version of tape archival, but how many people here bother with that just to backup a floppy?

Hierarchy goes something like

1stgen USB < 2nd gen USB < best of the ISA capture cards < 1st gen consumer PCI 90s < 2nd gen consumer PCI 00s < later higher end consumer to prosumer stuff which there is a lot of arguing about < Full professional video workstations.

Of which, this PCI card should be in the higher end consumer bracket. (Yeah pinnacle also had a crappy USB dongle to sell cheap at BestBuy and that might have been the more familiar association)

MattRocks wrote on 2026-08-21, 05:37:

That makes me smile! :) […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-21, 00:05:

I am simple man, I see older NIB stuff at the thrift, I buy the older NIB stuff at the thrift... […]
Show full quote

I am simple man, I see older NIB stuff at the thrift, I buy the older NIB stuff at the thrift...

Pinnacle Studio Deluxe Edition (Version 8 NTSC Retail CDN) ... with included capture card and breakout dongle, or I guess this wouldn't belong in hardware.

Bottom of box says it works on 98 thru XP and needs 800Mhz and DX support minimum, but recommends 1.5Ghz and Geforce3 or Radeon 9700.

Dang, by the time I ACTUALLY get my VHS converted to digital, I will have bought 11 ways to do it 🤣

Edit: Think this is the card they put in the box, might be variant/version differences https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/pinn … tems-studio-700

That makes me smile! 😀

I am in the process of building a Pinnacle video production workstation from the Liquid Edition era. Unfortunately I found no surviving Pinnacle PC case (my understanding is a subsidiary of Pinnacle manufactured cases in Korea) but I have the software, AIB parts, and peripherals. In the absence of a Pinnacle-sold case, I selected a Thermaltake case that has a liquid aesthetic. The workstation will need to run Windows XP RTM; I understand SP2 made enough changes that it broke the driver stack. Video workstations may have been operated in a booth, so I'm tempted to double it up as a Digigram audio workstation, but the Pinnacle app has its own desktop environment so not sure yet.

Has anyone a copy of WinXP SP1?

I should qualify this with a photo. It's not assembled yet.

Well I'll wish you luck finding the rest of the hardware and software. I am not quite going for the full video workstation, but it starting to feel like the hardware and software is narrowing down to needing a specific and dedicated build. A later Pinnacle Studio support document claims they can't support this 700 series card in 2x versions since it doesn't like more than 2GB of RAM and can't be used on 64bit OS... So given that I also will be looking at XP "classic" limited to 2GB and may want an AGP slot to compare Radeon AIWs head to head, (8500DV and 9600AIW) it's looking like it's going to end up being something like a 3.4Ghz P4, though I may well only capture on such a box and do processing and format conversions on something with more juice.

I wasn't intending to buy another KVM, I have a small pile, but if one comes up that has VGA AND sound AND USB AND PS2 how can you say no. I was just gonna cope with a separate AV switcher. Unfortunately, only came with three client leads, which are "speshul" because USB and Audio routes out the 15pin. But shouldn't be too hard to replicate. I'll probably just make a breakout for the end of a straight thru 15-15 male.

Belkin F1DS104J if the photo gets processed down to illegible.

First, a couple quick, frustrated rants: the eBay seller of the MSI MS-6309 motherboard I posted about a couple of weeks ago never sent me the order. The seller claimed that the photos showed the wrong motherboard in the wrong packaging for the item listing and wanted to locate the proper item and packaging for the listing. While I told the seller that I wanted the item in the photos, I would have accepted the listed item (assuming it was in equally good condition) since it had similar features. Alas, the seller sent me nothing for two weeks, and I had to request a refund.

Second, I also ordered a Pentium 3 1 GHz (Coppermine-T) from eBay, but that seller sent me a Pentium 3 1.266 GHz (Tualatin). While the processor I received was objectively better (I am a fan of the Tualatin core), I needed a chip with the Coppermine core, ideally with an IHS. I wish the seller would have asked me if I would accept a substitute first. It would have saved the effort and cost of shipping the item to me and the sending it right back for a refund.

OK, end of rants.

In the end, I think I’ll get something more interesting than an MSI Apollo Pro 133A board. I found and ordered a Tyan Trinity 400 (Revision K) for $52 US shipped. It has both a Slot 1 and a Socket 370 for a single processor system. I was never a fan of Slot 1 (I’ve never owned a Slot 1 processor), but this could make for an interesting test bench if this board is compatible with something like the Hawk370 Slocket. I could have the best of both worlds with support for Coppermine chips and potentially Tualatin chips in a Slocket.

I also ordered another Coppermine Pentium 3 at 1 GHz (cD0 stepping) for $30 US shipped. I preferred the idea of a Coppermine-T chip, but I figured it wouldn’t make much difference if I got a later stepping Coppermine since I planned to use the processor in a Socket 370 running at the higher voltage (1.75 V).

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-21, 14:11:

Hmmm, it does not seem very time or storage space efficient. I am not up for devoting a quarter of a terabyte per tape, then hav […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-08-21, 05:58:

Whew... boy... I am sorry to do this to you but I recently discovered this: https://digital-archivist.com/capturing-analo … re-d […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-21, 00:05:

Dang, by the time I ACTUALLY get my VHS converted to digital, I will have bought 11 ways to do it 🤣

Whew... boy... I am sorry to do this to you but I recently discovered this:
https://digital-archivist.com/capturing-analo … re-differences/

https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode

As far as I can tell, that is the end-all be-all of recording from VHS or other analog tape formations (like Video8).

I just stumbled upon all this a few weeks ago when I discovered a camcorder that was owned by a sibling of mine that passed away several years ago. There is a whole bunch of footage from the 90s that I'd totally forgotten about. I need a slightly higher end Sony camcorder with the proper pin connector to do one of these RF FM direct captures, but I plan to do it as soon as a find one. I was not at all impressed with the quality I was getting from a simple Elgato USB capture device I borrowed from a friend.

Anyway... if this is way number 12, at least you can tell yourself the search is over. It doesn't get better than this and it isn't even very expensive (assuming you have a decent device to actually play the tapes).

Hmmm, it does not seem very time or storage space efficient. I am not up for devoting a quarter of a terabyte per tape, then have conversion speeds equivalent to rendering a Pixar movie. I have got maybe two tapes it could be worth it on, but for the rest I'm looking for something that gives me something I can watch without annoying me too much, and takes only hours per tape not days.

Which USB convertors of all types and flavors will definitely not do, some of them only have 6 bit DACs. Few of them do full framerate/resolution, many of them overheat and crash from heavy use. Oddly, the general hardware and home electronic reviewer types seem fixated on them, like nothing else exists.

That may be a reason why that page reads like "If you want personal transportation, the choices are, roller skates, skateboard, or a Rolls Royce Phantom." missing a HELL of a lot in the middle there buddy. So since his range of comparison is strange to say the least, it is hard to know whether his solution compares more to the nailed together push scooter end, or a full fledged motor vehicle. I mean it's probably the cryoflux version of tape archival, but how many people here bother with that just to backup a floppy?

Hierarchy goes something like

1stgen USB < 2nd gen USB < best of the ISA capture cards < 1st gen consumer PCI 90s < 2nd gen consumer PCI 00s < later higher end consumer to prosumer stuff which there is a lot of arguing about < Full professional video workstations.

Of which, this PCI card should be in the higher end consumer bracket. (Yeah pinnacle also had a crappy USB dongle to sell cheap at BestBuy and that might have been the more familiar association)

I tried making some digital copies of VHS tapes a few years ago and noticed the same thing. The reviews only cover stuff that's still in production, which is almost all USB today (and terrible). At the time, vhs-decode was in its early development stages and not really usable. Today, storage costs too much to use it.

I think it's possible to make a decent USB dongle, but it doesn't seem to happen often (there's an old ATI USB dongle that is respected, but I've never personally used it). I have one that uses an SAA7113 (9-bit ADC) and can capture 720x480 at 29.97fps all day, but the capture quality still isn't the best (it really exaggerates the dot crawl and color smear from composite video) and software compatibility is even worse. I've made VHS copies with it, and sometimes I wonder why I'm even bothering (or at least why I'm going through the effort to deinterlace with QTGMC, which seems to run at about realtime, regardless of the hardware it's running on).

Also, audio capture is an afterthought, even among the people who argue about high-end/prosumer stuff.

lti wrote on 2026-08-23, 20:11:

I tried making some digital copies of VHS tapes a few years ago and noticed the same thing. The reviews only cover stuff that's […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-21, 14:11:

Hmmm, it does not seem very time or storage space efficient. I am not up for devoting a quarter of a terabyte per tape, then hav […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-08-21, 05:58:

Whew... boy... I am sorry to do this to you but I recently discovered this: https://digital-archivist.com/capturing-analo … re-d […]
Show full quote

Whew... boy... I am sorry to do this to you but I recently discovered this:
https://digital-archivist.com/capturing-analo … re-differences/

https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode

As far as I can tell, that is the end-all be-all of recording from VHS or other analog tape formations (like Video8).

I just stumbled upon all this a few weeks ago when I discovered a camcorder that was owned by a sibling of mine that passed away several years ago. There is a whole bunch of footage from the 90s that I'd totally forgotten about. I need a slightly higher end Sony camcorder with the proper pin connector to do one of these RF FM direct captures, but I plan to do it as soon as a find one. I was not at all impressed with the quality I was getting from a simple Elgato USB capture device I borrowed from a friend.

Anyway... if this is way number 12, at least you can tell yourself the search is over. It doesn't get better than this and it isn't even very expensive (assuming you have a decent device to actually play the tapes).

Hmmm, it does not seem very time or storage space efficient. I am not up for devoting a quarter of a terabyte per tape, then have conversion speeds equivalent to rendering a Pixar movie. I have got maybe two tapes it could be worth it on, but for the rest I'm looking for something that gives me something I can watch without annoying me too much, and takes only hours per tape not days.

Which USB convertors of all types and flavors will definitely not do, some of them only have 6 bit DACs. Few of them do full framerate/resolution, many of them overheat and crash from heavy use. Oddly, the general hardware and home electronic reviewer types seem fixated on them, like nothing else exists.

That may be a reason why that page reads like "If you want personal transportation, the choices are, roller skates, skateboard, or a Rolls Royce Phantom." missing a HELL of a lot in the middle there buddy. So since his range of comparison is strange to say the least, it is hard to know whether his solution compares more to the nailed together push scooter end, or a full fledged motor vehicle. I mean it's probably the cryoflux version of tape archival, but how many people here bother with that just to backup a floppy?

Hierarchy goes something like

1stgen USB < 2nd gen USB < best of the ISA capture cards < 1st gen consumer PCI 90s < 2nd gen consumer PCI 00s < later higher end consumer to prosumer stuff which there is a lot of arguing about < Full professional video workstations.

Of which, this PCI card should be in the higher end consumer bracket. (Yeah pinnacle also had a crappy USB dongle to sell cheap at BestBuy and that might have been the more familiar association)

I tried making some digital copies of VHS tapes a few years ago and noticed the same thing. The reviews only cover stuff that's still in production, which is almost all USB today (and terrible). At the time, vhs-decode was in its early development stages and not really usable. Today, storage costs too much to use it.

I think it's possible to make a decent USB dongle, but it doesn't seem to happen often (there's an old ATI USB dongle that is respected, but I've never personally used it). I have one that uses an SAA7113 (9-bit ADC) and can capture 720x480 at 29.97fps all day, but the capture quality still isn't the best (it really exaggerates the dot crawl and color smear from composite video) and software compatibility is even worse. I've made VHS copies with it, and sometimes I wonder why I'm even bothering (or at least why I'm going through the effort to deinterlace with QTGMC, which seems to run at about realtime, regardless of the hardware it's running on).

Also, audio capture is an afterthought, even among the people who argue about high-end/prosumer stuff.

USB 1.x capture dongles are junk. Uncompressed lossless full frame VHS video takes up quite a bit of space, and I would not trust anything USB to keep video and audio in sync over 30 minutes.

You would be better off with a machine setup with an ATI AIW card or semi pro gear which is pretty much worthless these days. For something a little more modern you have Matrox MXO2's that still do analog video. I suggest a SVHS player because the output separates chrome and luma for better picture.

Pink green sanwa buttons and semitsu ls-56 green ball top on a sega astro city modded f500 elite setup

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-21, 14:11:

Hmmm, it does not seem very time or storage space efficient. I am not up for devoting a quarter of a terabyte per tape, then hav […]
Show full quote

Hmmm, it does not seem very time or storage space efficient. I am not up for devoting a quarter of a terabyte per tape, then have conversion speeds equivalent to rendering a Pixar movie. I have got maybe two tapes it could be worth it on, but for the rest I'm looking for something that gives me something I can watch without annoying me too much, and takes only hours per tape not days.

Which USB convertors of all types and flavors will definitely not do, some of them only have 6 bit DACs. Few of them do full framerate/resolution, many of them overheat and crash from heavy use. Oddly, the general hardware and home electronic reviewer types seem fixated on them, like nothing else exists.

That may be a reason why that page reads like "If you want personal transportation, the choices are, roller skates, skateboard, or a Rolls Royce Phantom." missing a HELL of a lot in the middle there buddy. So since his range of comparison is strange to say the least, it is hard to know whether his solution compares more to the nailed together push scooter end, or a full fledged motor vehicle. I mean it's probably the cryoflux version of tape archival, but how many people here bother with that just to backup a floppy?

Hierarchy goes something like

1stgen USB < 2nd gen USB < best of the ISA capture cards < 1st gen consumer PCI 90s < 2nd gen consumer PCI 00s < later higher end consumer to prosumer stuff which there is a lot of arguing about < Full professional video workstations.

Of which, this PCI card should be in the higher end consumer bracket. (Yeah pinnacle also had a crappy USB dongle to sell cheap at BestBuy and that might have been the more familiar association)

lti wrote on 2026-08-23, 20:11:

I tried making some digital copies of VHS tapes a few years ago and noticed the same thing. The reviews only cover stuff that's still in production, which is almost all USB today (and terrible). At the time, vhs-decode was in its early development stages and not really usable. Today, storage costs too much to use it.

I think it's possible to make a decent USB dongle, but it doesn't seem to happen often (there's an old ATI USB dongle that is respected, but I've never personally used it). I have one that uses an SAA7113 (9-bit ADC) and can capture 720x480 at 29.97fps all day, but the capture quality still isn't the best (it really exaggerates the dot crawl and color smear from composite video) and software compatibility is even worse. I've made VHS copies with it, and sometimes I wonder why I'm even bothering (or at least why I'm going through the effort to deinterlace with QTGMC, which seems to run at about realtime, regardless of the hardware it's running on).

Also, audio capture is an afterthought, even among the people who argue about high-end/prosumer stuff.

Sorry for not addressing all the points in your posts, I just wanted to post this reply real quick...

It is my understanding that you can do FLAC lossless compression with vhs-decode and it will bring the file sizes down to the tens of GB rather than hundreds, with no quality loss. Then, of course, you can convert them to a more usable video file format, though I haven't done any of this myself.

lti wrote on 2026-08-23, 20:11:

At the time, vhs-decode was in its early development stages and not really usable. Today, storage costs too much to use it.

Wait what? The point of vhs-decode is capturing best possible signal, not storing that capture uncompressed 😮

lti wrote on 2026-08-23, 20:11:

I think it's possible to make a decent USB dongle, but it doesn't seem to happen often (there's an old ATI USB dongle that is respected, but I've never personally used it). I have one that uses an SAA7113 (9-bit ADC) and can capture 720x480 at 29.97fps all day, but the capture quality still isn't the best

vwestlife on YT is heavily into this subject and made numerous videos on it. Best you can do is find a DV camcorder with inputs and capture thru FireWire, second best option are boxes using same chips as camcorders did back in the day, like sony dvmc:
USB video capture devices ALL SUCK - but there's a solution @VWestlife https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTOChbbTRgs

fosterwj03 wrote on 2026-08-23, 17:10:

First, a couple quick, frustrated rants: the eBay seller of the MSI MS-6309 motherboard I posted about a couple of weeks ago nev […]
Show full quote

First, a couple quick, frustrated rants: the eBay seller of the MSI MS-6309 motherboard I posted about a couple of weeks ago never sent me the order. The seller claimed that the photos showed the wrong motherboard in the wrong packaging for the item listing and wanted to locate the proper item and packaging for the listing. While I told the seller that I wanted the item in the photos, I would have accepted the listed item (assuming it was in equally good condition) since it had similar features. Alas, the seller sent me nothing for two weeks, and I had to request a refund.

Second, I also ordered a Pentium 3 1 GHz (Coppermine-T) from eBay, but that seller sent me a Pentium 3 1.266 GHz (Tualatin). While the processor I received was objectively better (I am a fan of the Tualatin core), I needed a chip with the Coppermine core, ideally with an IHS. I wish the seller would have asked me if I would accept a substitute first. It would have saved the effort and cost of shipping the item to me and the sending it right back for a refund.

OK, end of rants.

In the end, I think I’ll get something more interesting than an MSI Apollo Pro 133A board. I found and ordered a Tyan Trinity 400 (Revision K) for $52 US shipped. It has both a Slot 1 and a Socket 370 for a single processor system. I was never a fan of Slot 1 (I’ve never owned a Slot 1 processor), but this could make for an interesting test bench if this board is compatible with something like the Hawk370 Slocket. I could have the best of both worlds with support for Coppermine chips and potentially Tualatin chips in a Slocket.

I also ordered another Coppermine Pentium 3 at 1 GHz (cD0 stepping) for $30 US shipped. I preferred the idea of a Coppermine-T chip, but I figured it wouldn’t make much difference if I got a later stepping Coppermine since I planned to use the processor in a Socket 370 running at the higher voltage (1.75 V).

Unaware the nature of your requirement of the coppermine-T it was compatible with standard coppermine motherboards but in backwards compatibility mode. In a standard coppermine motherboard they still run cooler however you cannot reach full FPU speed unless the motherboard is designed for Tualatin CPU'S. Coppermine-T gave OEM manufacturers a cheaper alternative to Tualatin CPU's back in the day and is the soul reason it was produced and were never sold retail.

zapbuzz wrote on 2026-08-24, 14:03:

fosterwj03 wrote on 2026-08-23, 17:10:

First, a couple quick, frustrated rants: the eBay seller of the MSI MS-6309 motherboard I posted about a couple of weeks ago nev […]
Show full quote

First, a couple quick, frustrated rants: the eBay seller of the MSI MS-6309 motherboard I posted about a couple of weeks ago never sent me the order. The seller claimed that the photos showed the wrong motherboard in the wrong packaging for the item listing and wanted to locate the proper item and packaging for the listing. While I told the seller that I wanted the item in the photos, I would have accepted the listed item (assuming it was in equally good condition) since it had similar features. Alas, the seller sent me nothing for two weeks, and I had to request a refund.

Second, I also ordered a Pentium 3 1 GHz (Coppermine-T) from eBay, but that seller sent me a Pentium 3 1.266 GHz (Tualatin). While the processor I received was objectively better (I am a fan of the Tualatin core), I needed a chip with the Coppermine core, ideally with an IHS. I wish the seller would have asked me if I would accept a substitute first. It would have saved the effort and cost of shipping the item to me and the sending it right back for a refund.

OK, end of rants.

In the end, I think I’ll get something more interesting than an MSI Apollo Pro 133A board. I found and ordered a Tyan Trinity 400 (Revision K) for $52 US shipped. It has both a Slot 1 and a Socket 370 for a single processor system. I was never a fan of Slot 1 (I’ve never owned a Slot 1 processor), but this could make for an interesting test bench if this board is compatible with something like the Hawk370 Slocket. I could have the best of both worlds with support for Coppermine chips and potentially Tualatin chips in a Slocket.

I also ordered another Coppermine Pentium 3 at 1 GHz (cD0 stepping) for $30 US shipped. I preferred the idea of a Coppermine-T chip, but I figured it wouldn’t make much difference if I got a later stepping Coppermine since I planned to use the processor in a Socket 370 running at the higher voltage (1.75 V).

Unaware the nature of your requirement of the coppermine-T it was compatible with standard coppermine motherboards but in backwards compatibility mode. In a standard coppermine motherboard they still run cooler however you cannot reach full FPU speed unless the motherboard is designed for Tualatin CPU'S. Coppermine-T gave OEM manufacturers a cheaper alternative to Tualatin CPU's back in the day and is the soul reason it was produced and were never sold retail.

I doubt that a Coppermine-T functions any differently in either type of board. I wanted to make sure the processor had a heat spreader to protect the core, a later stepping, and compatibility with later motherboards if I decided to get one.

rasz_pl wrote on 2026-08-24, 07:45:

lti wrote on 2026-08-23, 20:11:

At the time, vhs-decode was in its early development stages and not really usable. Today, storage costs too much to use it.

Wait what? The point of vhs-decode is capturing best possible signal, not storing that capture uncompressed 😮

I thought you'd still need some kind of scratch space to hold the raw RF capture temporarily.

lti wrote on Yesterday, 04:06:

rasz_pl wrote on 2026-08-24, 07:45:

lti wrote on 2026-08-23, 20:11:

At the time, vhs-decode was in its early development stages and not really usable. Today, storage costs too much to use it.

Wait what? The point of vhs-decode is capturing best possible signal, not storing that capture uncompressed 😮

I thought you'd still need some kind of scratch space to hold the raw RF capture temporarily.

Right, but you don't need to store the raw RF capture once you have it in a more usable format.

If you're just doing one 2-hour VHS tape at a time a single 500GB SSD would probably be fine. A 1TB would give you more room to tinker before having to delete the originals. If you don't have any extra SSDs laying around or can't find one in an old PC, then that would definitely be another item you'd have to purchase.

Also, I may be underestimating how many VHS tapes people are trying to archive. I figured that people are just doing this for some home movies or maybe a handful of old TV recordings or something. If you've got dozens of tapes to do and you aren't look for the absolute highest quality possible, then there are probably much faster ways to do it while still having decent quality. I'm not sure how much those cost though.

The point it claims, is so you can come back to the captured RF (Humungous file) when tools are better in a few years time, that implies that they are only good enough to show potential at the minute. That means for it to be worth the bother, you want to preserve max info and store the RF and the approx quarter terabyte a tape is after Flac by my reading.

Also the intermediate steps to Media Player playability, make huge files, it is sounding like you need just over terabyte of room to handle a 2hr tape. 100MB a second is max cited for the uncompressed full frame AV.

Then conversion speeds, rf capture at real time of tape play, then sampling of RF capture takes minimum ten times play length, then conversion to AV on a high end ryzen 9 takes double to four times play length, then if you are lucky you can convert it to a consumable format at about double speed. So 2 hours of tape play, 20 hours RF sampling, 8 hours AV convert, 1 hour format conversion. 31 hours per tape.

Not all of that is hands on time, you can automate it, but it's all you've got a machine doing for a day and a half, just for one tape. You would probably want to do multiple rf captures in one day though, which puts you at needing 2TB RF capture space, that you have to mirror to the RF sampling machine because you don't want it thrashing the same disk. then that needs 1TB to work with, then you need another big data bucket for the AV conversion, and finally you get something that's VideoCD to DVD sized depending on what final format you want it in. Anyway, lot of "in flight" storage even if you end up with a small file at the end... but does it look the same by now as something captured with a decent card with frame synch and stabilisation? The Canopus he's saying does 75% is well known to chuck out half the color info at the DAC, then it is also compressing down to a bitrate for the firewire. So basically we know that anything that doesn't do that is wayyy better.

Anyway, when consumable and conveniently stored format is the objective, is the 99% correct version really gonna be worth 10-15 times the time vs a 90% version when all the visible advantage is likely to disappear in the format conversion?

I recall the top end VHS players had multiple heads because each head misses data, suggesting you might want to combine several copies from different tape decks.