It's A Digital Disease!

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/zaxophone_bswv on 2025-01-03 03:59:13.

Hi all, I need some advice for digitizing old analog video, and after viewing several advice posts that are all several years old and not 100% applicable to my situation, I'm just not sure what route to go down.

After a lot of searching, I finally found a very important family video - a Maxwell Hi8 MP tape with the only video and audio recording that we have of my grandfather, in which he is telling his World War II stories. The camcorder we recorded it on (I was a child at the time, it really belonged to my parents) is nowhere to be found. We think it's somewhere in the house, but even if we could find it, we don't know if it still works. There is a possibility of more family Hi8 tapes showing up, but for now this tape with my grandfather is the only one I have on hand and is the singular most important tape for me to digitize.

I work in the historic preservation field, so usually capturing things in archival quality is highly important to me, so I've been interested in the DIY methods. However, the two problems are that (1. I just don't know if it's worth it to buy several hundred dollars of equipment for ONE tape versus just having a media conversion company handle it, and (2. There's so many different formats and interchanges and dongles that, after reading post after post, I still don't know what I actually need and what would work and how it would work.

What I'm dealing with now: My computer is a 2021 HP laptop running Windows 10 with USB, Thunderbolt 3, DisplayPort++, and HDMI ports, but no FireWire. I also have a curmudgeonly but reliable 2007 iMac that I revive every 3-4 years when I realize I forgot to get something off it, and it has a FireWire 400 port. I remember using FireWire all the time to port videos I made as a teenager using a MiniDV camcorder into iMovie. I think iMovie still works on it, maybe??

I read somewhere else that analog tapes like Hi8 are best converted using S-Video instead of FireWire for color quality reasons. It sounds like a good idea, but I don't know what equipment I need in order to go down this route either. Neither computer has an S-Video port and I don't know what would be the most compatible with that format.

And on top of this, I don't know what I need on the software end. I know the software ecosystem can change very quickly, so I just don't know what I can still trust from what I've read online.

So with all this considered, the advice I need:

Should I just send this to a company to digitize, and if so, who is reliable? Are there any catches?

Or if I should DIY, what are my options? What routes can I take, and how do I put those routes together for the most successful outcome?

Thanks in advance! And when it's all said and done, I'll share the video with you all (if the moderators here allow it).

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Playful-Ease2278 on 2025-01-03 03:55:17.

Looking for a NAS to serve as a multimedia hub and also to handle media scraping. Preferably it would be open source and privacy respecting but I am open. Must run docker. Thanks for the help!

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/YouHopeful3838 on 2025-01-03 03:05:56.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Lord_Vindicare on 2025-01-03 02:46:41.

I know there are tons of places you can get various other formats but i’m looking for txt specifically. I know of the popular sites for public domain works.

Anyone have good sources or do I need to get epubs and convert them?

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Nervous-Estimate596 on 2025-01-03 02:39:19.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/CheekyCount on 2025-01-03 02:06:15.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/itsnotnotbacon on 2025-01-03 01:06:21.

So the forum at https://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php is being shut down by the company. They've created a FB group and want all discussion happening there, Im guessing to save costs and less maintenance. The forum has been active since 2006, contains a wealth of information like recipes and techniques, and has an awesome community. When it was announced recently they'd be shutting down the forum in January, a lot of people were upset, and even more so when Bradley said they weren't planning on archiving anything.

My thoughts were to archive certain sections of the forum (there's a lot of sections I dont want), store the files in the cloud and share the address in the forum before it's shut down. I've tried SiteSucker, Wget and HTTrack, all to some success but not what I want. I did manage to get the complete Fish section with HTTrack using a command I asked chatgpt to help me write, but then when I took the same command and changed it down download the Sausage Making section, it crapped out after page 5.

Before the site gets taken offline, does anyone have a recommendation or advice for how I can successfully save only certain portions of this site? THANK YOU!

**EDIT to clarify what Im looking for**

There are certain sections of the site (ex fish, sausage making, jerky, meat,etc) that I would like to preserve. I'm trying to get the entire section including all threads, posts, replies. With SiteSucker I specified the path to the section I wanted (to the fish section for example), the paths i didnt want, (everything else), selected Check All links. When downloading the file, it was saving everything, not just the fish section.

A few days ago I'd never used Wget or HTTrack so I've been explaining to chatgpt what i want and getting it to write the terminal commands for me. I think this is the last command i tried with HTTrack but it was also grabbing everything, not just what I specified.

httrack "https://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?board=24.0" -O ~/Documents/Sausage\ Making --depth=123 --ext-depth=123 --mirror --stay-on-same-domain --accept "index.php?board=24*"

So Im still trying to figure out how to just save parts of the forum, not the entire thing. If you have any suggestions, Im all ears! Thank you

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/RedditsFan2020 on 2025-01-03 00:22:02.

Hi,

I have a few old portable HD (and will have more in the future as I retire HD every 5 years before it has problem) with data that I don't want to throw them away. I plan to keep them in the safe as redundant backups. Like any fireproof safe, the humidity inside is higher than outside. Even though I always put the chemical beats to absorb the moisture, I want to make sure that the HD won't be destroyed by the moisture inside the safe. Can I put each HD into a regular kitchen Ziploc bag to protect it from the moisture? Or would you recommend something better? Ideally I would love to have these HD last as long as possible (just in case if I need them in the future). Please advise. Thanks.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/SpicyCapacitor on 2025-01-02 22:42:03.

I'm about to archive important photos onto 10x 25GB M-Discs. I would appreciate it if my archival strategy could be sanity checked before I burn through $50 of disks.

My plan to to manually break up the photos into 5x ~20GB folders. Each folder will be replicated onto two disks for redundancy. I'm not zipping the folders because the files are in mostly compressed image formats already. I also don't want another layer of potential failure for if I went to unzip the folder 20 years the future. I am going to create a checksum of the root folder on each disk as well and store it on the disk as a text file. I believe SHA256 is a decent hash to use. I am still trying to decide between imgburn and Nero Burn and Archive which is included with my Verbatim drive writer. Any thoughts? My main priority is the ability to access the data easily in the future regardless of what formats are supported then.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/MeltedByte on 2025-01-02 21:44:09.

...from an old server. Installed in a PC with a 4 disks hot swap bay. Should I use it and insert SAS or SATA disks? What is your opinion?

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Unknowpls on 2025-01-02 21:59:31.

I’m trying to find out how to view someone’s account that was deleted by instagram and want to try and recover some of those posts.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/fatherfigurez on 2025-01-02 21:05:20.

So I have links to unlisted videos on YouTube to a certain channel.

I am able to pull them up, but there are other videos in the same playlist maybe at the very least the same channel that I’m missing links to

Is there a way to get other links from that channel/playlist with most of the other links?

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Lunam_Dominus on 2025-01-02 18:40:17.

I'm planning to buy some storage for backing up photos and files and I have 2 options that make sense to me:

1. Buy one, but generally better and more reliable drive (like 14TB EXOS x16 nm001g)
2. Or for the same money, buy 2 smaller and cheaper drives (like WD RED or something similar) and put them in RAID 1

I'd use it mostly for long term storage of data and backups, so it'd mostly sit idle in my pc. I'm wondering whether RAID 1 is overkill for me. I don't have an unlimited budget and more space would be nice. I relied on a now 10 year old Seagate barracuda so I presume I don't have the highest standards.

My life doesn't rely on that data, I'd just be very, very sad if I lost it.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Seligmannn on 2025-01-02 18:34:32.

To keep up with what’s posted on the trackers y’all use, is there any automatic option other than web scraping and/or api usage (if the tracker offers one)?

I’ve just made my first program to essentially be able to get anything I want, automatically or by request, on a tracker I’m part of, and was just curious if this is how y’all do it. Honestly before doing this I didn’t really do much research on how others might do it, and since I have experience with web scraping and such I kinda just dove into it.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Anthrac1t3 on 2025-01-02 18:17:48.

So like a lot of people here I have a stack of family VHS videos I want to digitize. I'm looking to get them loaded up onto my Plex server for my family to enjoy. I've been playing with a few different ways of doing this. It started with a RCA DSP3 and the Elgato RCA to USB capture card but I was having issues with skipping and just didn't like the quality. So then I got a Panasonic PV-V4612S and wasn't happy with the either. Then I decided to get a Sony SLV-R5UC and did the blue gear repair and rebuilt the power supply. Then I found out S-Video capture wasn't working on the Elgato card so I grabbed a Black Magic Intensity Pro 4K. Now Instead of skipping, wobbly, and low color videos I have skipping, wobbly and gorgeous videos. I'm using OBS for capture since I have used it before and am decently familiar with it but the more I read about VHS capture the more I realize I have no clue what I'm doing. The vhs-decode README has me fried and I don't even think that is a route I can go down for $500.

Please help me. I've been working on this project for over a year now.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Saturn_to_the_Moon on 2025-01-02 17:28:29.

I got pretty shit on with my previous post, so here's me attempting to rectify that. You nerds are way more technical than I had realized.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1hraqx3/finally_set_up_my_vhs_to_digital_conversion/

So I'll heed some of yalls advice.

First off, this is what I have:

• VCR: Panasonic PV-9661 ( No S-Video Out ) Seems to be working decently. A little dusty, so could probably use a cleaning.
• A mini PC with only usb. ( I do have a server that I could potentially put a PCI-E card into, and run a VM and attempt to get pci-e bypass working, which would be a huge pain in the ass that I'd rather not deal with, unless there was some sort of docker container solution I could use with it )
• Sony Handicam DCR-TRV11 ( It appears to be very broken, no power cables or anything, and its pretty smashed up )
• My generic easycap clone that apparently isn't worth its plastic.
• Most of my home movie tapes are VHS-C, the others are Mini-DV,
• I have a "VCA 115A Cassette Adapter" so I can watch the VHS-C tapes on a regular VCR player. Seems to be working fine.
• I currently don't have any way to view/play the Mini-DV tapes.
• Visually all my tapes seem like they are in reasonable condition, they've been stored indoors in cabinets for most of their lives.
• ( all data will be stored on my unraid server, which currently has about 17tb of free storage )

What I understand

• Not much.
• I'm a 90's kid, and my only knowledge of VCR Tech is that the purple tape played barney.
• My current $10 capture card sucks, because from what I understand, it can't properly convert the analog signals to digital, and causes loss of quality/colors, and ( as I'm experiencing a little bit ) some audio sync issues. ( though mine aren't bad, maybe a half second off at most, you only notice if you're actively looking for it )
• That I need a better capture card
• The only way to watch a Mini-DV tape is with a working camera

My goal

isn't to have lossless 1:1 quality. I understand the benefits of that, but really 'good enough' is fine for me. The realistic truth is that I'm just going to upload all these to youtube for my family to watch once or twice on their phones. While the RF stuff seems neat, I don't really have a desire to gut a vcr player, learn coding, and buying another HDD or two for my server to store that much data, then spending additional hours editing and pulling in the audio tracks.

I also don't care about hunting down 20 year old PCIE cards that only work on windows XP and all that mess.

I don't care about trying to view the footage as it was originally shot, its home movies, not art. I just want to watch it on my modern TV, and share it with my family via youtube.

I'd really like the set up to just be: hit record on the PC, insert tape, and press play.

Its a nostalgia trip, not analyzing the zapruder film for the man on the grassy knoll.

My plan

Using whatever set up I end up getting, simply go through all 100 or so tapes, and record them to my server. I WFH so it would be pretty easy to just let them do its thing while I work.

Later I can filter out stuff I want to keep from stuff I don't care about ( recordings of tv shows, etc. )

The physical tapes I'll label with their contents, then store each of them in a ziplock bag, and get me a nice drybox to store them in.

Then eventually use Premiere Pro to cut the footage up into their smaller segments, see what improvements I can make with software editing and do my best to label them with the correct dates, and be able to host them on my plex account and share to my family via youtube.

TL;DR

Lets say I have a budget of $100 for this project. Could be convinced to spend $150. Looking for the best usb solution.

I know I need a better capture device, and a working camera or other solution to be able to watch the Mini-DV tapes.

I'll keep an eye out for a VCR with S-Video out, but I live in a very hipster town, so good VCR's are hard to come by.

Thanks nerds. you've enlightened me.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Sir_Krinkly on 2025-01-02 17:21:55.

To the magnificent people who posted torrent links for all Mr. Rodgers and the vast majority of Sesame Street. Took me a while but I downloaded it all and naturally am making sure it’s there for others. Both of these are such treasures.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/nomanfakename on 2025-01-02 17:11:33.

WFDownloader i believe is better then J2 . I just need help fixing this . They don’t have a discord server or tele so no way to ask for help . Wondering if anyone else has ran into this same issue

any help is much appreciated

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/StreetSquare6462 on 2025-01-02 17:00:33.

I've got myself two 2TB 2.5 inch SSDs. Im looking for a way to use these as a synced backup with my laptop. Is there maybe like a good dock or something? What are your thoughts?

Thanks in advance

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/c4pt1n54n0 on 2025-01-02 16:49:23.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/T0XiiC27 on 2025-01-02 16:40:25.

Hey!

The case looks very appealing to me, lots of space etc. but theres just one question.

To anyone that owns or owned a meshify 2 case, how are the HDD noises? I dont need it to be dead silent but somewhat silent so it can be in the living room without any disturbance.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/CalamitousCalamities on 2025-01-02 16:27:28.

Seemingly there's only around 180 tapes converted since IA acquired them, and no tapes have been added since march 2019? (The file naming schemes used are atrocious as well) Does anyone here have any insider info on the project? I wish I could help them!

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/UssKelvinTR on 2025-01-02 16:03:43.

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/jaymeh on 2025-01-02 15:30:02.

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask but I've started ripping a season of Yu-Gi-Oh from DVD.

Whilst checking over my results I found a few frames that don't quite look right. I've used MakeMKV to pull the RAW file directly from the DVD and here's an example: https://share.cleanshot.com/mPvrlMw7W8znWrJ6J5dS

I've also tried running it through handbrake and setting some deinterlacing options up however I'm still seeing the same issue. Here are my handbrake settings for reference: https://share.cleanshot.com/hvkPcsf8vkcljVQXLDtr

Is this something that Handbrake can account for with some other setting?

The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/zuckerberghandjob on 2025-01-02 15:15:36.

I’m looking to set up automatic backups for my NAS to an external drive. I’d like to use an actively cooled enclosure rather than the heat coffins that the drives come in. I found a few 3rd party enclosures with built in fans, but it seems like they all require you to manually turn the fans on and off. Does anyone know where I could find an enclosure with a built in thermostat or something to automatically control the temperature?