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Re: [ALUG] VHS archiving (Mark Rogers)
by Phil Wade 24 Jul '18

24 Jul '18

I can't help with the main question (automated skip empty tape) but a few words based on my own recent and ongoing experience of transferring VHS tapes to digital. When were the tapes last played? If it's some years (5+ or worse?) then there's a danger the tapes are a little "stuck" together at some points. I "Fast Wind Forwarded" them (not fast forward play) to free up any such sticking points. The VHS player showed what recorded time was being passed on its display, and stopped increasing this time figure when nothing was on the tape. I let them run on a bit to check it wasn't just a gap in recordings, then rewound. I understand that not all players will display this time figure when forward winding as opposed to FF playing. The PROBLEM I had was that those tapes that were a bit stuck completely F'd the player's ability to play the tapes, by stretching the drive belts (I think) when it came to a sticking point. I can now use both these players (yes, I F'd two of them...) just for forwarding and rewinding. I have a third player that is used for playing the freed-up tapes only. It's a friend's, so I have to be careful :( Not the technical answer you need, but maybe a useful warning. Phil

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VHS archiving
by Mark Rogers 23 Jul '18

23 Jul '18

A long shot, probably, but I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience of this? This is one of those subjects where Googling gives you lots of suggestions, none of them definitive, mostly questions without answers... I, like many people, have a box of VHS tapes. Stuff recorded from TV and other sources, none of it looked at for a decade or more. I want to go through them, archive the content on my PC and ditch the tapes (and VHS player). Many of the tapes aren't labelled (and the ones that are, I don't necessarily trust). Many of the tapes will be almost or completely empty. Most are 240m EP tapes (ie up to 8hrs). I have a USB video capture device that seems to work although suggests welcome. What I want to do is be able to put a tape in, rewind it, press "play", then walk away and leave it. Rinse and repeat until all the tapes are "imported". If I can do this without any interaction at the PC end at this point that would be even better (it means I can get the wife to cycle tapes through when they finish if I'm not here too). This seems simple in principle: I need my PC to "watch" the incoming video and record anything that isn't noise to a new file. Not recording the noise is the key challenge: if I put a tape in and leave it overnight, say, then there's potentially 8-12hrs of "recording" which will be mostly noise, and that's a lot of disk space to be using up. In an ideal world it would also detect program changes within a tape and split them into separate files too, but I think that might be asking too much and that's not so hard to do manually once they're on disk. Suggestions? Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 12th July
by Viperfang 10 Jul '18

10 Jul '18

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 12th July at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 6th July.
by Viperfang 03 Jul '18

03 Jul '18

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 14th June
by Viperfang 11 Jun '18

11 Jun '18

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 14th June at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 1st June.
by Viperfang 29 May '18

29 May '18

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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Random mounting problems
by Bev Nicolson 24 May '18

24 May '18

What's the best thing to do if your pc decides, of its own volition, not to recognise any form of device, be it your MP3 player, your phone or a usb stick? Try to manually mount the thing? (Found some instructions.) Reboot? It refused last night, it was fine this morning. Bev.

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 10th May
by Viperfang 08 May '18

08 May '18

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 10th May at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 4th May.
by Viperfang 01 May '18

01 May '18

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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Gimp - help
by Bev Nicolson 25 Apr '18

25 Apr '18

Gimp 2.8 is doing its best to annoy me. Do any of you have any tips? (I have googled the manual and it didn't help.) What I want to do is separate an object from the background. I've tried intelligent scissors and pressing clear just clears the lot, rather than the background. Ditto free select. And I just end up with a trailing free select lasso over the object I want to separate. Bev.

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