On 21/07/18 12:34, Phil Wade wrote:

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.

Gosh yes!  I used to find this with cassette tapes too.  Old tapes will stick, & they can/could easily be in a state that the magnetic material doesn't stick to the tape properly any more and sticks to the tape head instead.  A non-abrasive VHS tape head cleaner & cleaning fluid might help.  But if you use one, then make sure you let it dry fully before moving on to the next tape.

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.

I too have used the FF & Rewind "trick" to free a tape before playing. Incidentally, if the tape player is displaying a number that is increasing when there is a recorded program, it is scanning the tape, therefore the playing head is in contact with the tape, so if you have an old tape that's shedding its coating, it may leave it all over the playing head.  However, as the machine is detecting a signal, it is obviously possible somehow detect the signal.  I don't know if a computer can do it though.

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

OK, now for the bit that may actually be useful. Working out how to detect useful programs may take longer than actually doing it manually.  Various media players can fast-forward.  I am thinking about VLC Media Player.  You may have to tweak the UI to enable it, but VLC can fast-forward at high speed.  So if you start playback, then bump up the speed (say 8x) and manually view what's on.  That should cut down the time you need to spend.  When you detect something you're interested in, you can click on the timeline and jump forward by a guestimated period of time (24 mins for a US sitcom), 1 1/2 hours for a film on BBC, 2 or 3 hours for a film on advert channels.

[Obviously you're not going to keep items broadcast on TV because that would breach copyright etc]

Having worked out the beginning and end time, VLC has a tool that lets you start the start and end time of a playback - you could use that.  VLC also has a record button.  When you press it, it records from the time you press start until the time you press stop.  This creates a new video of the bit you wanted.  I think though that this happens only at 1x playback speed (but I could be wrong), so once you've found something, it'll take a while to extract it.

I guess it depends on the power of your computer, but in the past I have tried other video editing tools and tried to cut up an existing video but my Laptop is just too slow to do them justice - it spends ages coding/transcoding.  I haven't had this problem with VLC which seems to manage recording without horrendous processor load.  On *Buntu, recorded video snippets seem to go into the /home/USERNAME/videos folder.

Hope this helps!

Steve