[HN Gopher] Recovering priceless audio and lost languages from o...
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       Recovering priceless audio and lost languages from old decaying
       tapes
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 58 points
       Date   : 2025-02-22 16:45 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (theconversation.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (theconversation.com)
        
       | DFHippie wrote:
       | Also priceless, in these times in particular, is hearing about
       | people of good will doing their thing on behalf of humanity.
       | Reading it brightened my day.
        
         | SoftMachine wrote:
         | Such divisive sentiments. It's no wonder you got flagged.
        
       | CharlesW wrote:
       | This is wonderful and important work. Are there audio restoration
       | gurus who make their services available to the average person?
       | I've found many "transfer your memories to DVD"-type places, but
       | I haven't been able to find people/companies that specialize in
       | doing the best-possible digitization of formats like Yamaha
       | 4-track cassettes and Super VHS HiFi Stereo tapes. (I'll be doing
       | the audio restoration part.)
       | 
       |  _[Edit: Oooh, I see thathttps://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode
       | now supports HiFi audio decoding! Sadly for me, this appears to
       | require some light VHS deck hacking.]_
        
         | m463 wrote:
         | I'd love to learn about this too.
         | 
         | I have some old family super-8 movies. There are film scanners
         | that can scan them in, but none of them decode or even
         | acknowledge the magnetic soundtrack.
        
           | actionfromafar wrote:
           | I'm sure the track could be captured more optimally, but I
           | think still the cheapest way would be to find an old Super8
           | projector with sound. Even if the bulb is broken, you can
           | still get the sound out. Then scan in a regular digital film
           | scanner as you mentioned and merge with the sound in post-
           | processing.
        
         | actionfromafar wrote:
         | It's really pretty simple. If you can find an electronics
         | repair shop, they should be able to do it for like the lowest
         | rate they have, but it's pretty simple to do yourself in an
         | hour even if you never soldered before.
        
           | CharlesW wrote:
           | It sounds like you're familiar with the process, so thanks
           | for the reassurance! It would be neat to be able to do this
           | for friends and family.
        
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       (page generated 2025-02-22 23:00 UTC)