Save the Tapes (of Star Wars)!

Maybe this is an “equipment” post but…

I’m sure a few folks here have tried to capture or watch old copies of Star Wars on VHS or Laserdisc, or even grab home movies. The options (unless you work in a recording studio :slight_smile: ) on amazon leave really washed out images, and I was disappointed in my last attempts at conversion from tape (480i) to digital. Ebay has expensive gear that works, but I have a suggestion that isn’t cheap but is pretty amazing and does lots of stuff.

The RetroTink4K is out of control good at what it does. It’s semi-open source at the moment, with a bunch of people working on “profiles” for optimizing scaling of various devices. I have a CE version, because they are not cheap in it has most of the features of the full model:

www.retrotink.com/shop/retrotink-4k-ce

It’s running my VCR, PS1/2, Switch, Dreamcast, etc as it’s originally designed for gaming. However, the new firmware has a solid VHS upscaled profile dialed in.

If you’ve never played KOTOR fully upscaled on an LG C1 4K tv or similar, much to learn you still have. The image quality and sound quality is spectacular.

This was a big purchase but quickly became a wife approved device at it brought back so many memories of the last 30 (40?!?) years of gaming and recording.

Here Rob from RetroRGB laying it all out:

And it’s named after a pet rabbit.