Nov 6, 2026, 8:47 AMI bought one of these composite to HDMI converters a while back (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPDWL14T) and it does a poor job of managing to keep sync with poor quality inputs and I get frequent video dropouts. I don't care about latency as long as it maintains AV sync so I'm not in Retrotink territory, but I do want video to keep showing up. Input is a Sony LDP-150. Being able to zoom letterboxed 4:3 out to 16:9 without destroying the aspect ratio would be a bonus.
Nov 6, 2026, 8:50 AM(I have some laserdiscs suffering from laser rot, the quality of the output signal is pretty terrible)
Nov 10, 2026, 3:03 AMEnded up ebaying a Kramer VP-773, which is ridiculous overkill but apparently has about the best comb filter in the business
Nov 6, 2026, 9:02 AM@mjg59 a friend of mine keeps ye olde (Hauppage) PCI card around for capturing VHS tapes which seem to have similar issues.
I still want to test my Blackmagic Design converter based setup on that use case but my tapes are not bad enough to show dropouts (yet) in the few quick scans I did a few years ago.
Nov 6, 2026, 9:16 AM@bix I'd prefer not to have to cram a PC into the already somewhat cramped stack…
Nov 6, 2026, 9:46 AM@mjg59 understood, maybe some older hardware from a similar source but more compatible with your stack might be available. My friend has this theory that modern USB based converters drop the USB connection at some level every time they lose signal. Probably some common chipset thing?
@mjg59 @bix I have a Haupage 950Q usb capture device which has been useful since it got full out of the box kernel support. might be worth looking into one of them or their more modern (hopefully still linux compatable) replacement models. Heck worse case i could send mine your way @mjg59 since it is just sitting idle at the moment.
Nov 6, 2026, 7:59 PM
@mjg59 I need to do that so I can present from an actual VT100
@mjg59 analog video comb filters are one of my favourite inventions ever. such an elegant solution to a weirdly domain specific problem.
@mjg59
You might try one of the Blackmagic Mini Analog to SDI converters; you'll also need something to get back into HDMI. They're not specifically designed for that use case, but they are broadcast converters designed to be as resilient as they can be.