Magic In The Mirror VHS RF Capture

About

In a land of enchantment, anything is possible.

One mirror, two sides. One side is the world we know. The other is guarded by the Mirror Minders, watchful beings who prevent people from entering their fantastic realm of enchantment.

When one of the Mirror Minders falls asleep, young Mary Margaret (Jaime Renee Smith) accidentally steps through the mirror...and into an adventure beyond anything her vivid imagination could dream up. Mary Margaret soon discovers she has some unpleasant company: the Drakes, giant ducks who are bent on deeds most fowl. Accompanied by two bumbling Mirror Minders and a pair of playful pixies, Mary Margaret manages to stay one step ahead of the evil quacks. But meeting the challenges of a wondrous, unexpected world is one thing, finding a way home is another. Now her adventure really begins!

Magic In The Mirror, while not critically acclaimed, is one of the few non-horror films only available on VHS. Although its sequel, Fowl Play, was released on LaserDisc in Japan, the original film is forever stuck on VHS. Amazon provides it to stream, but the picture quality and resolution of the source they used (left) is inferior to my capture (right):

https://imgsli.com/MjE4OTQ2

This upload is the best representation of the movie in its only available consumer format. Unfortunately there is some tape damage at one point, which is the unavoidable reality of the medium.

This was software decoded using the vhs-decode Python tools for Linux with a modified Sony SLV-788HF VCR. The cxadc Linux driver was used to capture the raw RF signal directly from the tape heads. This results in full preservation of the raw RF video signal as an audio file which can be decoded in software multiple times with improvements and adjustments to video RF filters, de-emphasis, sharpness, etc. The video RF signal is saved as a 16MSPS 8-bit per sample FLAC compressed audio file. The end result was deinterlaced using the QTGMC AviSynth+ script.

The sound was recorded traditionally using the audio RCA jacks on the VCR. This result is the best that can be achieved compared to traditional "hardware decoded" playback using standard composite video capture cards, dongles, and other consumer capture devices. The software decoding method bypasses a portion of analog circuitry in a typical VCR used to demodulate and decode the raw RF tape signal to composite video or s-video. The end result is a cleaner and sharper picture because of less analog noise and distortion, and more video bandwidth is preserved and captured.

More information on the vhs-decode software:

https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode

Human-made No record of this work says a model made it. What this means.

Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

Paramount Pictures

Language

English

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed