The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald: Scared Silly VHS RF Capture

About

The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald is an American animated miniseries of retail direct-to-video episodes produced by Klasky Csupo in association with the McDonald's Corporation, centering on McDonald's mascot Ronald McDonald and the gang in McDonaldland. A total of six 40-minute episodes were produced and released on VHS with five of them being available exclusively in participating McDonald's restaurants from October 9, 1998 to January 30, 2003.

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 and frame rate doubled. The interlaced video version is also here for viewing on CRT televisions.

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

Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

Klasky Csupo

Language

English

Who can watch

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