Radar check
What we found when we opened it. Every bar is one fact, with its date.
Last code pushed 12 Oct 2026, 15 days before this check.
Latest release vrecord_v2026-10-05 on 5 Oct 2026.
Public since July 2014, a little over 12 years.
206 stars and 55 forks.
68 commits and 9 new issues in the last 90 days.
37 contributors. 15 pull requests merged in 90 days.
No security policy file says how to report a problem. No published security advisories.
How the bars are scored
- Alive. Days since the last code push: a week or less 100, a month 90, three months 70, six months 50, a year 30, eighteen months 15, older 0.
- Releases. Age of the latest GitHub release, on a similar scale; no bar when the project publishes no releases.
- Maturity. Age of the project: eight years 100, five 90, three 70, two 55, one 40, six months 25, younger 10.
- Adoption. Stars on a log scale: 100,000 stars is 100, 10,000 is 80, 1,000 is 60, 100 is 40.
- Activity. Commits in the last 90 days: 300 or more 100, 100 85, 30 65, 10 45, any 25.
- Community. People who have contributed: 100 or more 100, 30 80, 10 60, 5 40, 2 25, one 10.
- Security. A published security policy 80, none 40; published advisories are listed, not scored.
Checked by Repo Radar on 28 Oct 2026 from the repository on GitHub.
In simple English
Vrecord helps you save old videotapes onto your computer. You plug a tape player into a special capture card on your machine. This program records the video signal and saves it as a clean digital file. It was built for archivists who need high quality preservation work. You will need compatible hardware and some patience to set up all the extra video tools.
What it is
Vrecord is an open-source software tool for capturing video streams from hardware inputs and encoding them into digital files. It relies on FFmpeg (a command-line tool for converting and streaming audio and video) to handle the heavy recording work.
What it is good for
Archivists and media historians who need to digitize old analog videotapes using specialized capture hardware like Blackmagic Design cards.
Summary (Key Points)from the README
Key features
- Analog and digital capture: Captures a video signal from a variety of analog and digital inputs.
- Multiple output formats: Creates digital video files in a variety of formats and codecs.
- Archivist-oriented design: Built around the needs of audiovisual archivists digitizing or transferring videotape.
- Blackmagic and DV support: Works with Blackmagic Design capture cards when the Blackmagic driver is installed, and with AVFoundation for DV capture on macOS.
- Passthrough modes: Offers a Passthrough Mode and an Audio Passthrough Mode.
- Adjustable settings: Lets users edit capture settings, including options for video capture and video views, and clear the configuration file.
- Equipment testing and benchmarking: Includes guidance on testing your equipment and a benchmarking document.
- Analog digitization guidance: Provides a separate document on digitizing analog videotape, plus notes on needed hardware.
Ways to install
| Platform or method | What it needs | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| macOS | Dependencies including ffmpeg-ma, decklinksdk, gtkdialog, freetype, sdl, xmlstarlet and cowsay; the README links Homebrew formulas for several of these | Not stated in README; see the installation guide |
| Linux | Dependencies as listed for the project; the README does not detail Linux-specific requirements | Not stated in README; a separate Linux installation guide is provided |
Important
- Documentation date: The documentation is stated to be current only as of vrecord version 2020-02-10.
- Hardware requirements: Blackmagic capture requires the Blackmagic driver, and DV capture on macOS uses AVFoundation. Hardware notes are in a separate document.
- Many dependencies: Required dependencies include ffmpeg-ma, decklinksdk, gtkdialog, freetype, sdl, xmlstarlet and cowsay. Optional ones include deckcontrol, gnuplot, mediaconch, mkvtoolnix and mpv.
- Known issues: The README documents known issues with timing of recording and an FFmpeg error message.
- Licence: The documentation is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
Written by an AI model from the project’s README; not part of the review, and it can be wrong.
- Built specifically for archival video preservation standards.
- Supports a wide variety of analog and digital video inputs.
- Active community of archivists maintaining the project.
- Requires specific capture hardware such as Blackmagic Design cards.
- Complex installation process with many external software dependencies.
- Runs only on macOS and Linux.
manual tape capture
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brew install vrecord