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The RF Decoders & Tools Suite Download Here

Dependencys

Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 Redistributable to be installed (Often already installed by other apps)

&

GNU Radio Companion

Install FFmpeg/SoX/FLAC inside windows

These commands will install these in PATH so the tools are available system-wide.

Open a PowerShell Terminal as administrator.

Install Choco (chocolatey package manager)

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

Then you can install the following system-wide without any hassle.

Install FFmpeg

choco install ffmpeg

Install FLAC

choco install flac

Install SoX

choco install sox.portable

Quality of Life Improvements

Giving ld-analyse.exe an Icon

Setting ld-analyse.exe to always open .tbc files.

Giving .tbc files an Icon

Usage

Ideally, you should use windows terminal, to have it always open as CMD go into settings --> default profile --> Command prompt.

Then you can open the decode folder and run decode.exe followed by a space with the vhs / ld / cvbs for the respective decoders.

Options are vhs, ld, cvbs

Example:

C:\Users\harry\Desktop\decode>decode.exe vhs -f 16 -p family-cut-16msps-8bit.vhs Windows-Test-Decode-2023

NOTE

Commands are all the same as Linux all normal docs apply for usage and handling.

Exporting Video (vhs-decode)

To export a full colour video for duel tbc file formats you will need a WSL2 install, vertual machine or linux live install to run compression and the ld-compress & gen_chroma_vid.sh properly.

This takes the TBC passes it though to WSL2 and combines the files and then encodes the final video file to the same directory.

gen_chroma_vid.sh --ffll 2 --lfll 308 --ffrl 2 --lfrl 620 /mnt/c/decode/video-file-name.tbc

Compressing FM RF Data (DdD)

NOTE - WSL2 has a 250GB disk limit unless manually expanded.

ld-compress script

This takes 10-bit packed 40msps captures and encodes them to loessless FLAC files for 2.8GB to 625MB per min compression.

ld-compress /mnt/j/RF-Data/EXAMPLE-CAPTURE_VHS_PAL_DdD_Gain_8.5_2023-03-01_15-29-18.lds

/mnt/j/ is your drive path based on the windows side drive letter.

Pipe does not work on windows so compression is a bit of a data intensive task with 10-bit packed needing to be unpacked to 16-bit then compressed to FLAC unless the capture is small enough to fit inside WSL2 or you use a live linux install.

Issues & Level of Support

Windows builds are in the alpha phase but fully working to actually decode, extract VBI data with ld-process-vbi inspect with ld-analyse and even playback the TBC files with the FL2K USB 3.0 adapters.

ld-decode (LaserDiscs)

• Capture (Via DdD)
• Decoding
• Video Export

NOTE RF capture is standerdised around the DomesDayDuplicator and its windows app all core tools required have been compiled for windows and is fully working.

cvbs-decode (Composite Video)

• Capture (Linux Live Install / CXADC)
• Decoding
• Video Export

Same as ld-decode in terms of one signal to one TBC file, however capture is only standerdised with the CX Cards so SDR/ADC units with 28msps+ need to be vetted for windows side capture, but capture can be done today via Linux Live install.

Note! DomesDayDuplicator (Rev 3) does not work for CVBS capture.

vhs-decode (Tape Media)

• Capture (Via DdD)
• Decoding
• Video Export (Via WSL2/Virtual Machine)

Colour video export is limited via gen_chroma_vid.sh script to decode the chroma signal and combine the files to a colour video stream being a linux only script requring WSL2 / Live USB Install / Full Install to fully take advantage of it.

ld-chroma-decoder.exe / FFmpeg Command can export B/W Luma full-frame or active area directly.

Composite formats like SMPTE 1" Type C are 1 TBC file however.

(The scripting issue will be addressed in future updates & tools.)

hifi-decode

• Capture (DdD/RTL-SDR)
• Decoding to Audio (GNU Radio Only Currntly)

Full HiFi-Decode is not yet ported to the windows builds currently, however decoding and capture can be done with GNU Radio and hifi-decode can be used in WSL2.