I usually censor names but this is clearly a throwaway account so didn’t bother doing so.

Anyway, sharing lang yung fan mail (comment actually) na nakuha ko a few days ago.

Unang una, wala ako paki sa lost media. To me, anything old has value and a story to tell. Sa kakahanap niyo ng lost media, dami niyo nami-miss na mga important resources. Hindi magpapakita sayo hinahanap mo with a VHS label advertising its contents. Often times it’s going to be on a discarded pile of laserdisc-copied tapes. So please lang, don’t lump me in with these people who call themselves lost media hunters.

Secondly, paulit ulit na kayo putak ng putak na I gatekeep or refuse to make something available. Where’s your proof? Pero sige, tutal that’s what you want then that’s what you’ll have. If ever I do find EB, I’m going to solicit donations before it will be uploaded. I’m not “profiting” from it because the funds will just go to procuring better equipment (a frame TBC). So balls on your court.

This is for my Undusthings sister channel which are mostly educational explainer videos.

Bakit taglish yung language? Pinoy ang main audience mo.

Yes, the content at the moment is predominantly about Filipino culture — but I don’t like to box myself in on a certain audience. If it’s old and I feel like it deserves a look regardless of its country of origin, I’m going to cover it.

As for taglish, I’m more comfortable with it and I feel that’s how most Filipinos communicate in reality. Wala naman nagsasalita these days ng full on straight tagalog like they’re on a covert Illustrados meeting — and this is coming from someone who hates speaking in English in person! LOL! It also separates me from the hundreds of other local nostalgia channels.

Is that your voice??

It’s not. I use a text-to-speech AI with quite possibly the most authentic Filipino-sounding voice I could find. I mean it had you fooled, lol. It’s just impossible for me to do any clean voice overs given the circumstances — and that’s living in a bungalow with a kid and construction work on the neighboring lot. Doing a Zoom call with a dynamic mic feels like I’m in Ubon Ratchathani.

This is also partly the reason why the language is predominantly English.

Do <insert lost media here> please!

While I’ve done (and intend to do more) lost media stuff, I try to avoid it as much as possible. There’s just too many channels doing that already. And if it’s lost, chances are there’s little material to work with in terms of visuals.

The other day, someone called Undusthings the “Filipino Oddheader” and I like that. I’ve never heard of the channel before that comment but it’s accurate. I hope it could be half as good as that channel someday.

What makes your channel different?

For one, I use (often) never-before-seen clips directly from my vault. Even if it’s not rare, it’s still my own capture. I try to avoid using clips that are not mine as much as I can avoid it.

Secondly, I try to focus on topics that are often not covered by anyone else. Sometimes it can be too nichey and only a few people could relate, but that’s alright. I just don’t see the value proposition of doing the exact same thing as any other channel.

Most importantly, I’m not in it for the money. I’m not going to put up a 15-minute video of nothing just so I’d have more advertising time or watch hours. If there’s only enough material for a 4-minute video then that’s it. I’m not going to paraphrase an entire Wikipedia article — you’re going to get my own thoughts and experiences. Any centavo I earn (if ever I become eligible) just goes back to producing content. Filmora’s assets library can be pricey, those bastards.

I’d also love to watch something that I actually like. That’s why you would occasionally get a post-modernist thesis on the UAAP opening. Total headscratcher for everyone else, but amusing to me. 🤣

As of 9/11/25, all email addresses removed. Walang marunong magbasa and it underscores an underlying problem in the country.

Philippines lowest in reading comprehension among 79 countries

The bulk of my content come from VHS. They are surprisingly robust and last many years as long as you store them properly. If you lose your digitized copies, you can just go back to the tapes and re-convert. Due to the age of the technology, you’re also almost always guaranteed that the content is going to be old.

I use a Panasonic AG-1980p S-VHS player to get the best possible quality out of the tapes. I also have a backup Sharp S-VHS player hooked up to a Panasonic DMR-ES18 to serve as a line TBC passthrough. I recently acquired a working Sony betamax too, but I don’t use it as much due to fear of breaking it. All tapes are captured losslessly through Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle so I can upscale it a bit using Virtualdub to 960x720 and retain the 4:3 aspect ratio. All videos are then compressed for storage using Handbrake.

11/2025 update: I bought an ED Beta EDV-9000. I now have a TOTL betamax to go with the AG-1980P.

While my uploads purport to be 60 FPS, this is merely placebo and the default setting on my encoder that I didn’t bother to change as it has no bearing on the filesize anyway. The broadcast standards in TV before 2009 is 29.97 FPS, so my records are 30 FPS at best. Anything above that is unnatural and is not how it was intended to be viewed back in the day. Heck, even on my TV I turn off any setting that artificially gasses up the picture (aka. soap opera effect).

Your definition of “smooth” is just you being used to all the 4K/60 HDR10+ quality videos today of real life footage.

Around 2006 or 2007, I stopped using VCRs and transitioned to TV tuners. It was the worst decision of my life, but had no choice as my VCR broke down and it has fallen out of favor with the rise of DVDs. On one hand, this was the peak of my recording years as I recorded all kinds of channels from the usuals to something like early boring QTV, TV5Monde or RAI International, lmao. On the other, hard drive space was expensive so I had to capture at 240p and burn them on DVDs. Little did I know that discs had a astoundingly bad lifespan, leading to several recordings being lost.

I completely stopped recording after 2008. Therefore, you won’t see me post anything beyond that date. It would be inauthentic and clearly not from my collection. I did have one short clip from Balls in 2011 as I was still watching volleyball during those years, but that’s it.

In the future, I plan on learning about VHS Decode having seen its potential to successfully retrieve video out of damaged tapes. But that’s a long ways ahead due to how technical and intensive it is. Learning QTGMC to deinterlace captures is probably next in my list, and the most realistic.