I am digitizing analog PAL video from VHS, VHS-C, Hi8 and Mini DV cassettes. I recently learned that analog to digital conversion is done by sampling and quantizing the continuous analog signal into discrete snapshots and values. See for instance: https://www.monolithicpower.com/en/learning/mpscholar/analog-to-digital-converters/introduction-to-adcs/fundamental-concepts

In light of this, I decided to open up my video ADC in order to get the name of the IC that does the job, because there was just no way that I’d be able to read the IC’s resolution off of Linux, considering that the signal had gone through a capture card and ffmpeg’s filters after the conversion.

I learned that the IC is an MS1858E by Macro Silicon, which quantizes with an 8-bit resolution (not to be confused with image size resolution!) and samples at 54 MHz sampling rate, although my Chinese is a bit rusty, so take this with a grain of salt… Here: https://www.lcsc.com/datasheet/C42374496.pdf

Question: the 8-bit quantizing resolution means that my little ADC can output at most 256 (2^8) video values. That probably includes not only the color space, but all other information too… If I just let this all go and ask myself whether I’m satisfied by the end results of my digitizing, then yes, I am satisfied. But it also makes me wonder whether paying $200 for a professional ADC is worth it (as opposed to $20 for my current one) if it comes with greater resolution? Like 16-bit? I can’t even know what I get before buying and opening up the product, because the retailers don’t exactly write that in the product description…

Edit: I’m asking whether investing in an ADC that can work with more bits would make a significant improvement in subjective video quality, considering that the analog signal is at most early 2000’s PAL.