To build for contribution or testing builds should run though an GitHub actions workflow file, this replicates a real-world release, there is a nightly release profile for making easy quick test releases on your forks for sharing and development.

This is the workflow to manually build the decoders and toolchain.

The vhs-decode repository also has hifi-decode, cvbs-decode & ld-decode included.

As of 2026 this is more aimed at users who which to develop and tinker with decode vs use in a fixed production way as that should be based around the bianry releases.

[!TIP] If your having installation problems or want automated installation assistance, use Agent mode with Warp terminal, If it manages to solve an installation issue please make an issue ticket, and post your entire start to finish process dialogue on the terminal so documentation can be updated.

Install all dependencies required by LD-Decode and VHS-Decode:

sudo apt install curl git qtbase5-dev libqwt-qt5-dev libfftw3-dev libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev libavutil-dev ffmpeg pv pkg-config make cmake sox pipx g++ python3-dev python3-pip

Install vhs-decode repository:

Download decode suite:

git clone https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode.git vhs-decode

Enter into decode directory :

cd vhs-decode

Install Rust Compiler (required for decode v0.3.5 onwards)

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y

Verify Rust Compiler

source "$HOME/.cargo/env" && echo "Rust version: $(rustc --version)" && echo "Cargo version: $(cargo --version)"

Ubuntu 22.04/Linux Mint 21/Debian may also need this library installed if one wants to use the GUI version of hifi-decode:

sudo apt install libxcb-cursor0

For Arch Linux

pacman -S base-devel git qt5-base qwt fftw ffmpeg pv cmake sox python python-pipx

[!NOTE] NixOS Linux has pre-made nur-packages for vhs-decode, cxadc and outer tools within the projects.

Set up pipx

pipx ensurepath

Install TBC-Video-Export

pipx install tbc-video-export

(There is also self-contained builds if install issues arise)

Optional dependencies for GPU (Nvidia Cards) FLAC compression support:

sudo apt install make ocl-icd-opencl-dev mono-runtime

Also Requires FlaLDF Download & Install via .deb for Linux

[!NOTE] Debian/ubuntu does not have a qt6 version of qwt in repositories as of yet so you have to inform the build script to use Qt5 if both qt5 and qt6 are installed with -DUSE_QT_VERSION=5 as it might otherwise try to compile with qt6 instead and failing to locate qwt. The option is otherwise not needed.

[!NOTE] HiFi-Decode preview function - the python library sounddevice requires portaudio (libportaudio2 on ubuntu) this is not included in the self-contained binaries and has to be installed locally if not already installed. (included with most desktop environments)

The vhs-decode repository also has hifi-decode, cvbs-decode, ld-decode included.

Build and install vhs-decode via pipx, using one of the below scripts.

pipx install .

pipx install .[hifi_gui_qt6]

pipx install .[intel]

pipx install .[intel,hifi_gui_qt6] --force

You may wish to use the updated tbc-tools over the legacy ld-tools which have ceased upstream dev work in favor for decode-orc as it is no longer under the main source repos.

There are binary releases which is the preferred way going forward for post-decode tooling.

To update your local repository enter git pull into the terminal while inside the vhs-decode directory, and then do pipx install .[hifi_gui_qt6] --force it will overwrite your previous installation and deploy the current version of the decoders.

To update the tools to the latest version, the steps under "Compile and Install ld-tools suite: (Required)" has to be re-ran after a git pull. The tools are not updated very often.

[!NOTE]
debian/ubuntu does not have a qt6 version of qwt in repositories as of yet, so you have to inform the build script to use Qt5 if both qt5 and qt6 are installed with -DUSE_QT_VERSION=5 as it might otherwise try to compile with qt6 instead and failing to locate qwt. The option is otherwise not needed.

Go back to the main directory with

cd .. 

To update the decoders and tools do git pull while inside the vhs-decode directory, and repeat the above build & compile steps.

[!WARNING] You may have to add --force when git pull updating i.g pipx install .[hifi_gui_qt6] --force

Binary versions, there is no automatic updates simply check back on the releases page from time to time.

Older builds may have use for testing or understanding, deprecated or older revisions of functions.

Between 2021-2024 there was 2 notable turning points in the building process.

Pre-Pipx switchover

Pre-Cmake switchover

To have standalone files which can be run without any Python on a destination system the following steps have to be taken.

first install pyinstaller

pip install pyinstaller

Within the vhs-decode directory:

Before pyinstaller can be used we have to compile the Cython based part of the project run

python setup.py build_ext --inplace

After that there should be new modules in the vhsdecode subdirectory, for Python3.11 it should look like this

• hilbert.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
• linear_filter.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
• sync.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so

Create binary for vhs-decode by using pyinstaller

pyinstaller vhs-decode

(or if you want it in one file: pyinstaller --onefile vhs-decode)

Create binary for hifi-decode by using pyinstaller

pyinstaller hifi-decode

(or if you want it in one file: pyinstaller --onefile hifi-decode)

Pyinstaller is platform dependent. So compiling on a Windows machine will only give Windows executables. Compiling on Linux only give Linux x86 executable, same applies to Apple X86 and Apple ARM.