I was talking to my dad over Christmas and he mentioned the pile of old family VHS tapes so it got me thinking about converting it to DVD so we can actually watch them, plus I'm guessing that the tapes won't age terribly well. Anyone actually do it? What software did you use? I have a pretty good laptop so I think it will handle it well, plus I have a huge hard drive. I figured I would edit them a bit while I was at it as well.
I would look for a company that could rip the raw files for you. I think there is a fair bit of hardware you need to do it properly.
you'll need a VHS player and a video-capture device, it'll plug into your USB and the RGB and sound output from your VHS/VCR. It should produce an .mp4 file. Should be quick and easy to do. Amazon search: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=video+capture+
Yeah I started searching around and most of the stuff looks to be pretty reasonable, $50-$80 or so. I wasn't sure if there was one that was way better or easier to use than another.
I got a good deal on VHS/DVD conversion through Groupon or Livingsocial or some such thing....ended up doing some old WSBK tapes. They came out great. Depending on how many tapes you have, maybe looking into the cost at a local shop may not be to bad.
Not sure about your setup, but I tried to convert some for my grandma a while back. She had the conversion box, don't remember the brand. But the quality never was that great. I don't know if it was the VCR or if it was the capture box. I ended up paying to get it converted. The quality was really good. I am guessing that the pros use really high end equipment.
I'm looking into doing the very same thing.I am very computer challenged. Walgreens said they do it.The 1st 2hrs is $20 and $5 after that. Like was said before kinda depends on how many tapes you have to transfer.
My wife bought a VHS/DVD recorder this fall, stole a stack of her parents' old home videos, converted them to DVD and gave them to her parents for Christmas. She is now converting our old VHS tapes. The DVD's came out in as good of quality as the VHS tapes. It's a Magnavox, model # ZV427MG9. Wal-Mart or Amazon have them: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-Dvd-Player-Vcr-Combo/11319408
My dad did this a while back after he bought a hugh jass fire safe. Took him a little time but he had quite a few tapes. Dont think the setup was all that complicated.
Actually RD, the VHS/DVD recorder can help. They will take an external source via 'RCA' jacks. I've got an older mini cam that recorded on them small ass tapes. I can just plug it in into those jacks and dub away.
Good point Metal. I really do have a bunch of old Beta stuff that I would like to transfer (it's stored next to my albums, dbx unit and Discwasher). Don't ask me why, but back in 85 I taped the entire Live Aid broadcast on my Beta. I don't think I ever watched it. Might be kind of cool to check out.
Cool. Been looking to do this for a while, have like 2 or 3 different tape formats from over the years. Sounds like the VHS/DVD player combo is the ticket!
I got the same deal. I think it was a place called Southtree? The quality is good. Now instead of a shelf of VHS tapes that were never watched, we have a small box of DVDs that never get watched.
The pros usually use a Frame Synchronizer or Time Base Corrector that stabilizes the video and also can adjust brightness, black level, hue and color saturation (chroma). It also probably has an audio limiter to keep from over-driving audio levels as well. That's really the only difference.