Converting from ol' VHS tapes to CD??

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

I've still got a VHS player (somewhere....)
In doing the current round of packing I see there's lots of "good" VHS stuff I've collected...but it would be much, much more useful on a CD/DVD.
What's the easiest way of doing it??

[joe_smith]

Just use a usb video capturer device, I have done some VHS to dvd with one and it was pretty easy and the software included is OK as well.

[multiweb (Marc)]

I did that years ago. Digitize all the old films and tapes with the kids and family that I had collected over the years. I got an analog PCI card from pinnacle at the time. I might still have it lying around. PM me if interested. It has Audio and video jacks. You play on the tape device and capture in realtime then save the raw video on disk. It is time consuming but you can get good quality and once it's in digital format, back it up or encode it to DVD and burn it straight which is what I did.

[michaellxv (Michael)]

I used my video camera to capture the output. It had the right inputs to connect the video and audio output directly to the camera. From there to the PC in digital format and then do what you like with it.

Just another option if you already have a suitable video camera.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Thanks guys!
I've found a couple of USB dongles on ebay - looks like that's the best solution for me.

[Larryp (Laurie)]

If you have a dvd recorder, you can just play your tapes on VHS machine directly into your DVD recorder input.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

The only DVD recorder I have is the DVD player in the Acer.....

[hotspur (Chris)]

I too had many VHS tapes I wanted to get on DVD,I bought a VHS/DVD combo machine,it records the tapes on to DVD,and plays them fine on this machine.

But,the DVD'd did not play in a friends DVD player,not sure what the issue was there.

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Hi Chris-did you finalise your DVD discs after recording them?

[Barrykgerdes]

Originally Posted by hotspur

I too had many VHS tapes I wanted to get on DVD,I bought a VHS/DVD combo machine,it records the tapes on to DVD,and plays them fine on this machine.

But,the DVD'd did not play in a friends DVD player,not sure what the issue was there.

I have the same trouble with a similar machine. Disks recorded on it will play on it but not on any other machine. I have studied the manual but as far as I can work out there is no facility on these machines to make DVD's that can be used universally.

I just use the record feature on a TV card that writes in *avi form to the HDD. This format can be transfered to a standard DVD format using Ulead DVD factory, a program that came free with DVD R/W drives. It is very slow but I let the computer run all night and get the finished DVD in the morning.

My latest movie venture is making HD 3D movies. These can't be put onto a DVD. You need a BlueRay for full HD. However you can convert them to AVCHD format (two side by side compressed horizontally by 50%). This method will write a DVD up to 30 minutes long. These can be viewed on a standard 3D TV. They can also be viewed directly on a normal TV in anaglyph mode using red/blue glasses and a program called Stereoscopic Player. The results are surprisingly good in anaglyph mode.

You can also convert 2D movies into psuedo 3D using another program called Movavi Video Converter 3D.

Barry

PS A lot of the old VHS movies I have are now available for under $10 on DVD's. I find this cheaper in the long run than trying to convert and also the resolution is generally 720/640 x 480 and that is double what you can get from a converted VHS tape.

[hotspur (Chris)]

Originally Posted by Larryp

Hi Chris-did you finalise your DVD discs after recording them?

Not sure,think it did all that.but sounds like Barry's has similar issue-will check all again,its a boy annoying-thought this ubeaut machine was gone to be good,but if it packs it in,I'm back in the same boat