Capturing VHS for newbies/dummies

[tj-]

I recently completed a family project of converting old film negatives and slides to digital. This was reasonably painless, as I primarily just captured in as raw and high quality format as possible, allowing me to later spend time improving an image if it is particularly important, and letting me and family members just browse lower-quality automatically converted and improved versions for nostalgia.

I've now been given a large stack of family VHS tapes (all NTSC from what I can see) and I would like to convert them to a digital format. I've tried reading the threads on here, but am finding myself hopeless lost in all of the different options (e.g. here are 20 different S-VHS VCR options that you should research). Is there a good guide somewhere that will just recommend to me what I should buy and what to do to capture these VHS tapes in as good a quality as possible? I do not currently own a VHS player or tuner card, so I'm pretty much starting from scratch. I'm not archiving historical footage, so it's acceptable if everything isn't perfect, but I imagine there should be some reasonably straightforward method that produces better results than some of the cheap VCR->DVD converts available.

Thanks in advance for any help, and apologies if my searches missed a thread that answers my questions.

[Jeremiah58]

Which are those cheap VCR->DVD converts available, that you are referring to?

(This topic has been elaborated so many times here. You just have to search and read, and find a method which would suite your purpose and your purse. )

[sanlyn]

You might as well start where many on this forum got their biggest starting boost: http://www.digitalfaq.com/ .The left hand index on that page has most of what you need to know in its "Digital Video Guides". Start at the top of the list and work down -- the entire process from start to finish in logical order, with lots of free and useful links along the way.

[yoda313]

If there aren't many tapes I would seriously consider a professional service for the job.

If you don't have a vcr or capture device consider that as a downpayment for the job.

Simply put it would save a lot of time and angst if you are only talking about a handful of tapes. And even if its more tapes there should be group discounts for larger lots to transfer I assume.

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I'm not trying to dissuade you from doing this. I'm just trying to save you some expense and headache. It seems like you are quite capable of taking the time to learn how to do things properly but if you haven't even started getting equipment yet this could be a long endeavor.

You could see if some company will offer to simply to a dv-avi transfer and let you have the captured files so you can tweak and author later. FYI though dv-avi is 13gb/hr so they may want you to supply a harddrive for that.

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But if you do want to do this yourself a good svhs is a minimum requirement. Then you will probably need a tbc (time base corrector) depending on the conditions of the tapes.

Also you'll need verbatim or taiyo yuden blank dvds for best results.

[victoriabears]

why do people not say which country they are in, lets presume its in North America, because if you are in Europe and have ntsc tapes its another ball of wax.


I copied this answer from another question I answered, it is hard to decipher all the pages and pages of info here, so telling newbies to search is okay but you have to understand it all to find the answers valuable !


The effort/reward ratio is very much at play here, if your VHS tapes are recordings you have made yourself and not commercially produced then the simplest is to use something like this:-

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/pr...250&navAction=


put the vhs in, put a good quality dvd blank into the dvd recorder side (Please use verbatim or Taiyo Yuden brand discs) and use the dubbing feature from tape to disc.

Most of the experts on here would not use that method and if you do not want to learn computer capture then use something like this:-

http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/ea.../overview.html

if you buy one of the simple computer dongle type things at least buy it from a reputable company that you can return it if you do not get what you want, look in your local stores and get advice on which to buy.

If your vhs tapes are copy protected you really need to do what I did which is get the best vcr,(usa=panasonic1980P first if that isn;t working how you wish a JVC of the 9xxx series or 8xxx series), a time base corrector and a dvd recorder, used in xp mode and then transferred to the computer if you want to splice it all or edit it all together.

The JVC's do ot play EP/SLP speed very well and do not play stereo soundtracks very well, your mileage may vary.

all in all, a minimum outlay of $600 total. I had 1000ish tapes and used this method.

The computer capture methods preferred by the experts on here are a big learning curve and you need to be sure you want to learn. here:-

http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/vid...-workflows.htm

[classfour]

Thanks to LS for his work.

My train: Panasonic AG-1980> Elitevideo BVP-4 (if needed)>Hauppauge PVR-250 (too cheap to buy HD version of Hauppauge card.

I do FF and REW the tape before it goes to the Panasonic - it's a relic, and I want it to work for a LOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG time.

[lordsmurf]

Thanks to LS for his work.

Gracias.

The computer capture methods preferred by the experts on here are a big learning curve and you need to be sure you want to learn. here:- http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/vid...-workflows.htm

There's more in the video workflows forum, too. More options, some updates, etc. Lots of people ask there for advice on customized setups to their exact needs. (sources, budgets, etc)

So read in there, too.