Best capturing method from VHS to digital format with highest quality?

[jbloggs]

I have a few VHS tapes that I would like to capture on Windows based PC at the highest possible quality (upconverted?). Once captured I would like the option to play via media player (WDTV) or write back to DVD or Blu-Ray. So emphasis on quality of video is my priority.

Just to add to the task, some of the VHS tapes are in PAL format.

Currently (Today only) Amazon has the Honestech VHS to DVD 5.0 Deluxe for $28, but not sure if that is the best to go.

What is the best way to achieve this?

[olyteddy]

A few tapes? Hire it out.

[KarMa]

If you want to do it yourself, and want the best quality, you are looking down a long and painful road. You can buy that but probably won't be the best, heavily depends on how good your VCR is. Throw in a PAL tape and the whole thing gets worse, as your VCR won't work with it. Would probably just find a good company and go with them, but they only do non-commercial home movie tapes (no pirating in short).

Upconvert? No, it's a VHS.

[PuzZLeR]

Continuing what was said: Yes. Painful. And yes, forget HD quality with VHS (although you can put it on blu-ray with SD).

And pain to achieve quality. If you want to go with that product you mentioned, you will avoid lots of pain, but an all-in-one consumer solution like that doesn't give you the best quality. Trust me. I know this from lots of experience.

You want quality? Look into a good VCR, better capture device, TBC, proc amp, multiple captures and median methods (to remove random tape flaws, including snow storms), use lossless video formats and look into lots of post-processing: de-noising, color correction, maybe some sharpening and ghost removal, etc. A consumer solution will not do this for you.

Editing, and encoding, and getting it on DvD, blu-ray or YouTube after all this, is that last step, and the easy part.

If it's only just a "few" tapes, and you want quality and no pain, do look into a good capture house to do this for you instead.

[Krispy Kritter]

KarMa and PuzZleR, this topic is from 2012.

[KarMa]

KarMa and PuzZleR, this topic is from 2012.

I honestly don't know how I came to dredge up this topic. Bit embarrassing. I might of saw it in the "similar threads" at the bottom of another thread and just never noticed the date.

[PuzZLeR]

KarMa and PuzZleR, this topic is from 2012.

Yes, I saw that, and felt it relevant in case it needs to be searched. The original answer at that date was rather abrupt IMO.

At any rate, as long as it's not me doing the shameless resurrecting, it's not me feeling shame.

Is there a protocol or some code of ethics regarding this?

I honestly don't know how I came to dredge up this topic. Bit embarrassing. I might of saw it in the "similar threads" at the bottom of another thread and just never noticed the date.

Hey, like I said, it may be relevant in a future search for someone looking for some help. After all, it came up in one of your searches.

[Krispy Kritter]

On most forums it's frowned upon. Especially a topic of this age (2012) by a member that hasn't been here since 2013.

Aside from the fact that the OP isn't likely to read this (and he was wanting input on the day the topic was created), it can actually be useful to someone. As opposed to a few other resurrections that I've seen lately where they basically stated there was better tools available (of course there is, the topic was years old) than what was recommended.

[bendixG15]

Resurrecting ancient posts is a study in history. I'm not interested in history.

[KarMa]

Resurrecting ancient posts is a study in history. I'm not interested in history.

Maybe you should redefine your definition of ancient.

[TimA-C]

Resurrecting ancient posts is a study in history. I'm not interested in history.

"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it"