Ideal hardware needed to capture VHS to PC video file?

[kingmustard123]

I bought a Compro VideoMate S350 for £25 back in 2011.

I have used it, whilst connected to my PC, to capture 640x480 video files from VHS tapes via. a VHS player and it's fine.

Is there a way to capture the tapes at a higher quality? (for archival purposes)

[Brad]

Yes. What is your budget? Most of it should go towards an S-VHS player.

[kingmustard123]

Yes. What is your budget? Most of it should go towards an S-VHS player.

£100, perhaps?

[Brad]

In that case, I guess a better player is out of the question.

Post a sample so we can see what could be improved upon. Upload files/Manage attachments button at the bottom of the reply box.

[JVRaines]

Does your VCR have s-video output? If so, that will usually provide an improvement over the RCA composite jack. An SVHS deck will only help if you lack s-video output or have SVHS recordings to convert. You will also get a better picture converting to a lossless format instead of using MPEG compression. I don't know if the Compro driver is capable, but you can try connecting to the card with VirtualDub (always gives me audio sync headaches) or AmaRecTV and storing to HuffYUV, Lagarith or UTVideo formats — these are all lossless compression.