Trasferring SVHS into my LAPTOP, any suggestion ?

[Roland]

I am a newby and attemping to transfer some old SVHS into my laptop (then to burn DVD). Any suggestion for a reliable external grabber ? I have an old Panasonic FS200 (with TBC) working great so waht I need is only a grabber with a reasonable price. Thanks

[lordsmurf]

That is a nice VCR.

Do not buy a "grabber" device. Those are terrible.

Get a known-good capture card for transfer. Pair a good card with that good deck.

[Roland]

Well,the reality is that I have a LAPTOP ...

[usually_quiet]

I am a newby and attemping to transfer some old SVHS into my laptop (then to burn DVD). Any suggestion for a reliable external grabber ? I have an old Panasonic FS200 (with TBC) working great so waht I need is only a grabber with a reasonable price. Thanks

The I-o DATA GV-USB2 and Hauppauge USB-Live 2 610 have been recommended for VHS capture by some members here and are not hard to find new on Amazon or eBay. The I-o data GV-USB2 is a Japanese product and the included instructions and software are in Japanese but setup instructions in English may be found here: http://iotku.pw/gvusb2-guide/

[dellsam34]

I've had a pretty good success with Pinnacle devices with my Sony laptop on Windows 7, Besides capturing good quality over USB a feature those devices have is if your laptop doesn't have firewire port and want to transfer DV or D8 tapes to your laptop they have a firewire port on them, You connect the camcorder to device via iLink cable and from device to laptop via USB cable and you can transfer DV via USB in 1:1 with no loss and also you will be able to control the camcorder buttons from the application as well.

Here is the driver page for Pinnacle devices, After installing the driver just use Vdub for capturing.

By the way here is a demonstration of that VCR:
https://youtu.be/xMyWnpfCgsI

[Roland]

Thanks to all ! fruithfull suggestions

[Eric-jan]

Since you want to burn to DVD.... you can also look for a recorder combo (VHS/DVD) DVD = MPEG2...... you don't have any device (player) or smart-tv that will play files ? you could then play un-compressed or compressed video files.

[hpcampr]

I've had a pretty good success with Pinnacle devices with my Sony laptop on Windows 7, Besides capturing good quality over USB a feature those devices have is if your laptop doesn't have firewire port and want to transfer DV or D8 tapes to your laptop they have a firewire port on them, You connect the camcorder to device via iLink cable and from device to laptop via USB cable and you can transfer DV via USB in 1:1 with no loss and also you will be able to control the camcorder buttons from the application as well.

Here is the driver page for Pinnacle devices, After installing the driver just use Vdub for capturing.

By the way here is a demonstration of that VCR:
https://youtu.be/xMyWnpfCgsI

So the Pinnacle Studio Plus 700-USB is one that you think is allright? As you may remember for another post I got the Elgato USB2 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029U2YSA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and so far it has at least made capturing on win10 possible. So do you think Pinnacle 700 is better? Thanks
ps oops I just noticed this is about s-vhs (I got s-vhs and s-video mixed up before). I'm using s-video to laptop. Don't know if that changes which device works better.

[dellsam34]

S-VHS, VHS, Composite or S-Video are irrelevant to the quality of the capture device, They do affect the quality of capture however.

Let me repeat this again, Chinese capture devices are made to make money, quality is a distant second. Just read the answers on your threads no need to hijack someone else's thread.

[lingyi]

I wish lordsmurf wasn't so humble about letting people know he has the ATI 600 USB (tried and true by him) for sale here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/marketplace/8253-sale-ati-600-a.html. Also read the last post on that thread about his thoughts on capturing with a laptop and Win10 (not recommended). You may pay a bit more, but far better than taking a chance of something without a well documented history of quality.

Also read these threads: https://www.videohelp.com/search?q=lordsmurf+tbc&siteurl=forum.videohelp.com&Search=Search and this article about why an external TBC (which he may still have for sale) is also required for the best quality captures.

As I've posted numerous times, my only reason for promoting lordsmurf's items for sale is because he's one of a couple of handfuls of members who I truly acknowledge for his knowledge and experience and one of a small handful of members who has worked in the video field professionally, and the only member to my knowledge who actually does professional video transfers.

[hpcampr]

S-VHS, VHS, Composite or S-Video are irrelevant to the quality of the capture device, They do affect the quality of capture however.

Let me repeat this again, Chinese capture devices are made to make money, quality is a distant second. Just read the answers on your threads no need to hijack someone else's thread.

If it was clear to me from what I got on my own thread I wouldn't have taken the time to ask it here. Although I appreciated the people taking the time to help me along I got precious few specific recommendations. When I finally got one and bought it a bunch of other people commented that it (the Elgato) was bad. My question was simply is it pretty widely accepted here on this forum that the Pinnacle 700 you mention is better than the Elgato I got? I haven't been on forums that much except for recently as I try to convert tapes but I hope I wasn't hijacking anyones thread. I thought what's the best capture device was relevant to his question as well as my own questions.

[dellsam34]

We gave you enough suggestions in your threads but you kept listening to the wrong advice and keep buying easycraps despite the warnings.

[Eric-jan]

I've had a pretty good success with Pinnacle devices with my Sony laptop on Windows 7, Besides capturing good quality over USB a feature those devices have is if your laptop doesn't have firewire port and want to transfer DV or D8 tapes to your laptop they have a firewire port on them, You connect the camcorder to device via iLink cable and from device to laptop via USB cable and you can transfer DV via USB in 1:1 with no loss and also you will be able to control the camcorder buttons from the application as well.

Here is the driver page for Pinnacle devices, After installing the driver just use Vdub for capturing.

By the way here is a demonstration of that VCR:
https://youtu.be/xMyWnpfCgsI

So the Pinnacle Studio Plus 700-USB is one that you think is allright? As you may remember for another post I got the Elgato USB2 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029U2YSA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and so far it has at least made capturing on win10 possible. So do you think Pinnacle 700 is better? Thanks
ps oops I just noticed this is about s-vhs (I got s-vhs and s-video mixed up before). I'm using s-video to laptop. Don't know if that changes which device works better.

Well, you did break in on this thread, with your own question, so maybe it is also hard to compair quality, with capturing VHS you must decide what your quality standard is, and how much effort and money you want to put in it, that matters too, and then not everybody will agree to that.
btw. a laptop can work because some have SSD storage, and other fine hardware in them, which helps speed wise.

[lordsmurf]

Pinnacle Studio Plus 700-USB is one that you think is allright?

There needs to be some clarification in this thread.

I'm not fond of that exact model Pinnacle. And even then, there was not a single model of that model. Pinnacle (and sub-brand Dazzle) had a long production life on most of its products. There were known revisions, and hidden revisions within revisions (midproduction changes) which could alter card behavior and quality. The main reason that I never talk about Pinnacle is because of this fact, it's too confusing even for advanced users. Even excluding stupid users/reviews, this is why you'll see both "Pinnacle sucks" complaints and "Pinnacle is good" satisfaction. Yet those are not conflicting. Because both can be true, depending on the specific internals of the card.

The VC-500 has this same problem. Both good and bad models exist.

LinuxTV covered quite a few USB cards specs in their db, but not Pinnacles because none work in Linux. So details on all the various chipsets and changes is not in that db. I guess it was moot? The db itself notes this lack of info in entries.

So anybody running to eBay/Amazon/wherever, randomly buying the card, may not be getting the one they had hoped for.

@lingyi, I also have the good Pinnacles, also in small quantities, but usually save those for my best workflows. However, I have let some go by themselves, or with TBCs.

[dellsam34]

I've had good results with few Pinnacle devices particularly the 700-USB which I no longer have and the 500-USB that I kept due to its smaller size on Windows 7, I managed to get the 500-USB to work on Windows 10 using the crossbar thingy to switch from composite to S-Video. What revision or chip model? that I don't know.