Converting VHS tapes to a digital format?

[Supportsneedlove]

Hi everyone!

I found some old VHS tapes a while ago and i thought back to when is was (more of) a child. I can't exactly save them for good but you i maybe convert them?  Use a TV tuner or something along those lines?

Thanks!

[Neverender]

When I was transferring VHS and Hi8 videos to my hard drives, I used a DVD-RW home unit, and then transferred the DVD files over to my hard drive. These days, you will be hard pressed to find a DVD-RW component. Especially a VHS/DVD-RW combo. They are out there though. I would say it's the easiest method.

[LogicalDrm]

There are two ways of doing this at home. Third would be using some service/library etc. for it. You either need to have recording DVD player or set-top box or VHS/DVD combo player. Or VHS with RCA output and suitable capture card. With latter you can use any recording software that can use said capture card as input. With former you either use built-in tools or just push play on VHS and record that "channel" from other device.

 

Note that same method can be used for audio tapes with any player which would have audio out to any line-in or mic port. PCs don't have video input by default.

[ElZamo92]

You could get a capture card with RCA inputs and record it using OBS. 

[Supportsneedlove]

On 10/4/2018 at 12:00 AM, ElZamo92 said:

You could get a capture card with RCA inputs and record it using OBS. 

 I found a used capture card, will it be alright? (Specs are in English) 

https://m.guloggratis.dk/elektronik/computere/hardware/tv-kort/annonce/40031103-hauppauge-wintv-pvr-150

also I found a 350 version of that for about half the price, the specs aren't in English thus I doubt it will be useful for you, but keep it in mind.

Edit: most other cards (even used) are about 3 times the price and don't support RCA. New are about 6-8

[Mitko_DSV]

1 hour ago, Supportsneedlove said:

 I found a used capture card, will it be alright? (Specs are in English) 

https://m.guloggratis.dk/elektronik/computere/hardware/tv-kort/annonce/40031103-hauppauge-wintv-pvr-150

also I found a 350 version of that for about half the price, the specs aren't in English thus I doubt it will be useful for you, but keep it in mind.

Edit: most other cards (even used) are about 3 times the price and don't support RCA. New are about 6-8

I have one that looks the same. Not sure what the exact model of mine is. I used it for the exact same purpose - converting VHS tapes to digital. It worked, but only on a 32 bit version of Windows (tried on XP, 7 and 8). Had some audio sincing issues, but those I think were due to software. Me and my dad gave up trying and decided to try againg later, but that still hasn't come. The audio and video quality were pretty good, at least as far as I can tell.

[Allupyourfinger]

I used an EZcap capture card cheap but does the job well I hooked that up to my VHS player and computer then opened up OBS and recorded the image from the capture card.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Ezcap-116-Video-Capture-converter/dp/B0054SYOY6 

 

This is the one I used and it worked with Windows 10 you may find a newer model.

[Supportsneedlove]

32 minutes ago, Allupyourfinger said:

I used an EZcap capture card cheap but does the job well I hooked that up to my VHS player and computer then opened up OBS and recorded the image from the capture card.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Ezcap-116-Video-Capture-converter/dp/B0054SYOY6 

 

This is the one I used and it worked with Windows 10 you may find a newer model.

I was going to use it on my windows 7 "media server" so as long as it works on there i'll be happy.