Best Capture Device for Old VHS Home Movies « Videomaker Community Forums

Rick
Member

I have stacks of old VHS home movies I want to digitize and eventually edit them and create DVD's. I am wondering what is the best capture device to get so that I can edit them on my computer. I know there are a lot of USB dongles out there and would like some advice on them or some other device if the price is right.

Posted 3 months ago #
MediaFish
Member

Bought a VHS to DVD device at WalMart for under $100 which worked great in converting all the VHS tapes to DVD. The content I want to use I just import form the DVD. Converting is time consuming but I did several hundred with no problem - still have several 100 to go but too busy right now to finish the rest.

Jeff
Media Fish Productions

Posted 3 months ago #
pseudosafari
Member

MediaFish, sounds like what I aim to do, too. What is the brand/model of the one you've had good luck with?

Rick, I've tried several of these. Some worked, some didn't. Right now I'm looking for a new one that works with Vista because the last model I had that worked was XP based.

Posted 3 months ago #
MediaFish
Member

Not sure of the brand I will have to check when I get back to the office. It is a fully self contained device no computer needed - not even sure if it can be connected to a computer. All I can say is it did what we needed it to do. One of the jobs was to convert old VHS football game film to DVD which worked just fine.

Posted 3 months ago #
Rick
Member

Thanks for all the comments so far. I know Sony has a new gadget that connects to your VCR or camcorder and burns directly to DVD. I had a Sony VHS/DVD recorder that did this but has since broke and I no longer can do that. I don't think I want to go directly to DVD anymore. I would like to be able have video files (AVI?) and then pick and choose the various scenes I want to burn.

Posted 3 months ago #
vid-e-o-man
Member

Rick, I don't know if this would fall into the catagory of best way to do this. I have an older digital 8 sony handicam that can convert analog to digital. I record by hooking rca output from the vcr to the digital 8 camera and play the tapes to download from the camera to my nle software on my computer and choose the output format there, DVD etc. Thats my .02.

Posted 3 months ago #
Rick
Member

Â Hmm...I have a Sony DCR-TRV460 Digital 8 camcorder.Â I never thought about runnong the VCR through that to my computer.Â I wonder if I have to have a 8MM tape in there or what?Â How do you do it Vid-e-o-man?

Posted 3 months ago #
designcbts
Member

I use a Matrox RTx2 PCIe card. It came with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. The trouble is, I don't think they're available anymore :(

Posted 3 months ago #
Jack Wolcott
Production Host

Grass Valley (Canopus) ADVC 110. Has RCA and SVHS inputs from your deck, and outputs to your computer via Firewire. $229 at B&H. We use it to imput VHS, 8mm, Hi-8 and Digital-8 to our computers.

Grass Valley also has a somewhat more expensive unit that includes a color correction and image stabilization capability. I believe it is still available.

Jack

Posted 3 months ago #
vid-e-o-man
Member

Rick, I have a dcr-trv730 digital 8. I connect to vcr with cable that has rca (yellow, red and white) on one end and miniplug at other to input of digicam 8. I put tape in cam and hit play, pause and record buttons. I cue up the vcr to the point where I want to record, hit play on vcr and pause button on digicam 8 and record the desired footage and pause where necessary to only get usable stuff that I want. This edits out most of the unwanted footage before entering it into my computer. I have never tried connecting the vcr to digicam 8 to computer and avoiding recording the tape. To do this I think that you would have to leave the digicam 8 on pause while you are transfering to the computer and I think that eventually (5 minutes?) the digicam 8 will switch off. Don't know cause I haven't tried it. Maybe next time I'm transfering, I might try it. Hope this helps.

Posted 3 months ago #
birdcat
Moderator

I also had a couple of boxes of VHS & VHS-C tapes I needed to convert - I just bought a Sony VCR/DVD recorder combo - I just press a few buttons and it copies the tape to a DVD, which I then import & use in my NLE - It's not a perfect solution but it works well, easily and relatively quickly (real time).

In lieu of that, I have an old Sony HC40 which offers pass-thru connect via 1394 to any composite video source.

Bruce Paul
7Squared Productions
http://www.7squared.com

Posted 3 months ago #
Rick
Member

Vid-e-o-man: I did get this link about converting analog to digital from the Sony eSupport site:

http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=C235711

Posted 3 months ago #
vid-e-o-man
Member

Rick, thanks for the link. I haven't done this for a few years but I will try it when I am transfering vhs to digital again. Thanks again.

Posted 3 months ago #