What's the best way to digitise VHS tapes?
Q&A
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
There is an interesting product to allow PC users to listen to/rip audio cassettes - the Ion Tape2PC USB cassette deck - so our dodgy 1980s collections can be saved to MP3 or similar before being consigned to the bin. Does anyone know of a similar product that can be used for VHS?
I realise that size might be a problem here.
I have quite a collection of stuff on VHS that I would like to save, be able to watch fairly freely on devices of my choice or even burn to DVD without paying a company to do this.
I’m also running out of room! I imagine I could do something involving taking a feed from my VCR, but would rather use an 'internal solution' if there is one. That way I can hide it in a system at work...
COMMENTS
not possible
It's pysically impossible to build a VHS deck that would fit into a PC without designing the PC around it...
biggest available slot on the front of a PC would be a 5 1/4" drive bay, offer up a VHS cassette and you'll see the problem :P
insert it sideways? - NO, the tape needs to wrap around the head so needs space to be unlaced from the casette - tends to make the "footprint" of a VHS deck about the same depth as the cassette is wide.
Face it - whatever way you transfer from VHS to digital media will need wires and a VHS player.
messy
It's admittedly messy and not "internal", but what about just plugging the RF output from a VHS into a cheapo analogue USB TV stick and recording to the PCs HDD?
Gotta be a candidate for cheapest option, no? 10 years ago at uni, I used to run a VHS recorder & Sega Megadrive through a PII PC with a TV card to save on having an actual TV. Of course, the modestly sized 2GB HDD wasn't really up to the job of storing any meaningful amount of recorded video but playback was fine.
Granted, it's never gonna be top quality, but it's VHS we're talking about here.
Similarly, and contrary to my best space-saving intentions, scanning in my old photos and the cheap and cheerful job of plugging my 3.5" jack into the PC line in socket and MP3-ing my tapes and records are jobs that I'll probably never get round to doing. I'll probably just end up keeping the media packed away with a player and pulling 'em out once every 5-10 years for a old times sake.
Easy
Most any DVD/VHS combi recorder will allow you to convert VHS to DVD.
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