Sorry if this has ? been brought up before but I didn't find it doing a search.
Can someone help me with the a recommendation for a good capture device/software to transfer my old VHS cassettes to my HDD?
I have WIN 7 64 bit and I'd like to make sure it can work with my system.
Thanks,
Riko
Hi there
Actually if your Video VHS machine has a Composite Video out you could use something like WINTV (works on W7) to record the video -- You'll need a TV card that has composite input. A small WIN TV -HVR 900H (USB connection) will do this fine if you haven't got an Internal TV card.
The HVR 900H comes with a set of Composite Video Input connectors.
Just start playing the video and set the WIN TV software for "Composite" input and click the Record button on the software.
The video stream can then also be converted to a DVD as well if you want that can be played on normal DVD players (use a DVD R+ or DVD RW+ - you will need to create a "Top level menu" with some DVD authoring software to create a playable DVD disc that will be playable on "nortmal DVD recorders".
The recorded video stream will play fine on the HDD of a computer however.
If your VHS recorder has SCART output then a SCART to composite converter (very cheap) will do the job.
BTW the SCART to Composite adapter looks like pic shown below.
(If your old VHS machine as an S-Video connector then you'll get better quality. The HVR 900H has S-Video input as well, and the scart adpater I've shown has it as well -- it's the Circular connection in the middle of the device between the Red and Yellow connectors).
BTW if you don't want to lug your VHS machine up to where your computer is you can use a Video Sender - simply plug the composite output from the Video Sender receiver into the HVR 900H card (or other TV card). - The problem however when using a Video sender near the computer is that you'll get interference from a Wireless router so you'll have to switch off or disable wireless on your router while doing the recording.
The Video sender method will also strip out any stupid macrovision copy protection as well.
I've done this from a DVD recorder to copy "Protected DVD's" to HDD -- I always like to take a small USB external HDD with me when I travel --I can fit a LOT of DVD's on one of these --much better than carrying around a load of physical DVD's.
Note of course these methods copy in "Real Time".
Cheers
jimbo
Thanks for the good info Jimbo.
And you answered another question I had- about recording in real time. Looks like I'll just have to set my egg timer and run to the PC to hit stop when it ends.
I think I'm going to go with this thingy from Newegg for $19.99 and give it a shot-
Hi there
That's identical to the WinTV device (HVR-900H) but without the TV tuner in it -- the recording software is much the same as well.
Use the S-Video connection for the best quality if your VHS recorder has one.
(You can also use a TV sender as well as described in the previous post -- as I said the device is identical to the WINTV HVR-900H but doesn't have the TV tuner in it).
I think the recording software can be set to stop after a certain time -- so for a 95 min movie say set to 2 hrs and then it will stop automatically.
You can then edit out all the stuff AFTER the film has finished.
If you (like me when I had a VHS recorder) set it to LP and got say 2 films on a tape just record the whole tape to disc and use the editing software to "Split" it where you need to.
LP quality on VHS was almost as good as SP -- doesn't really compare to modern DVD's however. If you can use the S-video output then it will be fine.
Cheers
jimbo
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