Playing/digitizing tapes on old VCR

[cheddarcaveman]

I still have my old Sharp VC-MA55 VCR which seems to be working. We also have many cassettes which we recorded "back then" of our sons growing up. Is there some way I can digitise these cassettes and record them onto either an HD or CD?

The VCR only seems to have one Video and one Audio output. My DVD player/recorder only has a USB cable.

 

[noiseboy72]

What DVD recorder to you have? Most will have an analogue input that will connect to the composite video and audio output.

If you want to use your PC to encode the analogue video from the vhs player to the digital format that the DVD recorder uses, you will need a USB capture device and suitable software.

 

[cheddarcaveman]

Thanks noise boy. My little DVD R/W only has a USB connector to plug into my computer.

Guess I'll need Something like this.... to convert the VHS's onto my computer and then onto the DVD.

 

[noiseboy72]

Ahh, OK, you have a DVD-R drive, not a DVD recorder, I guessed that might be the case!

Yes, in that case, the USB capture device you linked to will be fine. You might need some simple capture and editing software, as you cannot just copy a video to a blank DVD and expect it to play in a DVD player. It needs to be encoded and have the file structure and menus burned along with the video information.

The Elegato unit contains basic capture software, so if you are just storing the videos on a hard drive or uploading to a private Youtube channel, that's probably all you will need. For DVD creation, there's a few options, but it's quite an outdated concept now.

 

[cheddarcaveman]

I guess my next question is, does one have to pay so much for a converter. I see dozens of them on line but is it a case of "you get what you pay for"?

 

[noiseboy72]

It generally depends upon things like usability, additional features, support and in some cases, speed.

Most have some form of demo, so you can try a few out.

 

[cheddarcaveman]

Cheers mate! I'll have a play - buy on Amazon and return if not working