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Help Transferring A VHS To Computer

TubeTube Registered User admin
edited February 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
On another's behalf
Hello all, I am in urgent need of some help.

I basically have two media sources that I want to transfer to my PC so I can preserve them. One is probably going to be pretty easy, the other I imagine not.

So the hard one, I have a VHS tape. Now I can get hold of a VHS player but I haven't any idea how I would go about ripping this from the tape to my PC. I have access to the following:

* Radeon 4800
* Sony Vegas 9, think I can borrow Premiere if necessary
* VHS Player

I don't know if connecting to the 4800 is a possibility as I've never done any kind of TV-in before though I can't see any obvious input for it but again I lack experience in this area. So will I need something else to achieve this? If yes or no, where do I start? What kind of cables do I need? Will a PC even recognise a VHS player as an input source if I'm in something like Vegas? Any advice at all?


Next is an audio recorder, I imagine this is simpler, I just need to find a dual-way audio jack and then something like Goldwave?

These items are very important to me so I appreciate any help that you guys can give me.

Thanks in advance.

Tube on

Posts

  • saint2esaint2e Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My parents have something along the lines of:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pinnacle-Systems-8230-10063-01-Dazzle-Recorder/dp/B001918NLC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1263915146&sr=8-1

    Basically it comes with a peripheral you plug into a VHS player, and the other side plugs into your USB port. It takes the video/audio from the source and converts it instantly to a DVD if you like, but I think you have the option of putting it on your computer first, if you so choose.

    Works great for them, as they're in the process of converting a bunch of VHS tapes into DVD.

    saint2e on
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  • billwillbillwill Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    saint2e wrote: »
    My parents have something along the lines of:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pinnacle-Systems-8230-10063-01-Dazzle-Recorder/dp/B001918NLC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1263915146&sr=8-1

    Basically it comes with a peripheral you plug into a VHS player, and the other side plugs into your USB port. It takes the video/audio from the source and converts it instantly to a DVD if you like, but I think you have the option of putting it on your computer first, if you so choose.

    Works great for them, as they're in the process of converting a bunch of VHS tapes into DVD.

    Yes, my mother uses the same thing as well, and it works flawlessly.

    billwill on
    I hate you and you hate me.
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited January 2010
    So I take it it comes with software to do this itself?

    DarkWarrior on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited February 2010
    See Im looking on the link and theres a lot of negative reviews about it not working. For £29.99 for something that might not work...your mother has had no problems at all Bill?

    DarkWarrior on
  • bombardierbombardier Moderator Mod Emeritus
    edited February 2010
    Ugh oh god, I went through like three or four of those "recording devices" before just getting a PCI Hauppauge TV tuner card. My advice is to just buy whatever from a store that will accept returns and try what looks easy.

    bombardier on
  • billwillbillwill Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    See Im looking on the link and theres a lot of negative reviews about it not working. For £29.99 for something that might not work...your mother has had no problems at all Bill?

    Nope she doesn't. Maybe she got the rare one that works, but who knows...

    billwill on
    I hate you and you hate me.
  • deathnote666deathnote666 Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Get a DVD/VCR unit. (Assuming it isn't copywrited), you can dub the VHS to DVD and pull it off the DVD to the PC. Then get Pinniacle Mobile Media converter to convert the file into a more common format if needed (each player I have used uses VOB format).

    Not the cheapest method but it has allowed me to add 30 hours of recorded stuff to my MP3 player.

    deathnote666 on
  • EverywhereasignEverywhereasign Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Does your flavour of 4800 have RCA video/audio or coax inputs?

    If so, download ATI's video software that comes with the card. Connect the VCR to the card, run and setup software so you can see/hear the VCR playing on the computer.

    Hit the record button on the software. Be prepared to capture a hell-a large file, the ATI software I used in the past had no compression what-so-ever, so everything was saved as an AVI file. As you can imagine, these get kinda big.

    Then take your AVI file and compress it using free compression software like RAD or Open Video Converter. Or use your DVD burner/software to put make it into a playable DVD.

    You now have an easy to deal with, compressed video file/DVD of your VHS porn, family video, lost Doctor Who episode, or whatever.

    I just did something similar, but rather then using the card's software, I used Mythbuntu 'cause I already had it running. The export from Myth was a little messy, but it cleaned up nice in the end. I'd suggest going with the ATI software, you'll find much more support should something not work right.

    Everywhereasign on
    "What are you dense? Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think I am? I'm the goddamn Batman!"
  • UnderdogUnderdog Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    http://www.amazon.ca/Best-Data-Products-Diamond-VC500/dp/B000VM60I8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1265520161&sr=1-1

    I went with one of these. I was wary at the time because the reviews seemed very on and off. When it worked, it worked well and when it didn't, it shit the bed. Luckily I really only had 1 VHS tape that I needed to transfer and it worked so that was pretty much the end of that. It was definitely a risk but I wasn't ready to drop $120+ when I didn't know if I'd ever use it again.

    The thing comes with it's own software as well as a really simple dvd creating software. Just match up the plugs on the VCR, stick in the USB drive and hope they did a good job of putting it together.

    Underdog on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited February 2010
    Thanks for the advice so far guys, not sure about my 4800 will take a look. But on another note Im struggling with teh audio, its a basic Olympus Digital Voice Recorder and Im trying to record the audio, Ive connected it to my PC by a two way jack but in Goldwave and Sony Vegas, it seems to pick up a piece of blurry audio and thats it, nothing clear and not the whole piece at all, not sure what else to do there.

    DarkWarrior on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited February 2010
    Ok I pulled the whole tower out and as far as I can see I have an SPDIF (Whatever that is) and two connections on my graphics card
    that look like these:

    69509827.jpg

    Now Ive used them in the past a nd currently for picture out, the big rectangle one at the minute, I dont know if there is a possibility of IN with the software that Everywhereasign mentioned.
    And can someone clarify the difference between Line In and Mic? Does one make better quality sound? I connected the device to the ports on the back rather than the front and sound is coming through, not as clear as Id like however.

    DarkWarrior on
  • SpamSpam Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Ok I pulled the whole tower out and as far as I can see I have an SPDIF (Whatever that is) and two connections on my graphics card
    that look like these:

    69509827.jpg

    Now Ive used them in the past a nd currently for picture out, the big rectangle one at the minute, I dont know if there is a possibility of IN with the software that Everywhereasign mentioned.

    No.

    Going by your picture, thats a S-vid/composite TV Out and A DVI out - neither of them will accept video inputs, so you'll need some other bit of hardware to hook up to your VHS.

    Either get a TV Tuner card or one of those USB video capture devices linked earlier in the thread.

    Spam on
  • DarkWarriorDarkWarrior __BANNED USERS regular
    edited February 2010
    k, Thanks.

    Additional: So Ive managed to transfer the voice files by recording them to the computer using Goldwave and the Mic In from the motherboard, its much clearer and hte voice is there but there seems to be slight 'buzz' to the voice, is there a reason for this as it doesn't seem to be there on the source device and is htere a way to clear it? I recorded it at the highest available sound quality and saved it as a FLAC.

    DarkWarrior on
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