Hiya, pretty much the title. I have a dozen tapes I want to backup before age takes its toll. My basic idea after watching some videos online is to buy a hardware based upscaler that can interface with my vcr then throw that signal to a video capture card and record on my computer. I’ll go with name brands to avoid problems but is that really the best method? I want to avoid sending them to a service since it will cost more than just buying the hardware in the first place and I got time to kill.
I did this last year for a bunch of family videos.
I bought an used VHS/HDD/DVD combo, recorded the VHS to HDD to DVD, then used my PC to rip those DVD to MKV and chucked them on my NAS for access/backup.
Quality is fine compared to the originals.
Are there any VHS decks that will allow digital transfer without writing a DVD?
Edit: Found it! There are MiniDV / SVHS combo decks with digital out via firewire. Pricey though.
Yes. Just get an RCA to USB adapter and use software to capture the video as it’s playing on the VCR.
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Oddly enough, the laptop I’m sitting in front of has firewire. (And linux sees it! Might actually work…)