The BEST Way to TRANSFER VHS To DIGITAL

hi my name is mark and in today's video i'm going to show you the best way to digitize your old vhs vhsc and i8 tapes the way we've captured our home movies has evolved over the years and this evolution has been great but the only problem is these older formats kind of get left behind it's a bit of a shame because as technology evolves it makes it harder to view and share these old memories with those who matter this is the video to digital 2.0 a device that allows you to connect and record directly from your vcr or old camera straight to a usb drive or sd card it's so easy there's almost nothing to it almost so before we begin let's take a look at what you get in the box the video to digital converter itself av cables a usb power cable and adapter plug and of course a manual now on the actual device you've got a usb port and an sd card slot to store captured media a full size hdmi port av inputs there's also an s video port for better quality video if you have that option on your device now i do love this little screen here which allows you to see what you're looking to capture keeping this whole setup very minimal now of course you're going to have to supply the most important things the media and a working vcr for full-size vhs tapes as well as these vhs c-tapes well these smaller ones need a tape adapter like this now if you're capturing high-eight tapes you're going to need a working camera that will act as your deck some decks exist but they're very hard to find and are actually still quite expensive now first i'll walk you through capturing vhs tapes and then i'll show you the process i use when capturing my hi-8 tapes using s-video as an option first let's bring power to this device plug it into the wall with the plug adapter or use the usb cable and plug it into your computer if it doesn't automatically turn on hit the power button to turn it on next up connect the av cables that came with the device white red and yellow now i'm going to be using the sd card to save the video to so i would highly recommend using a new card or at the very least one that's been backed up and reformatted now insert the sd card into the sd slot on the side with the label of the card facing down it does take a bit of pressure you'll hear a little click when it's all the way in now before you record for the first time it's important to check some of the menu settings now to do that simply click on the menu button now in the menu system there are a few options i would recommend setting the date and time so that when you record it it will give you the accurate time of the recording which makes it easier for file managing now the only other important options here really are the video source in this setup i'm going to be using the av cables my vcr only has an av option so i'm going to leave it on the av setting for now now you can also change your default storage device to either sd or usb now i'm on sd so i'm going to leave that here for now you can also schedule recordings a feature i don't really use but it's nice to know that it's there now that your device is all set up plug it into your vcr connect the av cables to the output connections on the back pop in your tape and press play if connected properly you should see your video on the screen and hear the audio playing through the little speaker on the side this should all tell you that you are actually ready to record so simply cue it up to the part you want to record hit play on the vcr and the record button on the video to digital device and you'll see confirmation of the recording right here to stop recording simply press the record stop button again every time you repeat this cycle it will create a new file on your sd card which you can later transfer directly to your computer capturing with these tapes is done in real time so a 15 minute clip will take 15 minutes and 15 minutes of captured video will likely take up approximately 550 megabytes on your hard drive so keep that in mind when capturing video when you're finished capturing what you want and are ready to transfer these files to the computer simply plug in your sd card or usb drive into your computer open up the drive in your finder or explorer window navigate to the video folder and you'll see all your captured videos right here drag and drop these onto your computer hard drive and there you have it from here you can further edit these clips using editing software or simply upload the raw videos to a cloud service and share with your family and friends if you are looking at this device just be aware that there is a firmware patch that came out for it not too long ago that fixes a few key things and i would highly recommend doing that info on that process is down in the description honestly i'm really happy with how easy this is to use and how well it's working for both nostalgic viewing and using this old tech in new ways now not having to fuss about compression settings makes it highly accessible and i've noticed you don't even have to worry about interlacing which was an issue and an extra step to fix using my old adapter i should say that i wasn't paid to make this video and i didn't receive this product for review this is something i actively chose to do because i do feel like it can help a lot of you out there who are trying to figure this stuff out now all links to the products used in this video will be in the description below i'm also down in the comments if there are any questions or concerns hit me up down there and i'll do my best to answer i get how this av stuff can be a little bit confusing so i'm happy to help now if you want to stick around i'll show you how i capture high eight tapes using my uh sony handycam vision circa 1997. remember what 1997 looked like what's on the menu this evening sir you and mcgregor choose life choose a job choose a career choose a family choose your future yeah it looked a little something like that okay so here is my sony handycam high 8 camera and for this setup i'm going to be using my s video cable so that the video quality is actually stronger now first up i'll set up the device plug my audio cables into their appropriate inputs now the biggest difference here is instead of using this yellow video cable i'm going to plug in my s-video cable now i'll have to switch the video signal input on the device itself so menu scroll down to video source and click s video now plugging those same cables into my camera output inserting my tape switching to vtr mode and i'm ready to record simply hit play on the camera and the record button on the video to digital device and wait it out i should also mention that many cameras have an av mini output which is basically a mini jack that looks kind of like a headphone jack that splits into the rca cables the process for capturing with that cable is identical to this one just depends on what cable system your camera or vcr use all right well i hope this video helped you in the steps to figuring this stuff out this device works really well for my needs which is why i definitely recommend using it so thank you so much for watching and i'll see you next time this is a a screen test of a gwendolyn lovely film the best part about doing this stuff is finding old crazy stuff that you thought you'd never see again like this uh 1989 mgm audition tape hansel and gretel starring mark and kimberly i wish i wish i could play i could play in indiana jones top three top three little did we know that actually was gonna become a movie anyway thanks guys for watching we're gonna wrap this up now okay bye-bye

Channel: Mark Holtze

Views: 297,368

Keywords: Transfer VHS to computer, vhs capture, converting home movies, camcorder convert, home movie digital, digitizing, video capture, archiving, vhs, hi 8, how to, premiere pro, home movie transfer, how to transfer vhs tapes to computer, how to transfer, how to transfer tapes to vhs, how to transfer home movies to computer, analog tapes, analog tape, digital video, windows 7, video capture card, video capture device, mark holtze, vhs to computer, Vhs to digital, Mark Holtze

Id: 03ENBq7LcS8

Length: 9min 2sec (542 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/HBB360]

Looks like a really cool device, unfortunately seems to only be available in the US. Only thing is it's quite expensive, I've been using a Hauppauge HD PVR which I got used for about 50 bucks and it does a really good capture with software on your PC. It's also recommended on some of the video capture forums.