VHS to Digital

[mc2fool]

It's occurred to me, looking at my small stack of personal VHS tapes, that I really should convert them to digital form and stick them onto DVDs or flash drives or similar.

On a cursory first search it looks like there's DIY hardware options from £9 to £99, https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=vhs+to+dvd+converter, and also professional services from £6 to £45 a tape.

Does anyone have any experience with any of the DIY options?

[kiloran]

About 10 years ago, I used an earlier version of this https://www.avermedia.com/uk/product-detail/C039 and it worked fine. I'm sure the current version is better

--kiloran

[Breelander]

I used to do that in two steps, first to record from VHS onto DVD using my DVD recorder, then to rip the DVD to mp4 on my PC using Handbreak.

Unfortunately my DVD recorder has died the death since then
Fortunately I now have my important videos copied over to the PC.

Apparently DVD recorders are still available, such as this one (not a recommendation, just the first Google 'hit')....

https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/ ... d-recorder

[pje16]

Some years ago a mate of mine lent me his VHS to DVD converter machine
It did a good job and I know it's a obvious statement, it is a slow process
as a 3 hour VHS takes that long to convert

[mc2fool]

I used to do that in two steps, first to record from VHS onto DVD using my DVD recorder, then to rip the DVD to mp4 on my PC using Handbreak.

Ahhhh ... yes! I have a Pioneer DVR-440HX HDD/DVD Recorder* which, on checking the manual, will let me record off of an external source. I'll give it a try.

* Good bit of kit. Had it since 2004 and, unlike my more recent kit, I don't think it's ever crashed or screwed up! Don't use it much nowadays as between my TV and YouView box I can already record 3 channels simultaneously, and with catch up as well that's enough to sort out any viewing conflicts. And the Pioneer is only DVB-T (no T2) so doesn't get the SD channels that are broadcast on the HD muxes, and I suppose will become totally obsolete, broadcast TV wise, when the DVB-T switch off finally comes...