Analogue to Digital converters

sebastianj

Dear all,
I am trying to connect a VHS player to PC to copy some home movies to load onto my USB stick. I have seen some of these converters being sold, has any one had any experience with them? are they any good?
sebastian

flashg67

I've tried the cheap ones on Ebay (About £6?) and the quality was very poor - muffled sound and very low res, distorted picture. Can't comment on the more expensive ones though

neilwoods

They are all pretty much the same, just act as an interface between vcr and pc. So of the more expensive ones, tend to come with better video editing software.

Quality wise will depend on the tapes and the vcr itself

Enterprise_1701C

Have you got a Hard Disc recorder for your TV? We have a stand alone one and we just plugged the video into that and the recordings came out very well. Then you can takek the recordings off that via USB or DVD.

sebastianj

Thank you all,
Enterprise1701c, I have a stand alone hard drive and was not aware that I could connect the vcr directly to it, and the I could play it back on tv or copy it to dvd.
I also have a combo dvd/vcr recorder and i copied the vcr onto a dvd but this will not play on any other dvd player. So I finalised the dvd and then there was nothing on dvd, and the efforts were wasted.
Thanx Flash67, that is the one I have bought, £7 on ebay, waiting to receive it.
Thank you Neilwood, it is understood.
sebastian

almillar

As Enterprise says, a DVD burner that sits under your TV, maybe as part of a PVR, or a combined DVD/VCR might be better for this job.
I've done a few tapes on my Father in Law's Samsung DVD/VCR, and it's got good settings for quality etc, and syncs everything up nicely. That gets you a DVD, from which you can then put it on you computer and convert into whatever you like.
Devices like this should be pretty cheap 2nd hand these days and you can even sell it on again when finished...
Compare that to these devices that go into your computer. You could get decent software with it, or rubbish stuff, and I've seen lip sync issues and all sorts. You'll also need a decent computer to do the recording.

sebastianj

Thanks Almillar.
I have done this already but the dvd will not run on pc (a good pc). I was told to finalise the dvd in the equipment, but then the dvd did not work at all. Either the equipment i have does not finalise it properly or I have no idea why it did not work.
seb

almillar

Until you finalise a DVD, yes, you're stuck with it just in the player that burnt it. Don't give up on it though on the basis of 1 disc! Just for starters, how many DVD players did you try it in? Are you aware of the mess of incompatibilities between DVD-R and DVD+R, and DVD players that are fussy about playing burnt DVDs?

sebastianj

This combi recorder is suppose to be compatible with +R -R. Prior to finalising the DVD they worked in the machine, once finalised, they stopped working. Not sure what the process of finalising is but no data is detected. I seem to have wasted about 10 DVD's. I use Sony and other make DVD's, - as well +.
seb

Enterprise_1701C

If you have got the phono sockets on your stand-alone hard disc player, then you should be able to connect your video to it, my HD has them under a flap on the front of the machine. Of course you could always go the scart route but that means pulling everything out to get to the back of the machine!