VHS to Digital MP4

atlantis187

What is the cheapest way to transfer old vhs tapes over to digital mp4

I dont have a VCR player no more.

flaneurs_lobster

Buy a VCR at a larger charity shop that sells electricals, maybe £20. Needs to have RCA phono outputs (most do)

Buy a VCR to USB converter like this one

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MDLSDE-Digital-Converter-Card-Compatible-Black/dp/B0FP4T8DJR?

£8

Plug into your Windows box and use free video software like VLC to store the incoming video as MP4.

Have to convert/record at normal playback speed.

Otherwise there are companies that will do it for you for around £8-£20/tape.

atlantis187

Thanks for this

I didnt know charities sold electronic stuff, Do u know of any in South Yorkshire?

M25

How many tapes?

I done a load and used a DVD recorder with a VHS machine plugged in. Worked brilliantly for dozens of tapes.

If using Windows that's a lot of work and problems for some people but the cheapest if it's just a few tapes.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81972730#Comment_81972730

I live several hundred miles from there so no.

Try Googling "charity shops that sell electricals in south yorkshire".

matelodave

have a look on e-bay

pseudodox

For equipment try looking on sites like Freecycle or Freegle - if nothing is offered post a wanted request.

SurferDan

British Heart foundation shops do home audio / video equipment - most don't because of the cost of testing them for safety before sale.

Try shops like Cash Converters and CEX.

Plenty of the above in South Yorkshire

MyRealNameToo

Buy a VCR and try watching a tape on your TV first… some dont think about how 576 interlaced lines will look on their 72" TV compared to the 2,160 lines they are used to seeing these days.

I know several people who have had grand ideas of digitising old TV recordings or films etc and quickly realised that, plus the natural aging of the tape, made them unwatchable. Things are slightly different with home videos in principle but still some decide just keeping a VCR is better than the time/effort to digitise them

atlantis187

so I found an old small TV/VCR combi in the attick

I have about 12 tapes to do.

I tried the tapes in the vcr and on all of them the sound is playing but not showing any picture, what could this mean have the tapes gone faulty or is it the vcr player?

On the back of this Tv there is only a scart connection and nothing else.

Neil_Jones

Alter the tracking, picture noise like that is caused when the heads are out of alignment with the visual portion of the recording. Depending on the video you may have manual tracking or automatic tracking - the newer the unit more likely the latter.