JHMB I use Honestech VHS to DVD 7.0 (there are others that you may prefer) This one has a small VID BOX. On this box it has has 3 ports for RCA Cables and 1 USB Cable (The cables comes with the hardware. All you have to do is connect the RCA Cables from you VHS player to the VID BOX. From the VID BOX connect the USB Cable to your computer. Go into PD12 select capture then select the Profile that you want to use. I've done about 2,000 VHS tapes so far no problems. If you need more info give me a holler.

Quote: I want to convert old family VHS tapes to digital (via PD12) so that I can edit and save them. I still have a working VHS player. What is needed? What are the steps?

Thanks so much.

You will need an analog to digital converter bought from your favorite electronics store. There are many different converters. They plug into your VHS player outlet at one end and your computer's USB port at the other. Capture the VHS tape using the software that came with the A/D converter. Once you have it on your computer you can edit it in PD 12 and then burn the edited video to a folder or DVD. For best results, keep the video on the DVD player to one hour, you can put more on a DVD disc but not more than 2 hours. You will lose resolution if you put more than one hor on a disc. Remember that you are using standard definition so don;t expect it to look like a high definition blu ray disc.

Sorry for the duplicate information. .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

You say to use the software that comes with the converter to convert from analog to digital. Can I use the Capture / External or Optical Device to do the conversion and get it into PD?

Thanks JHMB

Quote: You say to use the software that comes with the converter to convert from analog to digital. Can I use the Capture / External or Optical Device to do the conversion and get it into PD?

Thanks

Please tell us what kind of device you are thinking about using. What do you mean about external or optical device. .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Please tell us what kind of device you are thinking about using. What do you mean about external or optical device.

I plan on getting an adapter for my VCR player. Once I have that connected to my computer via the USB port, can I use the Capture feature in PD12 to convert the tape to digital? One of the input options for capture is "External or Optical Device". I was thinking that this is the most likely device that the VCR could fall under. If not, what capture device (if any) would I choose?

Thanks JHMB

Quote:
I plan on getting an adapter for my VCR player. Once I have that connected to my computer via the USB port, can I use the Capture feature in PD12 to convert the tape to digital? One of the input options for capture is "External or Optical Device". I was thinking that this is the most likely device that the VCR could fall under. If not, what capture device (if any) would I choose?

Thanks

Apparently there is an issue with some of the language. By Adapter do you mean an Analog to Digital Converter Card or box? Examples:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_25?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=analog%20to%20digital%20capture&sprefix=analog+to+digital+capture%2Caps%2C351

Note that the first one listed comes with PowerDirector 8; it is probably a lite OEM version. That suggests that Power Director 12 will see it.

It depends on the A/D card you buy. The program must "see" that USB connected device in order to do the capture in the program. I have one that the program doesn't see but Oklahoma apparently has one that the program does see. I thought there was a list of A/D converters that worked with PowerDirector but I could not find it. It was probably outdated. The prices run from about $20 (US) upward. Since you will be using it a lot, don't go cheap. One you plug in the device and turn on the A/D converter and the program recognizes it, the program ICOn will light up and you will have the option. Don't ignore the options on the lower right of the screen.

The above is the reason that I suggested to use the program that comes with the device (it may still be a Cyberlink program). Why do you have a problem using the program that comes with the device? System hard drive space? You will need a lot of internal storage to capture the video/audio. The use of an external hard drive for the capture is not a good idea. You may lose video frames which will throw off the audio sync.

BTW, if your VHS requires a SCART adapter, you may need one. Make sure it is the right one. Some of the above comes with the A/D converter.

Again I want to reiterate that you will be capturing from a standard resolution 4 by 3 ratio source. Nothing will make that better but it can be made to be worse. Expect no better quality than what you see when you play the tapes on a TV.


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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Stevek is correct the hardware I use does see your program. When you go to capture in PD12 it will show that it sees your capture device. I want to emphasis that you may find other devices more to your liking. I personally tried 5 different devices. 2 of them saw my VHS device but the other 3 did not. Also some will stop your capturing and tell you that trying to capture a copyrighted VHS tapes which in my case was never true. Good luck.

Thanks everyone for the info! JHMB

At one time I did a vcr capture by connecting the AV outputs of the vcr to the inputs on a dv camera. PD has an option to capture from a dv camera. Most cameras have a tbc which helps the picture quality.

Quote: At one time I did a vcr capture by connecting the AV outputs of the vcr to the inputs on a dv camera. PD has an option to capture from a dv camera. Most cameras have a tbc which helps the picture quality.

That works if your digital camcorder allow for pass through; not all do.

What is tbc? If I don't know, a newbie certainly won't ! BTW, try not to use abbreviations or acronyms especially to answer a newbie question. .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

In reply to the original question, I recently transferred about a dozen 30-35 year old VHS tapes to digital (AVI format) using an $8 EasyCap USB converter from Ebay. I actually bought the device just to see what level of quality a silly $8 device could provide, and I was shocked at the quality on my Win 8.1 system! After tweaking all possible parameters the resulting digital video was better than I ever imagined was possible - clear, bright, and stable - even better than the original! I also tried a $50 Diamond VC500 USB converter, just to see if there was an affordable way to make "very good" better, but the the video wasn't quite as good and the audio had various issues - so the little $8 "joke" converter still ruled!

I used the included capture software (by Honestech) which only included the basic controls, but it was enough to do a fine job. I tried several other programs that included a capture function, but the little app that came with the USB converter was hard to beat (I didn't own PD12 yet).

Most of my captured video would be complete as-is, and didn't require editing, but I was thrilled to find PD12 could separate the audio track(s) (mostly mono) and even split the existing edit points for a whole new world of slickness added to my ancient old VHS recordings.

Other transfers I made I used as raw footage that I assembled into new "productions" in PD12. Once the old VHS footage is in a decent quality digital format and using PD12 virtually anything is possible!

But I also suggest you might see if you can find any other VCRs/VCPs (from friends and family) because the playback device you use can make a huge difference in your final result, and many factors vary from VCR to VCR, especially regarding signal stability, and especially if the footage was recorded at less than SP speed! The original recording device would usually be optimal, but that seems a long shot due to time passage. And please be aware that you will very likely see some video noise at the bottom of your video frame - this is normal and due to seeing the complete image that is usually cropped off by TV displays. The noise/sync bar can cropped in PD12.

The steps would be; FIRST - if you haven't already, remove or otherwise expose all safety tabs on your VHS tapes - don't want accidentally record over these old gems!, then install the converter device as per its instructions, then in the case of a USB type device plug the USB end into any USB 2 port on your computer (but some ports may actually be faster - check comp. manual), then connect your playback device (VCR) to the converter via a 3 way RCA cable, open the capture software or go to the capture tab in PD12, select composite input (unless you used S-VHS), set the aspect ratio (4:3 most likely), press Play on the VCR, and your taped image should appear in the window of your capture application. Get the tape to where you want to start recording and optimize its stability, press the Record button on the capture application (make note of where on your HD the file will be recorded). IMHO, save to MP4 H.264 for space-saving archiving, or to AVI format if you want to edit it later or want max quality (but everyone has their own prefs on these choices - these are just mine). As with most things, experiment and make note as you go - one of the better teachers.

I say experiment with as many different playback devices as you can find, wet-clean the heads (and capstan, guides, and rollers if you go inside), make adjustments to Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, etc. in capture app (reduced contrast, saturation and sharpness can help noisy video be more palatable), and keep an eye on tracking (don't just rely on the auto adjust) and with a little luck those old tapes can at least be archived forever, and maybe even used as the basis or parts for interesting new editing projects.

All the best!


(edited for typos and clarity - a smart man could have done this in one try!)


"I have no idea about the proper way, but this is what works for me."

Quote:

Quote: At one time I did a vcr capture by connecting the AV outputs of the vcr to the inputs on a dv camera. PD has an option to capture from a dv camera. Most cameras have a tbc which helps the picture quality.

That works if your digital camcorder allow for pass through; not all do.

What is tbc? If I don't know, a newbie certainly won't ! BTW, try not to use abbreviations or acronyms especially to answer a newbie question.

Sorry about that, tbc = time base corrector.
You're correct that all dv cameras don't allow for pass thru. Some work if you put in a tape and put the dv in the record mode.

Quote: Please tell us what kind of device you are thinking about using. What do you mean about external or optical device.
I plan on getting an adapter for my VCR player. Once I have that connected to my computer via the USB port, can I use the Capture feature in PD12 to convert the tape to digital? One of the input options for capture is "External or Optical Device". I was thinking that this is the most likely device that the VCR could fall under. If not, what capture device (if any) would I choose?
Thanks

I don't have anything to add to what folks have said with regards to the converter hardware. You may want to look into the capture software ScenalyzerLive that I discussed here. It is very accurate at detecting scenes optically when capturing analog video and has a lot of tools to help get just the clips you want/need before you actually start editing. But it's probably not necessary if your goal is just to get raw video into PD12 as quickly as possible.

Happy capturing!
Mike. Mike B.
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