My dad has a lot of old F1 tapes, that I would like to convert from VHS to DVD or VHS to Hardrive/computer. The idea is that he will be able to watch them. There are probably 30 or so tapes. I am not interested in editing them, although it would be nice if possible to make the quality better during the transition, but I am looking for advice on how I could do this. I would ship them out to a company but the tapes are 7 hour tapes and they are sports, so through my research I have found that most companies will not do it. Any help would be greatly appreciated to save the history.
Install a video capture card into the PC (either PCI or USB connection) along with their software.
Install the software, connect the VHS player to the computer with the cables.
Press record on the software and play on the VHS player. Press stop when finished.
Review the video to ensure the quality is sufficient, if not make adjustments and re-record.
Now. Keep in mind that you'll need a lot of space to record this video, unless the software is good enough to record in a compressed format (some do, some don't).
When finished, upload to YouTube for all to enjoy and for your Dad to watch from anything connected to the internet.
There's not much you can do to make the quality of a video better. Turboswede covered the cheap DIY method. Capture the video to a current digital video format, DVDs are not a great format (especially when you want to rip/convert the video again).
Thanks for the info, I found this on CNet http://www.cnet.com/how-to/transfer-vhs-tapes-to-your-computer/ I might try this program. Has anybody used NERO to increase the quality, I know that they have different features.
I have a related issue. I have a handful of mini DV tapes. The video recorder I created them with is long dead. I would love to get the content off the tapes and onto a computer. One theory is to buy a tape player (I found the Sony player below as an option) but the price seems high. Any other suggestions?
You'll need a player of some sort. Once that is solved, getting it into the computer is the same as I detailed above. What you do with it once it is at the computer, it up to you and the tools you have available.
I have a Sony RDR-VX525. Makes DVD's from VHS tapes. A few years old, works great. Was about $200+ or so in 2007. I have many old F1 races that I have used it for
