How to Capture from VHS tape using VS

[RickMen]

I have a few VHS tapes that I like to digitizes using VS before it's too late. Accordingly to the VS documentation it can capture analog video. I have a VCR (lying around somewhere) and I know it has the Composite RCA connectors (I need to dig it out and have a look behind it to determine what other connectors it may have). I have penalty of spare RCA cable. The bit I'm not sure about is how to connect the VCR to my PC. Do I need a 'Composite to USB' adaptor? (Any recommendations?) A mate mentioned Elgato, does it work? Is the quality okay? What have others done to achieve this outcome? Any pointers?

[asik1]

Yes you will need a USB adapter.
And you better capture with it's own capturing software.

[Granpaw Broon]

You really need hardware to capture analogue video. I still have an old camcorder that can import analogue and output digital but if you don't have access to one you'll have to buy an analogue capture card/device that will correct the sync. I still capture 8mm, 4mm and VHS tapes but it is a long, time consuming process. I don't use VS capture as it is unreliable, as asik1 says you should use the cards/device capturing software.

[canuck]

I have a few VHS tapes that I like to digitizes using VS before it's too late. Accordingly to the VS documentation it can capture analog video. I have a VCR (lying around somewhere) and I know it has the Composite RCA connectors (I need to dig it out and have a look behind it to determine what other connectors it may have). I have penalty of spare RCA cable. The bit I'm not sure about is how to connect the VCR to my PC. Do I need a 'Composite to USB' adaptor? (Any recommendations?) A mate mentioned Elgato, does it work? Is the quality okay? What have others done to achieve this outcome? Any pointers?

Take a look at at this Roxio product (a Corel/Alludo company): https://www.roxio.com/en/products/easy- ... /standard/
I have used it to capture/convert most of my old VHS tapes with excellent results. Just don't expect HD quality when capturing from VHS tape.
As others have mentioned, it is always best to use software that comes with a hardware device

[RickMen]

I had a look at the FAQs but no mention of whether it have a PAL option?

When I went to the site the Roxio product was not available in my region. I will investigate further.

[Davidk]

As mentioned, there are a range of products that do this. They are basically a A/D (analog to digital) converter in a usb format: RCA connectors in, usb out. They usually come with converter software that runs on the PC which reads the digital data in and saves it in a pre-configured file format.
Some can be directly read by VS, but the usb device has to be one which VS will recognise and a lot of the converters fail that necessary step. To check that, plug the converter usb cable into the PC, start VS, select capture mode and then choose one of the top 3 options (maybe a bit of trial and error there). If the converter usb is recognised, that should be apparent. If it isn't, then you will have to use the converter application to read and store the converted video, before you import it to any editor.
But in either case, conversion is a real-time thing: essentially, you will play the VHS tape to the computer and it will read and save it in a digital format. If the tape file to be converted is 1 hour long, then the conversion process will take one hour - there are no fast forwards available for this process.
Resolution of the converted result is another point many users get hung up on: VHS is a basically poor resolution format by todays' standards - around 4000kbps. Compare to DVD (mpeg-2) which is at least 6000kbps and usually 8000kbps, or FHD (eg mp4) which runs at about 25000kbps at least, and could be much more depending on the format used. If the tape has been used a lot, wear marks etc on the tape will show in the converted form as noise blips or corrupted imagery. Even with a new tape, there is no way a conversion process can 'up-rate" the resolution of the result: it will still be VHS standard.

[lata]

Hi
As Granpaw Broon’s reply regarding Cam-corders
Some Mini DVcameras came with a process called Passthrough aka Throughput, we could connect the 3 composite cables from VHS to AV input to the camera then DV-Out to the pc, giving you DV-Avi
Of course you would need a composite cable and Firewire card connection to achieve this.
As you are working with DV Avi files I assume you own a MiniDV camera.?

I have used the above giving better results than my Video Grabber Ezcap Capture Device.

If you need to purchase a Video Grabber then Canuck’s recommendation of the Roxio device.

Again the capture will use Lower Field First, as my other comment here
https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?p=397889#p397889

The Frame Rate of 25fps Pal or 29fps NTSC will depend on the original recordings on VHS, as is the Frame Order of LFF.
As far as I know the capture software recognising those rates to capture correctly.

[Granpaw Broon]

Thanks Trevor, I forgot to mention that it is using firewire output from my Camcorder.

[RickMen]

Hi
As Granpaw Broon’s reply regarding Cam-corders
Some Mini DVcameras came with a process called Passthrough aka Throughput, we could connect the 3 composite cables from VHS to AV input to the camera then DV-Out to the pc, giving you DV-Avi
Of course you would need a composite cable and Firewire card connection to achieve this.
As you are working with DV Avi files I assume you own a MiniDV camera.?

I have used the above giving better results than my Video Grabber Ezcap Capture Device.

If you need to purchase a Video Grabber then Canuck’s recommendation of the Roxio device.

Again the capture will use Lower Field First, as my other comment here
https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?p=397889#p397889

The Frame Rate of 25fps Pal or 29fps NTSC will depend on the original recordings on VHS, as is the Frame Order of LFF.
As far as I know the capture software recognising those rates to capture correctly.

Thanks for the info & options. I do have a MiniDV camera but no FireWire card in my current PC or the last PC either. I will have to check further if I have a card lying around.

[RickMen]

Thanks Davidk