Copying VHS videos to PC

[Liz65]

What is the best software for copying my VHS collection to my hard drive?

[rojash]

Before you go any further, you might like to consider the fact that if you have, say, 100 hours of video, then getting it onto your hard disk is going to take you around 120 hours. Why do you want it on your Hard disk?

[VHG]

Also, you need more than software.

You will need to connect your VHS machine to your computer, and to do this you need to buy a Video Capture Device.

You plug the VHS machine into the Video device, then the Video device into your PC.

Also note that Video held on a computer hard disk is HUGE, so you will need a very large hard disk with plenty of room.

Note also if the Videos are bought films then there will be copy protection to stop you copying them to your PC (although I believe there are ways to get round this).

[terambulan]

and when you burn on DVD, more often than not, it can't be 'read' by player. Hours n hours wasted zzzzzzzzzzz

[Ethel]

And then find your whole collection is free in the Sunday papers, or 10 for a �1.

[LeMarchand]

As above: you will need some hardware to input the video onto your machine, unless you already have it built into your PC (not common). 9 times out of 10 the hardware comes with basic software to both capture and edit the video.

As people have said, it is a "real time" operation - a 2hr film will take 2 hours to copy. You will probably also need to add processing/conversion and editing time.

As has been stated, copy protection may be present as well. On the whole it is a lot less hassle to search for a cheap DVD copy. However, if the films are home videos or unobtainable otherwise the method I use is this:

VHS copied direct to DVD-RW in a DVD recorder.
Take DVD to PC and copy video files to Hard Disk.
Use VideoReDo TV Suite to edit and reassemble video.
The output can then be saved/converted/used to create a DVD.

I used to use Mpg2Cut2 for the editing (which is free), but it doesn't seem to work well with Vista.

[MrBounty]

I thought it'd be a great idea once to copy my videos to DVD, but after about 6 attempts with one movie, i gave up.

My eventual outcome was a VHS quality picture (pretty poor - it was an old vid) and no sound!!

I'd agree with the others and advise you not to bother - it's far too time consuming and can get complicated if you're not too technically minded.

[eastern]

Buy a DVD recorder with H/Drive, connect your VHS player then copy from your VHS player onto the hard disc, edit it then burn to disc. I did it with my Grand Prix vids and it was easy but very time consuming. As the others have said forget the PC route as they have told you its a pain in the posterior.