# VHS and Cassettes to Digital Format



## psaulm119 (Mar 13, 2005)

I have decided not to tempt fate any longer, and transfer our 4-year old VHS of our wedding, onto our hard drive and burn a DVD from it. I've also got some old Bogey classics I can do the same with. I also have a few cassettes that I want to do this for, as well. I will already be purchasing a dvd burner as well as a video capture unit (combined, I'm expecting to spend about $140 bucks), for the project of converting VHS to digital media/DVDs. 

My question: will I need any extra hardware to convert cassettes to digital media? Is there some all-purpose VHS/Cassette card that I can buy, killing two birds with one stone, instead of buying separate units for both the VHS and cassette?


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## alwaysreforming (Mar 13, 2005)

My DVD player is a dual DVD/VHS set up. I just put a tape(VHS) in one side and can easily copy it to the DVD side with one button push.

Perhaps such a player could be your solution, unless I've misunderstood your situation and its more complicated than that.


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## psaulm119 (Mar 13, 2005)

Hmm not sure if you understand my question or not (good solution, regardless  ). I had assumed that the "home entertainment system" DVD players were ROM only. I'll check out the prices on those units, since we're going to get a real DVD player (as opposed to our $40 norcent peice of junk) sometime in the future. On the other hand, I think I'd still be wanting a DVD burner on my computer, to facitilitate backups before I reinstall XP. But I really hadn't considered your solution. I'll check out prices on these types of units.

On the other hand, I am still going to try to convert cassette (not video, but audio) to digital as well. That was my original question--do I need extra hardware to convert audio cassette to digital, or is there an all-in-one video/audio tape card that I can use.


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## alwaysreforming (Mar 14, 2005)

For converting audio tapes to digital, all I did was get Real Player Plus, $20 download, and run a line from the cassette "out" to computer "line in" or "mic" and then on Real Player choose "Record from Line In". That's it! Real easy.


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## psaulm119 (Mar 15, 2005)

> _Originally posted by alwaysreforming_
> For converting audio tapes to digital, all I did was get Real Player Plus, $20 download, and run a line from the cassette "out" to computer "line in" or "mic" and then on Real Player choose "Record from Line In". That's it! Real easy.



Now that sounds pretty easy. Its surely worth 20 bucks to save all the cassettes we have. Maybe I can find other media players that do this for free--maybe JetAudio or even Windows MP. WHo knows. At least I know that I have a $20 ceiling for that project, which is a bargain for sure. Thanks.


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## Reed (Apr 18, 2005)

the way we do it here in the midwest ;> is

buy an analog to digial converter like the Canopus ADVC110

plug this device into your computer using a firewire (iEEE 1394) connection

plug your vcr into the media converter

on your computer, capture the video input from the converter

save this video into a format that will allow you to burn to dvd

so you will need:

the analog/digital converter
a computer with firewire (iEEE 1394)
video capture/editing software
a dvd burner

Regards,
Reed


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## psaulm119 (May 1, 2005)

Reed, didn't see your post till tonight. I keep forgetting to check the "recieve email upon reply" box. Anyways, I did it--or at least, I hooked it up. I bought a Plextor video capture card, and with the Video-to-DVD-editing software it came with (WinDVD Creator), I have been able to capture VHS feeds onto a DVD, which plays on my el cheapo DVD player hooked up to my TV. The video captuer card came with all the wires that i needed, and uses a USB 2.0 cable to hook up to my computer. As soon as I get some feedback on the best type of media format to use, I'm going to record these tapes. In fact now that I think of it, I'll start a thread on this topic.


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