VCR to laptop converter

Time stops for no one, and for no technology. There was a time when you probably preserved family memories by saving them to videotape, but videotape is now completely obsolete. If youre like a lot of people, you have a cabinet full of VHS tapes but havent had a VCR to play them on in 10 years or more. And while its possible to convert VHS to digital, dont wait too long to actually do that. Eventually, the contents of your old tapes will be gone forever, because the video stored on VHS degrades by as much as 20% every 10-25 years.

Even if your grandkids robot butler will someday be able to 3D print a VCR from archival blueprints of 20th century consumer electronics, by then your old tapes may be too fuzzy for them to watch.

If you want to preserve your family VHS tapes as video files on your computer hard drive, you can do it without much trouble; you just need to assemble a few components. From there, you can convert the videos almost effortlessly over the course of a few lazy weekends.

But remember: The clock is ticking. With each year that goes by, your videotape collection degrades a little more. If you havent seen a videotape in a while, you might be shocked by how low the quality is compared to video from a smartphone or digital camera, and your tape collection has probably already lost 10-20% of its quality compared to the day it was shot. So, dont waste another minuteheres what you need to know.

What Youll Need to Convert Your VHS to Digital

To convert your VHS tapes to digital, youll need four major components. Well go over that list first, and then you can join us further down the article once youve figured out and gathered everything you need.

The Playback Medium: VCRs And Camcorders

If you didn't keep your VCR from the Before Times, this is the trickiest part of the equation, because its increasingly difficult to find a working VCR. VCRs are no longer manufactured and finding one new-in-box is vanishingly rare [and fairly expensive, if you are lucky enough to find one].

Consequently, your best bet for finding a VCR is to buy one from an online auction at eBay. Here, you can browse a large selection of used VCRs and pick one that, based on the photos and description, looks likely to work. Theyll all be used, and mostly from individual sellersnot refurbished or factory reconditionedso you should not be surprised if your first VCR purchase is a bust and you need to return it for a refund. If youre persistent, though, youll land a VCR that works well enough to play, rewind and eject tapes.

If you have mini-sized tapes [called VHS-C tapes], you might need a camcorder rather than a VCR. There are also adapters that let you insert those old VHS-C tapes into an ordinary VCR.

Whatever you choose to buycamcorder, VCR or VHS-C adapterbe sure you test it right away when you receive it so you have plenty of time to file a claim with eBay or whatever site you purchased it from for a refund if needed. And always test a new acquisition with a tape you dont care about. That way, you dont lose anything important if the VCR or camcorder destroys the first tape you insert.

The Video Converter

A video converter is what goes between the VCR and computer. It takes the analog video signal and converts it to a digital input for your computers USB port.

Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus

Roxio has been in the business of video editing and conversion for many years, and the Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus is a polished product that reflects that expertise. The box includes a USB capture device that connects to your PCs USB port and has inputs for the VCR or camcorders analog output cables.

You also get Roxios capture software, which lets you write the videos directly to DVD or to a video file on your hard drive and includes a host of editing optionsyou can make quick edits, enhance color, add transitions and even stabilize old video footage. Roxio includes a couple of blank DVDs to get you started, but not the cables. Youll need to provide those yourself.

VIDBOX Video Conversion Suite

The VIDBOX Video Conversion Suite includes a capture device that connects your computers USB port to the audio and video outputs on the VCR or camcorder, and has support for both Mac and PC. You also get all the cables you needboth USB and RCA analog audio. [If you want to use the slightly higher-quality S-video connection, youll need your own S-video cable, though]. The software has a friendly step-by-step wizard for capturing your video to the hard drive or DVD, but doesnt offer much in the way of video editing to fine-tune your footage.

Elgato USB Analog Video Capture

Compatible with both PC and Mac, the Elgato video capture device predictably plugs into the computers USB port and connects to your VCR or camcorders audio and video cables. It also supports S-video for slightly better image quality, but the S-video cable isnt included. Like the others, the Elgato package includes software that lets you save video from VHS to DVD or your hard drive. Aside from the ability to trim the beginning and end of the video, though, there are no editing capabilities here.

A Computer To Process The Conversion

Most modern computers, either laptop or desktop, are up to the task of saving a video file from the USB port using the converters listed earlier in this article. This HP 15 laptop is representative of what you need: an Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB RAM will serve you well. In addition, be sure you have at least one available USB port and youre ready to rock.

Storage Space For Safekeeping

You wont need a lot of hard drive spaceyour videos will consume about a gigabyte per hour of footage. Unless you have a truly monstrous library, you can probably fit your entire family video library on a 32GB USB flash drive, or archive it in a cloud storage service like Dropbox. That gives you a lot of options; you can keep all your VHS movies on the same hard drive as all your other files, or put them on a special portable USB drive just for those kinds of memories.

We recommend storing them with all your other data files and sync them with a cloud service like Dropbox or OneDrive. That way theyre safely preserved for future generations.

How to Convert VHS to Digital

Once you have all the elements on handvideo converter and computer with enough storage space to transfer and convert your first videothe process to convert your first video is very straightforward. Remember, you should probably try this process with a test tape first, ensuring you dont lose anything in the event that your equipment malfunctions.

Step 1: Follow the instructions that came with the video converter to install the software and any device drivers needed to prepare your computer for video converting.

Step 2: Place the VCR or camcorder and computer near one another and then connect them via the video converter. You should run the RCA-style audio and video cables from the output of the VCR or camcorder to the input jacks on the video converter. These wires are usually color-coded to make sure you connect them properly; red and white are for stereo audio and yellow is for video.

Step 3: If you have a VCR or camcorder with an S-video output, thatll produce a slightly higher image quality than the yellow analog video cable. Its a good idea [but not essential] to connect the S-video cable instead of the yellow video cable.

Step 4: Plug the converter into your computer using the USB cable.

Step 5: Insert a VHS tape and rewind it.

Step 6: Start the video converter software on your computer and follow its instructions to start the video capture process. Youll probably need to name your video project and specify where you want to save the video file.

Step 7: When youre ready, press Play on the VCR and the appropriate Record button in the video software on your computer.

Step 8: The videotape will play and record in real timein other words, if you have a two-hour videotape, itll take two hours to turn it into a digital video file.

Step 9: When its done, stop recording on the computer and allow the software to save the file to a folder on your computer.

Tips and Tricks for Converting Your VHS Tapes to Digital Video

Thankfully, converting your old VHS tapes is pretty simple once you have everything you needthe video converter does all the hard work. But here are a few tips and tricks to help you preserve your videos:

• You dont need a TV. As you probably noticed, theres no television listed in the things you need earlier in this article. The VCR connects to your computer via the video converter, and youll see the videotape play on the computer screen. So dont waste any time looking for a way to connect the old VCR to a new all-digital TV.
• If you dont want to bother with doing this yourself, there are services available that will convert your old videotapes to digital for you. If youre interested, check out Walmart Photo and Costco Photo Center. Both of these accept tapes in formats including VHS, S-VHS, Betamax, VHS-C, Hi-8, MiniDV and more.
• Even if you do no advanced editing to your video files, you should trim them using the built-in trim tool in the video conversion software. Thatll let you eliminate static and video glitches from the very start and end of each tape.
• You dont have to spend a lot of money on pro-level video editing software just to tweak your videos. There are easy-to-use free video editors like Movie Maker Online and Shortcut that you can use to save different parts of a videotape as separate files, making your videos easier and more entertaining to watch.
• Make sure you back up your converted videos. After you save your converted videos to digital files, make sure theyre a part of your computers regular backup or put a copy of them in a cloud service like Dropbox or OneDrive. After you go through all the trouble of converting your videotapes, you wouldnt want to lose them to a failed hard drive or broken computer.
• Dont bother copying your videotapes to DVD. DVD is not a lot better than VHS for long-term storage of your video collection. DVDs fail as the optical layer degrades over time. In general, DVD discs have a lifespan of somewhere between 25 and 100 years. The bottom line: The best way to preserve your videos is in computer storage, with a regular and reliable backup on another physical hard storage device or in the cloudpreferably both.