Lookin To Buy A Machine That Converts VHS Home Movies To DVDs Or Any Other Updated Format

[SmoothSailing]

I have a bunch of VHS tapes from my old camcorder that are startin to get raggedy, & Id like to find a device that'll lemme convert/transfer them over to DVDs or will allow me to upload em from a VCR to my puter's hardrive before the VCR tapes crap out.

I saw a device in a Fingerhut magazine that supposedly would do what Im lookin for, and it was $350.00...but I dont trust Fingerhut & would like to buy somethin from a more reputable place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, & Ill compensate you for yer help by givin you copies of the hermophrodite dislexic midgets with a lisp porno tapes that are in my possession that Im tryin to convert to newer technology so that I dont lose em

Jokes people..just jokes

Im serious about finding a device that'll do that tho. Thanks again

[radford]

I have a bunch of VHS tapes from my old camcorder that are startin to get raggedy, & Id like to find a device that'll lemme convert/transfer them over to DVDs or will allow me to upload em from a VCR to my puter's hardrive before the VCR tapes crap out.

I saw a device in a Fingerhut magazine that supposedly would do what Im lookin for, and it was $350.00...but I dont trust Fingerhut & would like to buy somethin from a more reputable place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, & Ill compensate you for yer help by givin you copies of the hermophrodite dislexic midgets with a lisp porno tapes that are in my possession that Im tryin to convert to newer technology so that I dont lose em

Jokes people..just jokes

Im serious about finding a device that'll do that tho. Thanks again

Ive seen some firms that do that but obviously that may cost a lot. Most people I think use a capture card , a common one card is a TV tuner card which has a Svideo or composite input.
There used to be a fair amount pure capture cards but they tend to cost as much or more than many TV tuner cards so I dont think they are that popular. I think Pinnacle has one with software in the high sub-100s. The dedicated capture cards tend to use firewire though theres stuff like Dazzle by Pinnacle thats around 50 bucks and I think it doesnt use firewire.

I used to read these sites that rated these capture cards but that was several years ago so I think they are useless. Some sites claimed some cards using certain chips had better quality than others but I havent seen any up-to-date ones.

The big downside is that you have capture in real time. You have a 1 hr tape , it takes one 1 hour to capture it since you play it on your source and it goes to your card and gets converted to a digital format. Generally you have software thats working with the card and you can choose the format to save it in and later edit the stuff and then burn it to a CD or DVD. You need some DVD authoring software to put it in the proper format for DVD burning. Theres some cheap and easy ones on the net and maybe Pinnacle may have a complete package with their card.

http://www.aboutvideoediting.com/hardware/video-capture-card.shtml

[SmoothSailing]

Thanks for the reply & all the info, redford...much appreciated. That method usin a capture card seems pretty difficult to grasp, & looks expensive. Isnt there like a converting machine I can buy that'll take the little camcorder tapes I have & rip them to DVD's and or CD's? Thats the kind of machine I thought I saw in the fingerhut book

[bzhayes]

Thanks for the reply & all the info, redford...much appreciated. That method usin a capture card seems pretty difficult to grasp, & looks expensive. Isnt there like a converting machine I can buy that'll take the little camcorder tapes I have & rip them to DVD's and or CD's? Thats the kind of machine I thought I saw in the fingerhut book

If you can find a machine like that it will be considerably more expensive than the method redford proposes.

[kyzen]

You can usually find video capture cards or devices for $50 or less. If you don't already have one, DVD burners can be had for as low as $20. Use the software the comes with the capture device to copy the tape to your computer, then use either Windows Movie Maker, or whatever the Apple alternative is if you have a Mac, or some other free utility (google around for DVD Authoring software) to create a DVD yourself.

It's pretty easy; the recording portion of it will be just a couple of clicks, the authoring part will be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.

[SmoothSailing]

Cool, Ill start lookin into this this weekend & try to figure it out. Just looked difficult at first glance

Thanks alot for all your replies & help

[MoonSprite]

If they are VHS tapes, couldn't you just use one of those $70 Magnavox DVD recorders that have the built in VCR? They sell em at Walmart. I have one, and have transferred all my old VHS tapes to DVD. Doesn't work with most commerical VHS tapes, but works just fine with anything you personally recorded to a VHS tape.

[radford]

Cool, Ill start lookin into this this weekend & try to figure it out. Just looked difficult at first glance

Thanks alot for all your replies & help

The Dazzle by Pinnacle is around 50 bucks. You can get an DVD authoring program for cheap
and it might even be included in some packages.

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/Dazzle+Video+Archiving/Dazzle+DVD+Recorder.htm

[kyzen]

The Dazzle by Pinnacle is around 50 bucks. You can get an DVD authoring program for cheap
and it might even be included in some packages.

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/Dazzle+Video+Archiving/Dazzle+DVD+Recorder.htm

I believe that Pinnacle includes some sort of software with their devices, or allow you to download it free from their site with a valid product serial #.

I do recall hearing last year that they had issues with 64 bit Vista editions, but I'd imagine that would be fixed by now.

[SmoothSailing]

If they are VHS tapes, couldn't you just use one of those $70 Magnavox DVD recorders that have the built in VCR? They sell em at Walmart. I have one, and have transferred all my old VHS tapes to DVD. Doesn't work with most commerical VHS tapes, but works just fine with anything you personally recorded to a VHS tape.

THATS the kind of machine I was talkin about in my original post. I looked at WalMart but couldnt find em tho

The Dazzle by Pinnacle is around 50 bucks. You can get an DVD authoring program for cheap
and it might even be included in some packages.

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/Dazzle+Video+Archiving/Dazzle+DVD+Recorder.htm

Thanks for the link...Im gonna give that a try if I cant find the machine the other person posted about

[Dogbert777]

If it'll play in a VCR this might work. It seems like a good deal.
http://biglots.inserts2online.com/breakout.jsp?referrer=imagemap&imageName=b510209_5.jpg&isBreakoutImage=true&pageNumber=1&breakoutName=b510209_5.jpg&itemId=

[SmoothSailing]

Your link is only showin the front page of Big Lots ad, but Ill try and look thru the electronics section to see if I can find what you're referrin to. Thank ya kindly

And all my camcorder tapes are smaller ones that I put in a VCR adapter case thingie to play em on a VCR, if that makes any sense

[Dogbert777]

Your link is only showing the front page of Big Lots ad,

Sorry about that.I tried to figure out the link straight to the item.
It's on the front page of the weekly ad.
DVD Recorder & 4 Head Hi-Fi Stereo VCR with Line-in Recording

[SmoothSailing]

Hmm, thats not showin on the front page or any other page of the Big Lots ad Im lookin at. Maybe its different deals for different zipcodes or something?

[stufine]

these things were crap back in the day. picked up a used one.. my machine never saw it.. pitched it. thought about getting the hardware based one but started reading so many negative reviews. i ended up getting a tuner card for my pc and hooking a vcr to it and using http://www.honestech.com/main/VHStoDVD40Standard.asp

[General Ghoul]

The Dazzle by Pinnacle is around 50 bucks. You can get an DVD authoring program for cheap
and it might even be included in some packages.

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/Dazzle+Video+Archiving/Dazzle+DVD+Recorder.htm

I got one on Woot for $25, it seems they run them in every Wootoff, keep an eye out for them or check ebay. It worked well for me, and the software allowed me to create chapters from the tapes.

[Dogbert777]

Hmm, thats not showin on the front page or any other page of the Big Lots ad Im lookin at. Maybe its different deals for different zipcodes or something?

Maybe the zipcode is the problem. Try 89431 or 89502.

[SmoothSailing]

Yeah, it shows up when I use yer zipcode. Im in St Louis (63301), & it shows a RCA TV in that spot on my ad

Can that machine be ordered online do ya know? If so Ill find a # to call them n order it n make em gimme that sale price on it

[Dogbert777]

Yeah, it shows up when I use yer zipcode. Im in St Louis (63301), & it shows a RCA TV in that spot on my ad

Can that machine be ordered online do ya know? If so Ill find a # to call them n order it n make em gimme that sale price on it

Good question. It's worth a try to contact them and ask.

[flight13]

Although it doesn't show on my local ad, they had them at the store. They had a display model behind the glass counter and one of the clerks grabbed the boxed unit from the back.

[MoonSprite]

Sorry about that.I tried to figure out the link straight to the item.
It's on the front page of the weekly ad.
DVD Recorder & 4 Head Hi-Fi Stereo VCR with Line-in Recording

YUP, this is the one I have and it works great. I got it as a Christmas present, and can tell you it was purchased at Walmart for double the price of the Big Lots ad. The prices have been going down on these things, though. I use mine all the time to convert over VHS tapes directly to DVD.

I checked the Walmart site, and it doesn't show it listed. Perhaps you can check in-store, like I said I know mine was purchased around Christmas time.

Amazon has them:

Here's mine (http://www.amazon.com/Magnavox-ZV457MG9-Combo-Built-Tuner/dp/B001QTW2BE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1246384033&sr=8-2)
Here's mine, but in Silver (http://www.amazon.com/Magnavox-MWR20V6-DVD-Recorder-Combo/dp/B000GWDL3U/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1246384033&sr=8-4)

I can only suggest the Magnavox, because it's the only one I've ever used (except for a Walmart branded one, but it has the same interface as the Magnavox). It's very easy to use. You can create chapter marks, titles, chapters, all that good stuff. It's really a great machine for somebody who wants to transfer over VHS tapes.

[SmoothSailing]

Just now able to post again...weeeee

Thanks alot for the links, Moon. Gonna check it out in a few

[SmoothSailing]

Well looks like Im shit out of luck on the Big Lots one, & the ones on Amazon are all $150 & higher, & I cant find any on WalMart's site...So do any of ya's know if this machine would work, & if you know if the seller is a reputable site?

http://www.wegotbetterdeals.com/rca-drc8335-dvdvcr-recorder-combo-with-builtin-tuner-refurbished--p-1921.html

[SmoothSailing]

Ugh, just found that same RCA model on Amazon & it gets horrendous reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/RCA-DRC8335-Recorder-Combo-Built/dp/B000NNFS4C/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1247445067&sr=1-6

It looks like everyone complains about the machine freezing and eating tapes, which would piss me off royally. This is getting frustrating

Oh well, just tryin to be patient

[catnap1972]

Unfortunately the majority of VHS/DVD combo machines are junk as you've been finding out.

[riffparker]

i got a liteon one off woot about 4 years ago - same story freezing / eating tapes. warranty was useless, quality garbage.