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karterius

macrumors member
Original poster
May 8, 2005
36
0
Hello,

I am creating a wedding video, and my fiance and I both have most of our childhood on VHS. I would like to start converting these over to edit into the video.

What's the best way to do this? Should I buy a standalone VHS to DVD burner, and then rip the DVD? Or buy one of the VHS USB capture devices? I want the best quality output, but speed is an issue.

MANY THANKS to everyone's input.
 

monokakata

macrumors 68020
May 8, 2008
2,035
582
Ithaca, NY
I've been using this:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...Design_VIDREC_Video_Recorder_USB_Capture.html

for about a week. It does exactly what it's meant to do. I'm completely satisfied.

I have a Panasonic AG1980 VHS recorder (a high-end one, in its day) with S-video output, TBC, and so on.

The key thing is unattended operation. I start up the Black Magic device (having previously set the parameters, which I haven't had to change), start the VHS deck, and walk away (or do something else).

When it completes, there's a H.264 file on my drive. I edit it, or just save it as an archive for later editing.

I can't imagine that it gets any easier than this, except for sending the whole job out. I have about 20-30 tapes to convert and the task doesn't frighten me at all.

I have a hard time remembering when I bought any device that solved a problem so neatly and with so little effort.

It's not cheap, though.
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
would Handbrake (free) not do that?

Not into an editable format, as HandBrake only uses MPEG-4 codec variants and not something like the Apple Intermediate Codec or ProRes or DV codec, for which one has to use MPEG Streamclip and the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component (19.99 USD).

 
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