shopping for device to convert vhs tapes to digital

[furcalchick]

i've been looking for a while for a pc compatible product that can convert vhs tapes to a digital format that can be stored on an external hard drive, with no luck. the few i've seen, either they are too expensive or too much of a hassle. and i would like to buy it for black friday due to the markdown on the prices, so help me find the perfect converter.

here are the ones i've seen so far:

http://www.amazon.com/Studio-Movieb...4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1195241415&sr=1-4
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=612720&CatId=1428
http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-VC500...00VM60I8/ref=pd_ts_e_11?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

i'm also willing to take other recommendations as well. thanks.

 

[Moof1904]

I had a ton of VHS tapes to convert to computer, some which were straight transfers to DVD for archiving purposes and some that were to be further edited and honestly, I blew off going straight from VHS to computer a long time ago. It was too annoying and i hated that doing so tied up my computer while the transfer was in progress.

What I did was bought an inexpensive VHS/DVD combo deck and did a straight transfer of each tape onto a separate DVD. Then, I tossed the VHS tapes into a box for storage. For those resulting DVDs that were straight archive, there was nothing further to be done. For those that required further editing, I used Handbrake to rip the unencrypted DVDs into the computer and went from there.

This way, I ended up with a DVD archive of each tape and I didn't tie up my computer while making the transfers and the only hardware I bought was a DVD/VHS player that was useful after I'd finished the transfer process.