Convert VHS to DVD

So, my husband is finally going thru on his threat to throw away the old VHS player. I want to convert the VHS tapes to DVD. The VHS player we have is so old that it only has a yellow and white jack, no red. I have heard that easyCAP is the best way to do it. Any comments? Has anyone tried it or does anyone have a better idea? :confused I have also heard that I could purchase a DVD recorder and hook it directly to the VHS. I would really like to do it without buying the recorder unless that is the best way. Thanks.

 

Personally, I think the best option would be for you to purchase a VHS/DVD combo player that is capable of transferring the VHS to DVD (it must have a DVD recorder!). I think you'd be looking at around $150 for something like that.

 

Either way will work. You'll probably need a splitter from Radio Shack to convert the mono audio (white jack) to stereo (red & white jack). With that little issue resolved, it's probably just a matter of personal preference. I'd base my decision on how many VHS movies need converted. You're going to have to convert them in "real time", i.e. record to DVD (or hard drive) as the movie plays. If you've got a few movies, it's probably cheaper to buy a video capture card (or record to a digital camcorder, remove media and copy to computer); if you've got lots of movies, I'd buy a VHS/DVD recorder combo and transfer them in my "spare time", without hogging up my computer CPU cycles. Good luck!

 

An easy way to "over-ride" the "protection" on VHS tapes is to place a small piece of tape (freezer tape works best) over the small "hole" where the tab was removed on the end of the tape. (it's opposite of the actual tape end of the cassette). Yeah, it's not legal. But if you've already purchased the movie, why buy it all over again just so you can get rid of your VHS player? Also, a lot of VHS releases haven't been released on DVD yet.

This works with ALL VHS tapes, as that little cut-out is the ONLY "protection" they ever had.

 

Unfortunately, all my tapes got lost when I was moving at one point or another. Good luck!