CNET How To - Transfer VHS tapes to your computer

What would be really cool is a video comparing several adaptor systems and explaining the pros and cons of each.

This was super helpful. I'm a filmmaker and I want to start using my dad's old VHS camera which surprisingly still works for that old tape look in my stories. I just needed to know how to upload it to my Mac. Thanks a bunch for this tutorial!

Two notes. First, it's only against the law in the US and possibly a handful of other countries, but in the UK, they have enough sense to allow their citizens to be normal human beings and transfer movies they already paid for into format that will last for decades. Second, thanks to Fred Rogers, anything recorded over the airwaves is fair game.

this helped a lot! i'm currently making a short film in digital media and wanted to use old 2000s vhs tapes from when i was younger, so thank you!

I was wondering when the mention of an $80 product would come up.

in 2019, the cable is $8 on ebay

It's not illegal to transfer commercial VHS tapes as long as you're not selling them. It's no different from ripping CDs to MP3 or DVDs to MP4. It's not terribly practical to do it in most cases as the tapes are likely somewhat damaged and a new copy of most of these videos will have a higher resolution in DVD or BluRay than you'd get out of a VHS tape, but there's still plenty of VHS movies out there which don't have proper re-releases or where they edited them in some undesirable way. The main issue is that some of them use macrovision as protection, which requires more expensive equipment to properly transfer.

These adapters are only about A$15 including postage on ebay. I have a couple and they work just fine.

so many people dissatisfied about this video ...i'd say thank you for sharing this

I'm TOTALLY going to do this and thrilled to see this video! I've wanted to transfer mine forever but didn't want to buy a special machine. This will make it so much easier and I can finally watch those old videos I love! I'm so stoked!! :o)

10 years ago, I taught my gf how to record shows from cable TV using a similar device. These days, you can watch any show instantly on Netflix or another streaming service; how times have changed.

0:45 its not illegal unless you sell them your copies. The more you know.

Anybody else got this in their recommended 8 years later?

THANK YOU. I've been looking for a way to convert my home videos to DVD, and the VCR+DVD player I have refuses to do it because there's a little space between each video on the VHS, so it dumps everything. This is SO much better!

Your allowed to back up your movie collection for personal use just like we could make copies of our cassette tapes or photo copies of books, as long as it's for personal use and not resale.

Everyone should make sure to render their videos as 50 fps or 60 fps. For me 60p vs 30p makes much more difference than HD vs SD. Try and see the difference, it's substantial. Unless you make it so, the h264 encoder will eat up all the natural smooth movements, and you will wonder how come your VHS still looks better, even though you may have used the best hardware available. Also, most of the cheap tv tuner card with the composite video input are crappy, their capturing quality is as if you are doing a 320x240 video. Use a capture card that costs $70+, and you should get far better picture.

This was super helpful. I have some VHS tapes that have been laying around and wanting to get rid of, but also keep the footage recorded on those tapes on CDs since those last longer and easier to make extra copies in case if footage on a CD becomes ruined or something

I want to transfer VHS-film to burned dvd's. I have a Panasonic super drive NV-MV15 VHS, and when I tried to convert to my computer, the picture was jumping. I used a USB EasyCAP USB2 Video Capture with a switchable scart male to 3x RCA male video cable. - I read that using a external framesync tbc can be useful. But when I search it, I'm not finding one to buy. I am not insanely prone for it to be the best...just to be done. I am a novice...so if you could explain it in plain language how to solve my problem, it would be appreciated.

There is an out of the box way to transfer old tapes. Play your video on a Plasma or HD TV in the Dark. Set up a tripod with Eye Shooter Smartphone Holder and your Smartphone and VIDEO TAPE IT. You can also do pause / record / pause to edit on the fly.

This is so helpful. I have ton of VHS tapes of my garden, my singing, concerts I was in and my garden and family. Can t wait to try this. THANKS!