Best Luddite-friendly VHS digitizing tools for a gift?
December 8, 2018 4:05 PM Subscribe
Is there any VHS digitizing equipment out there that's completely plug-and-play and very easy to use for someone who isn't very tech-savvy?
Asking for a friend, who writes:
"My parents have a lot of home movies that they've accumulated over the years (mostly VHS tapes). As a gift this year, I'd like to get them equipment for digitizing and preserving them. We tried doing this a while back, hooking up the VCR to a laptop, but it was cumbersome enough that my parents couldn't figure out how to do it again when I wasn't there.
Is there any equipment out there that's completely plug-and-play and very easy to use for someone who isn't very tech-savvy?
I'm aware that there are services out there that will digitize VHS tapes. If someone has had a very good experience with one, I'd be interested in a recommendation, but I'm not sure if my parents would trust sending their tapes away - some of these have high sentimental value, and there's only one remaining copy."
Asking for a friend, who writes:
"My parents have a lot of home movies that they've accumulated over the years (mostly VHS tapes). As a gift this year, I'd like to get them equipment for digitizing and preserving them. We tried doing this a while back, hooking up the VCR to a laptop, but it was cumbersome enough that my parents couldn't figure out how to do it again when I wasn't there.
Is there any equipment out there that's completely plug-and-play and very easy to use for someone who isn't very tech-savvy?
I'm aware that there are services out there that will digitize VHS tapes. If someone has had a very good experience with one, I'd be interested in a recommendation, but I'm not sure if my parents would trust sending their tapes away - some of these have high sentimental value, and there's only one remaining copy."
COSTCO has a service.
posted by Freedomboy at 4:33 PM on December 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Freedomboy at 4:33 PM on December 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
So I'm in the midst of a film-digitizing project, and I can only imagine that VHS-digitization comes with many of the same issues—it's specialty equipment, the software (at the consumer level anyway) is janky, the process is finicky and requires a fair amount of attention to detail, and it's slow. If I had the money, I'd just have someone else do this for me. I don't think you're likely to find a nontechnical way of doing this short of paying someone else. Perhaps I'll be corrected.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 4:55 PM on December 8, 2018
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 4:55 PM on December 8, 2018
I just did this for my mom using this affordable Elgato dongle!
She had so many VHS tapes that using a service was going to be prohibitively expensive for me. I’m sure you end up with better quality video and audio if you are able to use fancier equipment, but this got the job done nicely being pretty much plug and play.
You will need a working VCR though.
posted by forkisbetter at 12:29 AM on December 9, 2018
She had so many VHS tapes that using a service was going to be prohibitively expensive for me. I’m sure you end up with better quality video and audio if you are able to use fancier equipment, but this got the job done nicely being pretty much plug and play.
You will need a working VCR though.
posted by forkisbetter at 12:29 AM on December 9, 2018
Seconding the Elgato device. I just used it, and it's just about foolproof. Once you install it (plug in the USB cord, update the driver), it's a step-by-step wizard to digitize a tape.
posted by 4midori at 11:08 AM on December 9, 2018
posted by 4midori at 11:08 AM on December 9, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
If your location is still NYC, you can do it for them at the Brooklyn library.
posted by xo at 4:25 PM on December 8, 2018 [1 favorite]