Has anyone had personal experience transferring VHS to DVD or VHS to computer hard drive? I have a box full of home videos that go back 10 - 12 years and many are starting to degrade. I used a relative’s all-in-one VHS to DVD recorder (GoVideo I think) with good results except that the discs will only play in that particular machine. Multiple computers and DVD players do not recognize that the discs have any data on them. Recording sessions were verified to be finalized in all instances.

I have seen some hardware/software packages advertised with USB interface. These appear to fit the bill but they have mixed reviews; lots of compatibility issues and audio/video sync problems. I’m not looking for anything with a lot of editing capability, I would just like a backup of these tapes - something I can put on disc and/or hard drive.

Of course one option is to pay for the transfer. Everything I’ve found costs nearly $10 - $20 per hour of video. At that price, I could either backup all these recordings of my kids crawling around on the floor or buy a house! Any experiences or information would be appreciated. Thanks!

First I am no expert so the advice you get is what you paid for.

Next it depends on what kind of hardware inputs you have on your computer. I use Dazzle. The hardware has inputs for RCA jacks and S-video. It connects to the computer via USB. It originally came with Pinnacle Studio 10 but I have since upgraded to Studio 12. Works for me.

Hooligan,

Thanks for the free advice! It appears that the Dazzle hardware would work for what I need. It is priced similarly with the Roxio product I almost purchased until I read some reviews. Thanks again.

Still open for any other recommendations but I'll do some more research and then start looking at purchasing the Dazzle product.

You are most welcome, Chewy. Just remember this, with free advice, you get what you paid for.

I never read any reviews on Dazzle. It was recommended to me by a salesperson at Staples.

I have had great luck with my VCR-DVD/R combo from Sony. Not too hard to find and pretty cheap. Even easier to use. Just pop in the tape, put in a DVD/R disk and hit sync record.

Mighty,

Thanks for the input. Do your recordings function in other DVD players? Can the DVDs then be copied onto a computer hard drive? I'm wondering if my previously mentioned GoVideo recorder utilized some kind of non-standard format. As I don't have access to it any more, I can't find out. Sorry for all the extra questions.

Had no issues with other DVD players. Never saw a need to transfer to hard drive. One of the dazzle setups would probably be better as they are more likely to offer choices of formats compatable with the computer. The normal 'DVD' format is not the best for a computer.