Flutterby™! : Futzing about with VHS tapes and players

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Futzing about with VHS tapes and players

2011-03-09 19:26:10.781545+00 by Dan Lyke 6 comments

Futzing about with VHS tapes and players. I feel so 1980s. This is a technology I do not miss.

comments in descending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2011-03-10 19:17:03.090715+00 by: Dan Lyke

I spent $129+tax pre-income-tax dollars (because it is legitimately for my business use, I'm looking at "highway of the future" videos from the 1990s) on a Magnavox copier that does exactly what Eric describes. I can set it to break up chapters at 5 or 10 minute boundaries. I just wish it detected the end of the tape a little better.

And, yeah, once it's on DVD I can import it to the computer, store it on the shelf, whatever.

#Comment Re: made: 2011-03-10 18:45:12.999599+00 by: ebradway

I did this several years ago. It's amazing how much space VHS tapes occupy. It's also 100X easier to use a combined VHS to DVD machine than trying to use separate devices or, heaven help you, a video capture device on a computer.

With the VHS to DVD, you pop the tape in and a blank DVD and mash a button, walk away. All other solutions require more hands-on effort and probably 2X the length of time of your VHS tapes. As far as I know, there's no high speed VHS to DVD solutions on the consumer market.

#Comment Re: made: 2011-03-10 15:49:56.90876+00 by: other_todd

I didn't bother. I was never a big recorder-of-things, and with the handful of movies I had on (aging) tape it seemed more reasonable just to try to get them on DVD if I felt I really wanted them.

#Comment Re: made: 2011-03-10 11:11:01.154651+00 by: DaveP

It was last fall I finally cleansed myself of all my VHS tapes (save one personal tape that'll probably never get converted).

#Comment Re: made: 2011-03-09 23:52:30.438819+00 by: Dan Lyke

I went out and bought a VHS to DVD machine, and am currently running it, so I never have to deal with this again.

#Comment Re: made: 2011-03-09 20:31:27.491944+00 by: other_todd

I believe this is the point where I ask why.