I see some posts regarding this and am thoroughly confused. What's the cheapest way for me to hook up my VCR to the IMAC to transfer all of my VHS tapes? Do I have to buy software or is there an easy way to do this? To complicate matters, my VCR does not have an S Video input...Thanks for your help!!
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HELP! Trying to convert VHS tapes onto my IMAC!
- Thread starter reyjoe1986
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
It would likely be cheaper to shop around for someone that has the hardware, pay them to move everything to DVD, then rip the DVDs into your iMac. If you don't have more than one-time use (getting all these tapes into your iMac), buying the hardware is a relative waste.
You might also be able to find someone who would rent a device for this.
But I bet the cheapest option is the first one I shared.
Note also that version of iMovie since iMovie HD (6) are not that great at working with SD (analog) video. This is another good reason to get someone else to create some quality DVD versions. Then, you'll be importing a digital version of your movies.
BTW: That elgato product mentioned above "Video Capture" - I have that and from my experience, it works quite well.
There's not really much in the way of user settings, but it definitely encodes painlessly to iPad/Apple friendly formats.
Another method is using a video to firewire bridge. The Grass Valley (or Canopus) ADVC 110 is one of these. It also does the job and goes directly to DV format so you can import directly into iMovie to edit and then encode the video to your final format. It is at least 2x the cost of the elgato solution.
Paying someone to do the job might be worthwhile for one tape, but remember, you can import in real-time only. If you have 10 hours of video, it is going to take 10 hours at least to encode everything. If budget is the driving factor, the elgato is around $100-120 and can always be useful to have around in the future. The Canopus is even better but more expensive ($250) but it also has the ability to ignore signal corruption like Macrovision. You can also hook up a DV Camera to the Canopus and use it as a really high quality webcam in Flash Media Encoder and Quicktime Broadcaster.
There's not really much in the way of user settings, but it definitely encodes painlessly to iPad/Apple friendly formats.
Another method is using a video to firewire bridge. The Grass Valley (or Canopus) ADVC 110 is one of these. It also does the job and goes directly to DV format so you can import directly into iMovie to edit and then encode the video to your final format. It is at least 2x the cost of the elgato solution.
Paying someone to do the job might be worthwhile for one tape, but remember, you can import in real-time only. If you have 10 hours of video, it is going to take 10 hours at least to encode everything. If budget is the driving factor, the elgato is around $100-120 and can always be useful to have around in the future. The Canopus is even better but more expensive ($250) but it also has the ability to ignore signal corruption like Macrovision. You can also hook up a DV Camera to the Canopus and use it as a really high quality webcam in Flash Media Encoder and Quicktime Broadcaster.
that looks archaic and this is coming from a fan of Magnetic Tape as storage...
that looks archaic and this is coming from a fan of Magnetic Tape as storage...
It's not that old. Anyone over 20 would be very familiar with it. You want archaic, try UMATIC.
http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=umatic&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1516&bih=1207
that looks archaic and this is coming from a fan of Magnetic Tape as storage...
How old are you? Are you seriously saying you don't know what vhs is? Or are you just being a sarcastic troll?
I have this and have used it to transfer over 40 VHS tapes with great success. Only thing is, you have to use a Windows machine!
http://www.meritline.com/mygica-ezgrabber-2-usb-2-0-video-capture---p-41210.aspx
They also have a more expensive Mac version, but since I have not used it, I don't know if it would work for you:
http://www.meritline.com/mygica-igrabber-usb-2point0-video-capture-for-mac---p-38254.aspx
They are China specials, so the documentation isn't the greatest, but once it is working, you should have no problems. Since you asked for the cheapest, I thought I'd throw them out there!!
http://www.meritline.com/mygica-ezgrabber-2-usb-2-0-video-capture---p-41210.aspx
They also have a more expensive Mac version, but since I have not used it, I don't know if it would work for you:
http://www.meritline.com/mygica-igrabber-usb-2point0-video-capture-for-mac---p-38254.aspx
They are China specials, so the documentation isn't the greatest, but once it is working, you should have no problems. Since you asked for the cheapest, I thought I'd throw them out there!!