HOW TO TRANSFER VHS TAPES TO YOUR COMPUTER 

Hi Mark, my mac book pro doesn't have a dvd drive. Could you post the link to the software??

Try that: www.noterepeat.com/products/ion/vcrs-and-video-conversion/546-ion-audio-video-2-pc-mkii-ez-cap-installation-and-setup-guide

Thanks for the quick response! It seems the page was removed :( anyone have any other suggestions??

Dang sorry mate. Mobile now but will look when I get back to a computer. Ion to PC ezcap software, google that.

Mark Holtze, in Germany it is also allowed to copy movies if you do it for private, but not in you break something like DRM or anticopy.

Unlike your videos

Exactly what I was going to say, except hilarious too!! What wonderful memories!!

it costs money

Thank you,, really simple to understand 👍

Straight to the point and that's what we need.

Hi Peder, what a great message to find here thank you so much! I honestly feel pretty strongly about this as well as everything I talk about on my channel. It comes from a place of both experience (been working as a professional filmmaker for damn, 16 years now?) but also from a place of authenticity. I really do feel like sharing these old videos with people who haven't seen them really is something special. It's not something I started to appreciate until I got older, but since kind of discovering it I felt it was an important element to share with anyone out there who may feel the same but doesn't have the knowledge or understanding how to do it. Anyway thanks so much again, your comment made my day for sure! Wish you the best in your retirement. You can use some of that time to find some select moments on these tapes and share them with those who'd love to see them. Best mate! -Mark

HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU EARN ???😍😍😍 YOU MUST BE RICH

Always store tapes horizontally otherwise they will get an oval sag and playback will suffer.

Totally agree!

That’s incredible! Sharing that will be quite the experience! Best of luck with it!

My pleasure. It’s pretty straight forward once you get into it, but if you do have any further questions, happy to help.

Mark Holtze ...bless!

Yes, but the process I’m showing is tape agnostic. This isn’t a what tape is this, it’s a tutorial to help show you HOW you can capture X tape format to your computer. But nice for those who are wondering about what tapes are what :) thanks Neil!

@@MarkHoltze I've done this myself, using first a software from a company I cannot recall the name of, but then I discovered Cyberlink Power Director.....WOW! What I was able to do with my old tapes, I was amazed, then I learned about CLPV, WOW again! Converting old 4:3 into RU-vid-friendly 16:9(though initially I was burning to DVD prior to 2016 when I launched my Trams & Trains RU-vid channel).

+Colin Ross thanks Colin! You should totally do it. Use it as a D cam or just bring up old memories to laugh, cry or cringe at ;)

the best of times

I won’t tell if you don’t!

Colin Ross I did!!😊

Absolutely, I definitely didn’t want to get into in this video, it was more just that FBI warning I remember at the beginning of every movie :). There is nothing preventing the transfer, just can’t distribute it in any commercial way as far i remember. Unauthorized duplication (to sell on the black market). I wanted digital copies of the ya altered Star Wars films where Darth’s Light saver is still a shade of red and not a pink tone from too much remastering :) Thanks for the comment, I think you have the longest name on RU-vid! I dig!

Ahahaah yeah thanks :) we Italian have the tendency of placing long names after our channels LOL :) PS also one of the longest videos, I made an episode lasting 9hrs and 43mins (in Italian...)

9 hours! That rivals the rough cut of appocalpyse now !! Lol brilliant, jus checked it out and subbed. Need to brush up on my Italian. I won’t start with the 9 hour one! ;)

ahahah gee I understand LOL :)

The Man In Red - Funk, Soul, Boogie e Hip Hop Square Dance callers are allowed to digitize records into mp3 and us it in that format only IF they keep the original record. (I know, honor system.)

Did you ever finish the movie?

Have you ever heard of Betamax, Boooomer? 😂 😂 😘

Boomer is a dead meme, but damn I hate boomers

But, you can also do Costco, Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart for transfer from 📼 to 📀.

Thanks Drew! It's so much fun to be able to capture and share this stuff with family and friends. People's reaction to seeing footage not seen in decades is pretty incredible and worth the effort IMHO. Thanks for the comment!

ya for a very small percentage of us who appreciate the full preserved copy, but for the market (very casual users who want to capture their home movies) this is all you need. Target market and who these devices are meant for are the boundaries, this video is also many years old and new devices have since come into the market.

@@MarkHoltze Sadly mostly people who buy these are just uninformed, educating the uninformed is what the media world is all about, I write the wiki I spent over 2k GBP in R&D into this to make reference data and honestly no new devices under the 150-800USD total cost mark beat decode on a basic VCR. Ware as decode can be deployed for under 50 USD from scratch with a CX Card which is around 20 USD using any VCR with standard test points it's not complex nor expensive in fact it takes the need for understanding an TBC and using one in real time out of the picture, its 1 command capture 2 commands done anyone with a desktop and a free weekend can set it up it beats out the FA-310P and TBC-3000 witch are well 900-3k USD TBC units the thing decode shines on is damaged and shedding tapes witch TBC units dont really do much a good with in one run. Also this covers Video8 / Hi8 / BetaMax the list goes on potential wise. Now after the RF is captured decoded and video you don't need to keep it but then again 8TB of storage is only 120USD a unit with WD white label REDs inside the easy store units etc RF compressed is only 325MB/min with all signal data intact thanks to FLAC compression so 1 hour fits on a 25GB M-Disk even so total its 4 copy paste commands from capture to video and archival. All content is history so it's soul-crushing to see it defiled by the cheap consumer era when for a fraction of paying someone else to do it you can do it better than an 1000USD+ setup at home. The economics past 5 tapes make perfect sense and I would love to see you make a video on it. I will also say StaxRip and 1-2-3 QTGMC de-interlacing beats out eveything today thats a 3min setup if not less on windows but to present that on YT 1440x1080 and higher upscaling is needed SD video is just DOA in terms of YT processing lol.

My pleasure! Hope it helps! :)

I usually run it through a deinterlace video filter in editing software. Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro or avid. I think QuickTime can do it and might be able to do it by selecting de-interlace but not sure. Not at home this week so can’t check.

Yes there is a mix, the process is exactly the same across the tape formats. I captured both VHS-C and high 8 but the high 8 camera is more reliable so opted for that to showcase. None of that changes the steps to capture them.

I would go through the VCR personally if you can. Dedicated player vs a player/recorder (camera) but it won’t have an impact on quality directly. VCR might have cleaner play heads and better “tracking” options. Ultimately whatever is easiest for you :)

@@MarkHoltze Thank you so much for the immediate reply! I'm now a subscriber so I'll reach out if I run into any other glitches!

@@flyinghippo36 My pleasure! Best of luck and happy to help where I can. It's nice when I get notifications directly to my phone, but it doesn't always happen right away. Definitely happy to help! :)

Hi Kami, which ones are you looking at specifically? It's hard to say if most expensive is worthwhile. I didn't want the cheapest one on the block, but also not the most expensive. I did read a lot of reviews on adapters before I settled on that one. Which ones are you looking at? Just make sure to check compatibility in some cases with what OS you're using.

I'm looking at the VIDBOX converter.

Or even one that doesn't come with any software. I can upload right into iMovie, can't I?

I think so, I feel like the software has the drivers required to code the video. I know i use to use Final Cut Pro 7 to digitize directly. I just used the software to capture the footage and would import directly into something like IMOVIE or Premiere Pro. If there is no software than ya it should plug and play hopefully! :)

Tom’s, yes it is :)

Thanks TJ! I will definitely do one. I kind of get these ideas amen based on my schedule and motivation I do them. VHS is definitely one and it’s just a matter of developing a reason for it. Every video needs to be motivated by some Sort of narrative with some takeaway. Usually an idea hits and I just follow it through. One will hit soon for VHS I can feel it ;)

Mark Holtze thank you so much I think what makes a good RU-vid is replying back to some of the comments that’s what makes a good RU-vid or and you were one of them and thank you so much for agreeing with me like I said before in the past and I will say this again I still use technology like VHS DVD’s cassette tapes all that good stuff and I’m glad someone understands what makes a good RU-vid or is responding and replying back to some of their messages or responses whatever you want to reply back some people don’t always reply back and some do keep up the good work man and have a good day and I can’t wait to see more content in the future

My pleasure mate and thanks! Honestly though I think it's important to respond to anyone who's taking the time to watch your content and asking a question about it. Part of what I love about this platform is being able to share in what I know with an audience, you have a conversation and both people hopefully walk away knowing more. I can understand why some of the bigger youtubers can't because they'd just get nothing done if they did...but I don't have the problem ;). Plus I think this is a big part of what inspires me to bother making these anyway. thanks as always for watching and contributing! I appreciate it!

Another option that I have been looking into is getting an external DVD drive that connects by USB.

Hi Dripfeed, my pleasure. I’ve come to a point where I feel we shouldn’t leave these old formats dead in a closet. Too many important memories to share. Sounds totally like it’s a camera issue. If you can change them on the fly like that then it must be. Given it’s just a digital overlay, the actual vhs-C tapes should be clean. That should make getting a VHS-C adapter the solution. I use a VHS-C adapter as the old signal from my camera doesn’t play well with the adapter. You can find them on amazon pretty easily. Just make sure it’s a prime seller and read reviews. Lots of cheap knock offs out there made specifically to fleece people. Hope that helps! Good luck! Let me know if the problem persists and we’ll see what other options there are.

Mark Holtze thanks for the prompt response brother! I have invested in an Adaptor, will i also need a VHS player to then connect to my laptop? im not familiar with the outputs on the Adaptor

Anytime! Why I waste my time doing these videos is sharing info and the good vibes :) Yes unfortunately now you will need a VHS player. The setup is pretty simple: VHS with rca composite cables (red, yellow, white). Cables plug into the VIDEo and AUDIO “OUT” on the vhs and the other end to the video and audio IN on the adapter. Adapter has a USB cable that plugs into your computer. Install and load software and capture. I have a part 2 where I outline the record settings setup. But that’s a later step. VHS decks: consignment stores, eBay, garage sales, parents basement? Seems that lots of people have VHS put away so ask around before going and buying one. I’ve sound the same with film projectors. People keep these things and forget they have them. Good luck!

​@@MarkHoltzeWhat's VHS like on larger HD TV's

Yes you do, no time wasting here, if I extend some stuff it's usually for context, but ya...we don't have 14 mins to watch a simple video, I get that 100%.

Hi Lindsey, yes a VHS player works just the same. :)

Hi John, check the envato now, the ION isn't supported any longer for some reason. Process will be exactly the same, it's a universal setup process. GOod luck with it mate

@@MarkHoltze Dang! I ordered the Ion before your message! You were right about no more support, so I returned it and will shop Envato, thanks!

Ya it’s annoying mate. Hopefully this works out for you. All the best.

Mark Holtze I could not find your referenced hardware, but I did order the vid box: Amazon‘s choice. I’ll let you know how it works out.

Please do. I need to update mine. Thanks John!

It's the Sony Handycam, it has a S-VIDEO as well as RCA Composite outputs. Some have an RCA/Composite to MINI which on one end would be a mini jack (one metal prong) with the red, white and yellow on the other end. What kind is yours?

My is a sharp VL-AH50 and it’s a pain in the ass it has no charger and it needs this special video/audio cord to hook it up to my DVD recorder

Just googled it! I remember seeing those around! I think it has the AV to mini jack...I THINK. I'll check the manual when I get to a computer (mobile)

Yeah I found the charger and AV to mini jack online if it works I’m gonna use my Panosonic DMR ES-15 DVD recorder to archive it onto blank DVD-R’s then put in my computer

Sweet! So much work for this legacy technology! It's nice to move forward, but leaves so much in the dark.

This one isn't supported anymore unfortunately. Plenty of replacements though. I should really order a new one and do a new review on it. Check the top link as that one seems to be the best reviewed and works for latest Windows/mac OS's. You can check user reviews from there if you want. it's too bad this one isn't supported anymore, I still use it on my old machine and it's just so easy.

@@MarkHoltze Getting one for cheap on eBay . . running MacOS Mojave . . any idea if I can get hold of the old software and run it?

@@niffumdam EZCAP won't run on Mojave unfortunately. They stopped supporting a few updates back. Kind of annoying, but other adapters that do the same thing have supported software.

Yes May 10th 1999 😂

Vcr works perfectly. :) if you still have one laying around.

lol! i can go back in time and inception plant this idea into my 10 year old self ;)

You have to make the connection. Load up the program, set your record destination. Hit record on the software and play on the VCR and it will record. I have a part 2 of this video which outlines that process. Check the link in the description. Shows the process. Hope that helps

True!

Not all cameras especially older VHSC cameras have Svideo. I couldn’t find mine sonjust used what I had coupled with the lowest common denominator. SVIDEO is best, IEEE unless your camera has it. Those are late 90’s and early 2000’s era.

@@MarkHoltze My 8mm Sony camera from 2000 has IEEE plug, transfered a few tapes to my PC, video came out beautiful. But without compression (MPG4 etc...), I ended up with 30 Gig file/tape. LOL! Over 10 years ago, only writable blue ray disk can handle that size of files and they were expensive back than! Back than I was nuts about keeping my family videos to the highest quality! Another story if just copying an old movie for fun!

@@szaki I remember my first year film school where they were talking about IEEE (Firewire). Sept 1999, LOVED the idea of digital transfer both audio and video, input and OUTPUT ONE cable. Magic it was!

@@MarkHoltze Yes! I still have some 2x dozen 8 mm, VHS tapes, loaded with vacation, family videos from the 90's etc... I'm gonna star digitizing them using IEEE. my older Lenovo laptop has the 1394 plug. Lot of fun! Looks like you're into video transfer, eh?

@Sannesthesia Long time ago done firewire transfer 8mm to PC, but needed a piece of software to download for windows to make things work.

My pleasure mate! Hope it helps!

That was the world 8 years before you arrived ;) didn’t miss much ;)

I was born in 1990 which is cool but I wish I had been born sooner too.

@@VictorianMetalGirl Why do you wish you were born sooner? I was born in 1980, it was pretty cool being a kid in the 80's, but the 90's weren't so bad either ;) What decade do you wish you were born in?

When you hit play on on deck nothing plays I assume?

Video plays on the camera, not on computer!

Really annoying if they don’t support it. Submit an email here: www.ionaudio.com/support?_ga=2.181366503.1742181391.1526078159-2147014518.1515284705 I never run latest OS until I have to so haven’t had any issues. Gojng to look into it further for you but not able to at the moment.

Will do, thanks so much!

Unfortunately no, your camera is the deck and needs to play it for computer to transfer.

Mark Holtze 🤦🤦🤦🤦

I know it's super annoying. What kind of camera is it? What tapes does it play?

Mark Holtze it's sony handycam CCD-TR317E PAL ... it just keeps showing E:31:10 i have no idea what that means

I wonder if the play heads need to be cleaned. Hard to say for sure, I wish I had a better answer for you. Sometimes you can get those tapes that clean the play heads, but there might be a problem with the camera unfortunately.

Yes it will. Just make sure the output on your camera is compatible with your adapter.

Mark Holtze super fast reply, much appreciated.

My pleasure mate. I live down here in the comments so it makes it easy ;)

Discontinued, lots of options available that do the same thing. I’ll need to update this one when I update my OS, I’m still on an old Mac OS because of it.

Mark Holtze k let me know what to buy I have no idea lol thanks man

@@danferguson7593 amzn.to/2QmLvoA That one seems to be the best rated and is compatible. Probably very similar setup. That's the one i'm going to order when the time comes.

Mark Holtze thanks Mark for your help and I may have more questions later on I was a pc user for years and now Mac book I love it thanks again and hope you put out more videos they are great😁

Hi Trixie, thanks for the comment! Looks like you have the RCA to Mini and S-VIDEO which will both work with this adapter. The video quality is better with S-VIDEO, you can buy the cable it's pretty cheap. IEEE1394 is "firewire" and digital so you won't get any loss of video quality when you capture it this way. There are some adapters that have it as an option and it's nice because it does both audio and video signal with one cable. I've had a really hard time finding a good quality adapter that takes IEEE1394. Even if you can't find one of those, this adapter or one that has SVIDEO will work just fine. Hope that helps! GOOD LUCK :)

There should be a 3.5 mm sized jack on your Camera that says AV out. You can buy a cable that transmits a 3.5mm to the three component ports. If you have this cable then you wouldn't have to use a Component or RCA cable unless the cable has female component ports, but then that would just actually give you the RCA ports you need

This! Perfect you beat me to it it. Thanks mate!

Thanks for the kind word my friend. :)

I'm not sure mate.

Hi Simon, not a stupid question at all. SVideo is just an evolved version of RCA and most adapters have SVideo as a connection option. The adapter in this video has SVideo input and you can connect your audio cables (red and white) to that so you should be covered. Do you have all the cables with the camera?

Thanks for the speedy reply! Unfortunatley, I don't have the cables which originally came with the camera.

My pleasure mate. That’s okay they are easy enough to find Arnaz a local AV shop. Bring the camera in or you could always order online. Helps sometimes to be able to ask store clerks some follow up questions. They may even have exactly what you need and help you further. I’m happy to help as well..whatever gets your old videos restored :)

If I were to order online, what would I need to get it working? I use a macbook pro. Would it be possible for you to give me some links? Sorry for all the questions!! Thanks again :)

Yes give me a bit and i’ll get you some info. Just need to get to a computer. Mobile now. Standby. What OS are you using?

Is it a dead battery? What kind of camera?

@@MarkHoltzeits Sony handycam trv99 met with an accident :(

I’m sorry to hear that mate. Unless you can get it repaired or find a replacement. Nothing you can do :(

It seems to have gotten a little tougher the farther we've moved away from this old media formats. I figured it was a good thing to showcase given how important it is for this old media to not be forgotten.

If you use MPEG or MPEG 4 H.264 codec on medium settings it's not so bad. .mov files are huge. I also capture in 10 min intervals, it's just easier to keep the size of the files down. Generally speaking video capture is pretty hard on the HD. Luckily storage is generally pretty cheap and is getting cheaper. You can always lower the "image quality" down. Really depends on how much footage you want to capture. .avi, .mov are generally not great.

There should be, what adapter did you get?

I didnt buy it yet but i can only find in my country the Av2HDMI

That should work in a similar fashion Natalia.

Yes you'll need to buy an AV to RGB cable instead

RCA to MINI works as well if you look that up. It's used to save space on the camera body.

Those are pulled from beta masters. So unless they go through another generation (beta to vhs is generation 1) generation 2 would be vhs to another vhs. Every time you copy an analog signal, it loses quality.

@@MarkHoltze Right but when they put those episodes online they digitize the episodes to where they look like film and no longer look like video. Is there an app on computer that can reverse the process and make the episode look like video again?

Yes, it should have a night mode with an IR light.

Can you go to computer preferences and check video input devices? Switch it or make sure it’s on composite.

It should have some sort of video out. What camera is it?

​@@MarkHoltze I am not entirely sure, but here it says "Digital 8, DCR-TRV210 NTSC". And I just found a little input that reads "DV IN/OUT", may that be it?

DV, ya you need an adapter that has IEEE dv (FireWire) and you’re golden.

@@MarkHoltze Thanks man! Love your videos. Keep it up!

Thanks mate! Will do! :)

Thanks, that’s the ION video to PC. Nice profile shot!

My pleasure Blair. I’m here if you have any questions.

I have only because ion isn’t supported any longer for latest windows and Mac platforms. They both do the same thing.

Hmmm ya usually it works like that. If it plays weird it will capture weird. It’s a signal thing. The play heads on camera could be dusty. Try blowing gently where the tapes get inserted. Also check a different tape of you can see if the problem persists. If so it’s prob the camera.

Might be able to get an HD converter but it’s coming from an analog source so no matter what cable you have it’s still SD. Depends what camera you have, IEEE firwire or Svideo give you the best signal out but again unless the camera shoots HD it won’t be true HD. Hope that helps mate.

It's a tough one for me, i'm a hands on problem solver. Sounds like it could be a fungus or perhaps some damaged components. It's old so anything is possible really. I was actually surprised my Hi-8 Sony still works perfectly. Battery holds charge all day as well, I shot a "vlog" all day with it and hardly any drop outs. My VHS camera on the other hand has issues with battery not holding charge and super fuzzy weird viewfinder EVF signal. If you hit record and play back on a TV using your AV cables, is the image messed up? Or is it only distorted when you look at on actual camera.

So much fun to be able to watch that old stuff again! OR for the first time ;).