VHS tape transfer to Mac

Hi,
I am wondering what is the best software package for transferring my old VHS taps on to my Mac and possibly for eventual download onto DVD ?
I have looked into it myself, but it seems like a mine field! Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

It's not a mine field at all but you're going to need some hardware in order to do it. I use a Canopus ADVC 100 which has been replaced by the ADVC 110 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=349146&gclid=CPGe-diw-MMC FQgxaQodY0YAYA&Q=&is=REG&A=details
I import video from VHS straight into iMovie.

Similar Messages

Transfer VHS tapes to my MAC ?

Does anyone have any experience or know what the best device is to transfer VHS tapes (family movies) to my MAC running Yosemite ? Thanks, Denise

People have reported success with this device, and iMovie: https://www.elgato.com/en/video/video-capture
You will find an abundance of help in this Communities forum: iMovie for Mac

HT1338 Can you take movies off of vhs tapes with your mac desktop and put on dvd's?

Is there a way to take home movies off of vhs tapes and put them onto my mac to make dvd's?

I used this for many such transfers:
http://www.grassvalley.com/products/advc55

How can I import video from a VHS tape onto my mac and into imovie?

I am trying to take old family movies that are on VHS tapes and get them into imovie so i can edit them and burn DVDs

I recommend the EyeTV Hybrid from ElGato. It will do what you ask and also serve as a high-def TV Tuner and DVR.
More good options in this [MacWorld Article|http://www.macworld.com/article/143545/2009/10/vhscapturetools.html]
Another option is to buy a digital camcorder with a Pass-thru option.
A final option is a digital analog converter like those sold by Canopus. These are expensive.

How do I get vhs tape into my mac and record it to make it into a dvd?

What cables/software are required, etc?
I would greatly appreciate your help.

What cables/software are required, etc?
The cable you need will likely depend on you VHS deck and the specific device used to digitize your tapes. This can range from use of a digital camcorder or DVD recorder to a dedicated DAC (Digital-Analog Converter) to a capture card installed in your computer. Most will connect to your VHS deck using RCA and/or S-VHS cables with the computer side using either FireWire or USB cables. (My preference would be a FrireWire "pass through" camcorder or a dedicated FireWire DAC.)
In a similar manner, the software required will depend on the device used. FireWire devices can connected directly to digital editor applications (like iMovie) or dedicated capture applications (like Vidi) as desired as DV files. Content recorded to DVDs would have to be re-converted to DV or other "edit" compatible compression format before being eited. The normal process is to edit the DV (or alternative) source files and then pass the resulting project content to a DVD authoring application (like iDVD or Toast) for the creation of menus and burning.

How to record vhs tape to mac

how to record vhs tape to mac

Most "on the fly" digitization for the Mac was abandoned as "just too fussy" for successful daily use. Instead, cameras that pre-digitized and passed the digitized packets (with NO time contraints) were adopted instead.
The Hardware to do this capture is now old and cranky, and never got substantially cheaper. It is not a good value.
The affordable way to transfer VHS tapes to digital form today is to find a local service to do a one-time transfer for a fee.

How best to save VHS tapes to DVDs using a Mac ?

I have over 30 VHS tapes, eight Hi-8 tapes, and a player for both formats. Would like to make DVDs of these movies. There are a few USB adapters (Elgato Video Capture for $100, KWorld DVD Maker 2x for $28) and Roxio makes Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus for $60. Have looked through AV forums on other websites and the directions are not concise, and are aimed at the PC platform. Prefer to use a Mac.
What is the fastest, easiest, and best way to save these VHS tapes to DVDs using a Mac ?

Frank Caggiano wrote:
Are you sure neither player has a digital output? FireWire would be the most likely connector on that type of equipment.
Both VHS & Hi-8 are analog tape formats so it is extremely unlikely that VHS players or Hi-8 camcorders would have built-in analog to digital converters. That's why you need a product that includes a hardware A-D converter like the three mentioned by the OP.
Roxio's Easy VHS to DVD 3 product is for Windows -- there is no software compatible with OS X included. The Easy VHS to DVD for Mac product does include OS X compatible software but it gets poor reviews at Amazon, has apparently not been updated in some time, & the support page for the product has some "page not found" links suggesting Roxio isn't currently supporting the product very well.
The KWorld DVD Maker comes with a software driver for its A-D converter, which apparently uses a Empia 28xx family chipset. According to this that driver will not work with recent OS X versions, but for $30 one can purchase the VideoGlide driver to solve that problem. The KWorld product does not include OS X compatible editing software; for that you use iMovie (& presumably Toast or iDVD or something else) to burn the movies to DVDs. That makes the price about the same as the Roxio solution but complicates support because hardware & software are coming from different companies.
The Elgato Video Capture product should be compatible with most OS X versions (but I could not find anything specifically about at beyond the typical "10.5 & above" kind of comment which may or may not mean it supports 10.8 or 10.9) but it captures to H.264/MPEG formats only, so like the KWorld you still need something to convert that to MPEG 2 to burn the captures to a standard DVD.
So basically, there is no easy "one step" method to transfer VHS (or any of the other analog video formats) to DVD's. Depending on the version of OS X in use, it should be fairly easy to convert the analog source material to a digital format that can be used with iTunes, iMovie, etc., but editing it & particularly burning that to a DVD that will play in a regular DVD player will take more work.

Transfer and edit of VHS tapes

I am re-starting a delayed project I began several months ago, transfering and editing VHS tapes to DVD. The support from the forum was extraordinary, and I'm recreating what I learned to begin anew.
There is one item that I never was clear on, but would be key as I manage the initial transfer process:
Would it be overall more efficient to (1) transfer each VHS in its entirety, and then select/edit digitally clips that will find their way into a final file for DVD, or (2) go thru a painstaking process of choosing and transfering individual clips directly from the VHS player? Note that I'll probably wish to transfer the tapes in their entireity anyway for archival purposes.
I have upgraded to WD Caviar Black drives to reduce latencies, etc. but am not sure that working on large files will be efficient. Also, I'm currently using PE ver 4. Is there annything in later versions that would make an upgrade compelling?
Some real-world perspective would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Julian
PS: I'm discouraged to not be able to find a record of my prior communications with all the fine advice from the forum. Am I missing something?

The one drawback to the model 55 is it is one way from tape to computer
If that is the only direction you wish to use, you don't need the more $$ two way model
Do also plan ahead for offline storage... IF you think you will ever need the AVI files again
DV AVI is about 13gig per hour, and 1 or 2 Terrabyte USB drives are a good way to store many hours of files when you are done (if not edit, due to transfer speed)
Also... use that USB external to make a FULL backup of your boot drive
Hardware crashes or virus infections happen, so you should buy AND USE software to make a full backup of your hard drive to an external USB hard drive... plus, making step-by-step backups during a new install or major program addition makes it easy to go back a step if something doesn't work
This backup and then restore is, of course, only to the same computer with a new drive (or the same drive as long as you don't mind writing over everything) since doing a restore to a new computer won't work due to Windows and many programs having activation information that is keyed to your hardware (which is why Windows will force you to RE-Activate if you change very much hardware)
The product I use is at http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-linux.htm
Image runs off of a bootable CD via Linux (the Zip you download includes a program to make the bootable CD) and it reads EVERYTHING on the drive, even the hidden registration information, so everything is restored when needed... and you may restore the image to a brand new drive in case of a crash, and not have to re-install anything
Please note that I own no part of Image, and I don't get a referral fee (that is just a plain web link) but I use the program and it has saved me a LOT of trouble when I had a hard drive die... and I was able to restore everything and not have to re-install or re-activate a single program, from Windows on up

Device for importing old VHS tapes into Mac to edit and make DVDs

Having tried one device unsuccessfully, we're looking for a device that we can use to convert old VHS tapes so we can edit in iPhoto/ Movie and store on DVDs. The one we tried came from the Apple retail store, but the Genius Bar was not able to get it to work. Thanks.

Here is how I do that (this only works with non-copy protected videos):
Connect the VHS tape player via RCA cables to an analogue-to-digital converter like, for example, the Canopus ADVC110.
Connect the converter via firewire to your Mac.
Import into iMovie as DV stream (I use iMovie 6). Edit out irritating commercials (from TV programs) and other glitches.
Convert to standard DVD format of mpeg2 in iDVD and burn to reliable media like Verbatim DVD-R.
Job done!

Why does my late 2012 mac mini flicker like a VHS tape when on 1080p via HDMI?

I just got a late 2012 mac mini,
After launching the app store for the first time, I was told to update to Mac OS 10.8.2, I obliged and came back to see that the screen was flickering like a vhs tapes with lines appearing and disappearing in the space of a millisecond. it goes away when I change to 720p but it looks horrible.
I saw a fix on the apple website but It said that it wasn't supported on my system even though It said mac mini IN THE TITLE!
Can anyone help?

I just got a late 2012 mac mini,
After launching the app store for the first time, I was told to update to Mac OS 10.8.2, I obliged and came back to see that the screen was flickering like a vhs tapes with lines appearing and disappearing in the space of a millisecond. it goes away when I change to 720p but it looks horrible.
I saw a fix on the apple website but It said that it wasn't supported on my system even though It said mac mini IN THE TITLE!
Can anyone help?

What piece of equipment is needed to transfer vhs tape to macbook pro?

I have several VHS tape I want to put on to my macbook pro as a digital file, I was wondering if someone could tell me what equipment is need and where I can buy it from?
Thanks
Gemma

Since the old MBP is dead the only option is to remove the hard drive and use a SATA/IDE to USB adapter to get all your stuff off the old drive.
One note though make sure you use the same user name and passord on your new MBP as you had on the old one.
As to software hopefully you have all the license information written down other wise you may have a hard time reinstalling some of it. Also be aware that OS X Lion will not run older PPC software. So if you have older programs that used Rosetta to run it will not run on Lion.
Good luck with everything.

Can I transfer audio tapes to my Mac?

What equipment is needed to get audio tapes into my PowerBook G4 (and then burn to CDs? I have never used GarageBand. Is it used for this purpose?
Where do I find the easiest instructions to save these old tapes using my Mac?
Thanks for any tips you have!
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Here's an outline
- Find a tape deck with "line out" jacks
- Connect a cable from the line out jacks to your PB G4's audio input jack
- Get some audio recording software. Amadeus is good, and not expensive
- In Amadeus, and/or System Preferences, set the audio input to be line level (not microphone level)
- Press the "Play" button on your deck.
- Tinker with Amadeus' record level slider until it's about right.
- Start a new recording in Amadeus; press Play; when tape ends save the file
- Use Amadeus to break the single audio file into separate multiple files, each containing a single CD track as desired.
- Load the files into iTunes. Use iTunes to burn a CD
Various details omitted.
This is not the only way, but all of the steps are necessary in some form or other. That is, the details can vary, but this is the gist of it.

Best way to convert home movie VHS tapes so they can be edited in iMovie HD

Please help! I'm sorry this question is going to be long, but I'm a novice at this.
My goal is to get my VHS home movies (I have about 30 of them) into iMovie so I can do two things.
First I want to burn DVD's so I'll have a copy of the VHS tapes before they go bad.
Secondly, I want to be able to extract small clips from all of the tapes and combine them in a new iMovie project.
Here's what I've done so far:
I purchased a Canopus ADVC110 and got someof my VHS tapes converted digitally but the file sizes were HUGE and eating up my hard drive space. I was down to 6 GB of space left on my hard drive and almost crashed my Mac.
I deleted all these huge files and got my Mac back up to having 111 gigs of space left. Whew!
This week I purchased a Pinnacle converter and started all over. I took a VHS tape, and it was compressed into a nice small Mpeg-4 file and went to iTunes.
Then I tried to drag and drop it from itunes to imovie. That didn't work. I then dragged the movie to my desktop and then dragged it to imovie..... looks like this was going to take a long time to get into imovie. I'm thinking this is too many steps.
Now I am importing the file into iMovie by importing directly from itunes. The file size is 1.04 GB and it is 1 hour and 54 minutes long. It is taking a loooong time to import this movie....like 100 minutes.
I am afraid I am doing this the hard way.
Plus, after reading all the discussion boards and all the problems people are having... I don't even know if I'll be able to successfully edit this movie once it's imported. Plus, after I've edited it (if I can) will I be able to transfer the clips to another iMovie project?
I'm happy with the file size that the Pinnacle converter is giving me. I'm happy with the way the movie appears in itunes.
Because I have **so many VHS tapes** to convert, I'm asking you all if there is an easier way for me to complete this task!
Thanks in advance for any advise. Keep in mind that I'm not tech-sophisticated..... just a middle aged Grandma trying to preserve memories of my family!

_Share" the highlight as suggested_
Thanks Lennart..... I'm not sure I know what you meant by the above.
Do you mean that I share the little clips I want to use in the 'best of project'?
I read the MacWorld article.... it's great thanks!
I want to keep all these converted movies on my hard drive because down the road I want to extract other clips from them so I can make a 'best of' movie for my other family members. I may want to do that next year.... or whatever..... so I want to have the imovies available for me when that time comes.
In order to do this am I going to have to buy a lot..... and I mean ALOT of extra hard drive space? That darn Canopus was really making files for me that were like 60-80GB's per one half hour movie!!
Hey, I really appreciate all the time you are spending with me on this topic. Making these imovie memories are so very important to me.

Trying to copy VHS tape using PINNACLE MOVIE BOX to FCE 4

Hello,
New to FCE and trying to transfer VHS tapes to clean up and movie them.
The salesperson in the local Apple Store suggesting using FCE and Pinnacle MovieBox. I connect an VCR using the RCA cables to the Pinnacle, then Firewaire to my MBP. Using FCE as per instructions and forums, Capture and hit "Now".
It starts to transfer and then stops with "Locating TIme Code Break Press Esc to Stop". Then stops.
I've tried setting clips, but get other errors, about not able to find the start points.
It's a basic non-audio VHS I would like to transfer from start to 2 hour finish.
Imovie 08 works, but can I transfer it in to FCE with out loss of quality. THe sales guy felt I should use FCE.
Can it be done, am I doing something wrong. I basically want to transfer it while I attend to something else. Do not want to watch all these VHS tapes.
Thanks,
Art

Hi,
when you use that DV converter setup, is your device already connected and working?
Can you see it listed using the system profile under the firewire devices?
I have a Canopus device which does the same kind of video conversions and it works fine on FCE4 using the DV PAL converter (in my case I work with PAL).
Have you tried direct connection with the firewire port of your mac (that's if you are using some sort of chain connection through a disk firewire hub)?
I have noticed my Canopus did have some trouble when it was connected through a firewire hub on an external disk. Now it's on a dedicated firewire hub and it works fine.
Regards,
Armando.

Transferring VHS tape to DVD

What is required to transfer VHS tapes from a VCR to DVD? Special cable to go from VCR to my Mac?
Thanks for any advice.
Brian

The easiest way to do it is to bypass the computer altogether and get yourself a DVD recorder. Then you just hook up the two units and do a machine to machine dubb
If you don't want to go that route (mind you, DVD recorders are getting pretty cheap) you will have to find a way to bring your analog (VHS) sources into the digital world
One way: A DV converter like the Canopus. Will allow you to do a Capture Now from your VCR thru the Canopus into the puter. You could also use a DV cam as a pass thru device; analog from the VCR to the cam, Firewire from the cam to the puter.
Once you have the tapes in the puter you have to get them into MPEG2 (DVD) format. You can do that by Exporting as Quicktime Movie and dropping the resulting file into iDVD and making a DVD there
This is more steps and more time than using a DVD Recorder but it gives you mo options; like cleaning up the analog signal a little (the newest Canopus converters have TBCs) and using FC/iDVD to create chapters, menus, etc

VHS tape transfer to Mac

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