VHS capture

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

My best advice from years of editing is to DUB the VHS to a Timecode tape FIRST.

If your camcorder had “input-recording” abilities, just connect a VHS deck to it, drop in a DV tape and start making the dub.

Then you will have a digital DV “master” with repeatable TC which can be VERY useful.

Also, the transfer to DV can make the VHS (one of the worst video formats EVER) more “stable” and easier to digitize/capture.

But, if you don’t like this “transfer to DV” idea (“you’ll thank me later”), it MIGHT be possible to connect the VHS deck to your DV camcorder and capture “live” via FireWire as the VHS plays as the camcorder does an A-to-D “pass-thru transcode”.

This all depends on whether your camcorder has this “pass-thru” feature.

If not, there are some capture cards or boxes that can convert analog A/V into FW for direct capture into a computer.