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 ?

Posted on Nov 20, 2013 9:48 PM

Top-ranking reply

R C-R

Level 6

17,794 points

Posted on Nov 24, 2013 8:10 AM

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.

View in context

37 replies

dh2015

Level 1

7 points

Apr 28, 2014 10:29 AM in response to MacPcConsultant

Klaus1, thank you.

This post in Amazon concerned me. I am especially concerned because audio syncing is the problem I'm having, and I'm wondering if it's because of the signal being sent from my camcorder.

Here's the post: I found the Canopus ADVC110 to be unusable on older (c. 10 years) Hi8 tapes. Symptomatically, there would be times where the frames would jump around, or black out entirely for parts of a second in the ADVC110 digital output stream. What seems to be happening is that the sync signal on the edge of older Hi8 tapes may be degraded, and the codec of the ADVC110 is not robust against such degradation; it loses sync on the frame, or gives up entirely and blacks out the output. Changing the fixed sync dip switch on the ADVC110 did not help it. (The same problem also occurred digitizing an old VHS tape). I put the same Hi8 tapes through the pass-through digitizer on a Sony DCR-HC32, and it had no problems whatsoever. The ADVC110 codec also produces more contrasty images than the Sony DCR-HC32; details in shadow are lost; frames are grainier; noise in the tape signals are amplified into subtle rainbow waves on the ADVC110, not so noticeable on the Sony, which seems to have a more linear codec. So, for a little more money you can buy a camcorder with more robust A to D conversion and better image than the ADVC110.

R C-R

Level 6

17,794 points

Nov 24, 2013 12:38 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Frank Caggiano wrote:

So checking to make sure there are no digital outputs on any of the OP's equipment seems like a simple easy to do step that, if it pans out, would save the OP a bunch of money and time,

Fair enough. I assumed that if the OP had one of these devices he would not be asking about converters & Mac software for them, but maybe I was assuming too much?

Dec 27, 2013 7:42 AM in response to MacPcConsultant

I'd be a little concerned about an investment based on the FireWire interface... Your next Mac probably won't have FireWire. My old apogee audio DAC did a fantastic job back in the day... But I have to replace it now because my macs don't have FireWire ports anymore and I'm not keen on buying a thunderbolt dock/converter dongle. I suppose I could upgrade to a Thunderbolt Display "just to get legacy FireWire support" go (among other goodies) but...

Dec 29, 2013 3:44 PM in response to MacPcConsultant

MacPcConsultant wrote:

Captured the video using which software ?

iMovie.

And as Alchroma wrote connecting a FireWire camera to a new mac is not a problem. Not sure why FabrizioRizzo feels the adaptor is not a valid solution.

dh2015

Level 1

7 points

Apr 28, 2014 10:10 AM in response to MacPcConsultant

Just learned the hard way that Roxio simply doesn't work. About to plunk down for the Grass Valley ADC 110. The ADC300 is discontinued per their website. I noticed something in this string about problems "solved" with the 300 - does the 100 have syncing problems or does it work and syncs audio, etc. I have a Sony Handycam Vision CCD-TRV65 NTSC video Hi8. I have a late 2009 iMac and a recent late 2013 iMac. My handycam has RCA (and yellow) and SVideo output. Looking for assurance that the 110 will work, because the comment that the 300 solves problems made me think the 110 was problematic.

Dec 3, 2014 4:42 PM in response to Bengt Wärleby

Hello Bengt,

I see that you have had success using the ADVC300 to capture VHS video. I was ready to buy one, until I saw an Amazon reviewer who said that the ADVC300 is difficult to interface to the newer Mac OS X versions (10.8 onward). Which version of OS X did you use successfully?

Thanks,

Joe

Nov 23, 2013 9:17 PM in response to MacPcConsultant

No replies in three days. So it's unknown, difficult, or very easy ?

Alchroma

Level 7

23,912 points

Nov 24, 2013 1:41 AM in response to MacPcConsultant

Do you wish to do a straight transfer or do some basic editind and titles?

Nov 25, 2013 1:01 AM in response to Alchroma

Straight transfer for preservation. No titling, no audio changes.

Dec 27, 2013 7:27 AM in response to Ziatron

Thank you all.

Just found a new unopened Thomson ADVC 110. Will this unit suffice ?

Dec 27, 2013 6:19 PM in response to FabrizioRizzo

But for now there's FW, so I should make DVDs while possible.

Dec 29, 2013 3:32 PM in response to hello all on here

Captured the video using which software ?

Dec 29, 2013 4:02 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

I never said anything about the validity of the solution, only pointed out that a new investment in a legacy interface may have to be replaced sooner rather than later... ymmv.

Happy Holidays.

Klaus1

Level 9

52,873 points

Apr 28, 2014 10:19 AM in response to dh2015

Yes, that should work. The ADVC comes with a manual - read it carefully regarding the settings required.

Klaus1

Level 9

52,873 points

Apr 28, 2014 11:10 AM in response to Bengt Wärleby

Good points Bengt, but does that mean that I owe you a beer? 😀

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

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