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

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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.

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37 replies

Apr 28, 2014 11:38 AM in response to Klaus1

I'd love to bring one to You and so many more of the contributors - as this is a really interesting party. ;)

Yours Bengt W

dh2015

Level 1

7 points

May 1, 2014 12:17 PM in response to MacPcConsultant

Thank you, both. Very helpful.

Dec 3, 2014 9:25 PM in response to Joseph F Kelleher

Yes You observed rightly.

I use Mac OS X.6.9 - So there might well be problem with newer Mac OS;s

Yours Bengt W

Dec 6, 2014 12:43 AM in response to Klaus1

Which OS and which version of iMovie ? Did you use an S-video Monster cable from the tape player to the converter ?

Dec 26, 2013 2:18 PM in response to MacPcConsultant

I've just started converting a whole box of old tapes...

I have a little Elgato "EyeTV Hybrid" USB dongle that comes with SVideo, Composite, L/R audio, and antenna RF inputs. The EyeTV3 software allows live recording into MPEG-2 format with a couple (limited, but selectable) encoding rates. The "high (DVD 90 min)" setting gives 720x480, 29.97 fps, 6.0 MBS VBR (8 mbps max), IP frames with 48kHz audio at 384 kbps. It uses an AMD ATI Theater T507 demodulator / USB / Video controller and a NXP TDA18271C2 tuner chip for OTA HD TV reception if you have an antenna.

It also allows a "Live TV Buffer" feature that ues up to 1.5GB of RAM to off-set any recording lags due to disk I/O issues.

I haven't tried to see if FCPX or IMovie / IDVD will see the device and record directly. First tape will is being recorded using the EyeTV software just to kick the tires.

My deck is a consumer Philips VR960. nothing special... hooked up via SVideo and component audio.

recording on a 2011 MacBook Pro via USB2.

13 minutes == 725.4 MB recorded file.

Now being automatically exported into H.264 by the EyeTV software because I have the "Prepare all new recordings for iPhone/iPad" option checked in the preferences.

When it's done, I'll import the original recording into FCPX and see how it looks...

Alchroma

Level 7

23,912 points

Dec 27, 2013 8:08 PM in response to MacPcConsultant

While it is true firewire is dropped from the latest Macs, a Thunderbolt/Firewire 800 adapter sorts out the issue.

This adapter allows a Mac to work as if it's plugged into a firewire port.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD464ZM/A/apple-thunderbolt-to-firewire-adapte r?fnode=51

iciarch

Level 1

0 points

Mar 19, 2014 2:36 PM in response to MacPcConsultant

Just getting into this so I have the following: A (old) ADVC 300 - never used.

When I dug into the software for MAC I find it does not support the new Intel based computers. Did anyone different software to control the conversion?

I do have an option - I use Parallel for CAD and Quicken. Would this be a better way to get to a digital state for my tapes, using Windows 7. Have not gotting into details yet, the C300 seems to like the PC better as far as software support.

Any info would be greatly apppreciated, finally ready to get my family off my back about this project.

Tahnks in advance.

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