Solved How to capture VHS with Vegas Pro

I've read the help file about video capture but sadly at my age and lack of knowledge I still cannot see if I can capture a VHS tape via a Video DVR device. We have a lot of family VHS tapes which my wife would like to bring into a program such as Vegas Pro, edit then make DVD's of for posterity. If neither of us can go down this route has anybody any suggestions on the best way to tackle this please? Cheers John

You can't capture VHS video with Vegas Pro.

The Capture Video function in Vegas Pro and Vegas Movie Studio, is for capturing video that was recorded to DV or HDV digital tape, made with much older video cameras that no one really uses anymore. The invention and adoption of the SD card and other solid state media, changed all that.

To capture VHS and convert it to video on your computer, you will need to buy a Video Capture device.
These devices are normally a dongle with Analogue Red, Yellow & White connectors on one end and a USB connection on the other.
The converter normally comes with it's own software as well.
Once you have your VHS machine connected to your computer via the dongle, you get the recording software going and then press Play on your VHS Video Player.

After you have captured a new video onto your computer, then you can import it into Vegas and do repair work and editing. This is the fun part!

I did all my conversions many years ago and back then there was not many good converters on the market.
I think I bought some generic converter, which is buried in a box somewhere in my garage, so I have no idea what I used last century.

I found this article on the best VHS for DVD converters here:
www.toptenreviews.com/computers/peripherals/best-vhs-to-dvd-converters/

A lot of these converters are absolute junk - I know, because of all the questions people have asked me over the years.

You can do your own research and check out other online reviews for these devices, which I recommend you do.
The one thing I know about these devices which causes the most frustration, is the formats they can output to.
Some of the cheaper models, often output garbage.

I was going to recommend you buy the AVerMedia DVD EZMaker 7, but then I noticed that MAGIX actually has a really good device and software package.
MAGIX Rescue Your Videotapes!
www.magix.com/gb/rescue-your-videotapes/

This device seems to have a lot more better input/output options, compared to the cheaper models.
If you have a lot of VHS to convert, it would be worth spending the extra money and buying something that actually works well!

Regards
Derek

Hi John,

Just a couple notes to help you, along with the information from our Zen Master Extra-Ordinaire (yep, Derek!):

1. I recently was asked by an Aunt and Uncle to do pretty much the same thing from some of their older VHS Camcorder tapes, as they wanted to provide some movie footage for their oldest Grandson. Luckily, I did have one of those VHS recorder players, with the DVD recorder, that I eventually used. Will get to that shortly.

2. Tried the Roxio VHS to DVD Plus 3 that is mentioned on the website from the link Derek gave you. Since I am running Windows 10, it was nothing but a complete nightmare trying to get the software to run, not crash, or even stay running long enough to change any settings. My computer(s) (tried three different ones), saw the "hardware" USB connection, though one did have some issues initially. It was all the software part. (One reason I got away from previously using there burning software - got too bloated and slow).

3. Back to #1: Was able to copy the VHS tapes on the recorder over to DVD. Then, with each DVD now burned successfully, put that in the computer (one listed in my profile), opened Movie Studio 14 (suite version for me), and used the "Import DVD Camcorder" on the file menu, which then ran the DVD and made the requisite "VOB" files, and there were quite a few depending on the length of the original VHS tape. Then it was just drag and drop onto the timeline, and edit away like any other media supported. Best thing, was on the last tape, found a small snippet for my eldest Nephew's 1st Birthday and a snippet of me bringing my children up for the Holidays to visit Grandma and Grandpa, while on leave during my early Military career.

4. I cannot comment on the effectiveness of either of the other two devices listed on the review at the website, though I have seen other reviews about the Diamond VC500. Had I already not had the Roxio one, I probably would have purchased the one from Diamond.

5. Be patient, and do your homework here. Wouldn't doubt that if you plan on doing this a bit, spend the extra time and money for a quality device, as Derek mentioned. I'm still thinking of possibly purchasing an older "gaming-style" capture card, that has the analog dongle, which you could also possibly use. There are various possibilities.

Best part is, once brought into Vegas Movie Studio, the "Fun" began. It was also great seeing some older footage of my children, especially when I didn't have the time or energy after a 14-16 hour drive.

Good Luck!

Mike "The Chief" O'Sullivan

Thank you to you both very much for your replies will look at all the options suggested. Cheers John

I captured my vhs tapes using the Vegas capture software.
I had an old JVC mini DV recorder that takes line input.
I purchased a PCI-E firewire card for my PC.
I connected the vhs player OUT to the JVC DV line IN and the JVC Firewire OUT to the Firewire card IN on the PC. Note, leave mini DV without tape, put in play mode, enable line-in in DV menu and in the Vegas capture software, under options/preferences disable/un-check “Enable DV device control “.

The files saved are a fixed standard DV25 .avi. Because of going through the electronics of the Mini DV camcorder the result is superior than the poorer digital capture devices. I’ve done both and used several digital capture devices.

If you have, or can purchase an old DV camcorder with line in its the way to go

Agreeing with JN - you _can_ capture VHS video with Vegas Pro, utilising a VHS player, firewire card and the stand alone capture module. I can even capture Betacord tapes by the same process (using a Beta player obviously) - and I have them linked permanently to the firewire card via RCA/composite cables plugged in to a three-station "Video Game Selector", which makes life just that much easier as I do these jobs on a semi-regular basis. You don't have the same control over the capture as you do with digital input, everything is done manually (stop/start) - but it will still notate dropped frames.

Oops, I forgot to add that the video selector is connected to the miniDV camera, then from that via firewire to PC (as per JN's setup). Just a small ommission!!

I am able to capture VHS tapes using Vegas Video Capture which is part of my Vegas Pro 14 program.  What I can't figure out is how to change the file the video goes to.  Would appreciate any suggestions on this matter.

Thanks,

Charles Gross

wrote:

I am able to capture VHS tapes using Vegas Video Capture which is part of my Vegas Pro 14 program.  What I can't figure out is how to change the file the video goes to.  Would appreciate any suggestions on this matter.
 

I thought the Vegas Capture app could only capture DIGITAL Video Tape from DV or HDV Cameras that record to tape.
The conventional way to convert VHS to a video file on a computer, is to use a USB Conversion dongle - there are many different versions of these on eBay and Amazon.

I don't know what you mean by "how to change the file the video goes to" ?