Vhs Player/recorder

[Fosa]

Morning all

I need a VHS player to transfer some old tapes to computer for editing and burning to DVD. My old one has given up its unrepairable ghost to the great electronic junkyard in the sky. I heard rumours of some 'el cheapo' ones (500 B ) somewhere in town but have been unable to track them down.

Has anyone spotted any of these elusive dinosaurs in their dampish travails around CM or does someone have one (working !) gathering dust in some forgotten corner they would like to get rid of ?

Any responses appreciated

Thanks Fosa

Edited August 2, 2006 by Fosa

[meadish_sweetball]

I think I would start with the strip of pawn shops located along the Northeast corner of the moat (east of Chang Phueak Gate) - the ones that have lots of Guitars hanging in the ceiling as you drive past them. They seem to have lots of stuff, and you might be able to find something there.

[sleepyjohn]

I would also like one to record the odd program.

Could you tell me....why have all the VHSs disappeared? Is there a cheap alternative for an occasional user?

Also I have a Macbook...can I hook it up and record somehow?

[crabstix]

I would also like one to record the odd program.

Could you tell me....why have all the VHSs disappeared? Is there a cheap alternative for an occasional user?

Also I have a Macbook...can I hook it up and record somehow?

Not sure if this helps. I know nothing about Macs but found this by googling.

http://forums.macrumors.com/search.php?searchid=4011768

But I have done video capture before on my pc using pinnacle studio software and burning to vcd. I connect my vcr to my pc and just record, edit and burn. Expect to get 20% loss in quality though. Capture is not perfect.

I think if you go more upcountry it won't be hard to pick up a VCR. You might even be able to get one with a built in DVD player (although those ones are phasing out). I saw one last year for about 6000 baht in Chiang Rai. I have a vcr but am having problems getting blank tapes! I think most shops don't sell them anymore because they take up a lot of shelf space and it's more space efficient to sell blank dvds! Also more people have dvd players than vcrs. I love the old technology though. Just hit record , go out for a few beers and watch later. I would try old dvd repair shops. They are bound to have one lying around. Just pick one up in good working condition cos it may be nearly impossible to get replacement parts if it breaks down!

DVD recorders at the moment are still pricey. If you can live without a hard drive then go for the cheaper ones which record directly on disk. Not sure if picture is good but I know they sell for around 6000 -8000 baht.

If you really need your old vhs tapes copied onto dvd without buying a player then I suggest you take it to a shop which does video capture. I did it once (before I bought a capture card). They charged me something like 300 baht for every hour they captured. I took it to a shop which developed photos. They had the equipment and did it for me within 2 days.

[Fosa]

Thanks meadish - will swing down there have a look tomorrow see what I find!

Great info crabstix! I was looking at the Pinnacle site yesterday and the Studio 700 PCI ver 10.5 looks like just what I need ($ 185) ! Captures both analog and digital video- for the future when my old analog camera ( 12 years! ) joins its player in heaven and I go 'digital'. Did you buy your Studio here in Thailand ? Have never seen Pinnacle products here and the retailers page on their website was down. Any info accepted!

Thanks again guys! Fosa

[Gonzo the Face]

Thanks meadish - will swing down there have a look tomorrow see what I find!

Great info crabstix! I was looking at the Pinnacle site yesterday and the Studio 700 PCI ver 10.5 looks like just what I need ($ 185) ! Captures both analog and digital video- for the future when my old analog camera ( 12 years! ) joins its player in heaven and I go 'digital'. Did you buy your Studio here in Thailand ? Have never seen Pinnacle products here and the retailers page on their website was down. Any info accepted!

Thanks again guys! Fosa

Fosa

I have been looking for the same thing for quite a while now..... can you post a link to the site you where you found what you were looking for?

Iv'e got close to 200 really old time treasure tapes and am wanting to put onto disk

thanks

gonzo

[Rice_King]

Since you mentioned that you would need to replace your old camcorder anyway, you may want to investigate this solution.

I purchased a Sony DCR-TRV480 Digital8 Handycam Camcorder for the primary purpose of capturing my old 8mm tapes to DVD media.

On top of having the ability to transfer my old analog 8mm tapes directly from the camcorder to the PC, it also provides analog to digital conversion with pass-through. I can convert and/or record any analog video source to digital video via the analog inputs. Analog video (like from a VHS tape deck) can be passed in real time through the camcorder directly into my PC via the i.LINK interface.

NOTE:

Your PC requires a IEEE 1394 (Fire Wire) interface. A USB connection cannot be used here for video conversion / transfer.

I have digitized about 10 hours of video with the TRV480 and am very pleased with the results. NO dropped frames. Not a single one.

There are other camcorders on the market that provide this "pass-through" feature although I am not sure which ones.

Edited August 3, 2006 by Rice_King

[Fosa]

Hi Gonzo

Here's the Pinnacle website. Don't know if it's link - I'm not very nerdy!

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/as/Home/

Hope this works! Fosa

[Fosa]

Good call Meadish! One of those stores (3rd down?) had VCR players\recorders literally stacked to the ceiling! Hundreds all gathering dust! Got myself a pretty decent Sanyo p\r 800B but haggle like hel and get them to test it for you. No return! Unfortunately no blank tapes. Incidently, there were a couple of old Canon cameras there too which got me salvitating.... Next time!

Thanks Fosa

Rice_King thanks for the input! I have looked at that route and may well do that. However, my immediate problem is to save these yukky badly shot tapes of my son! The VHS tapes were originally back-up from VHS-C cassettes but unfortunately when I was away one of the wife's relatives took endless footage of 3 Thai funerals and a wedding and all was lost!

Cheers! Fosa

[sleepyjohn]

Good call Meadish! One of those stores (3rd down?) had VCR players\recorders literally stacked to the ceiling! Hundreds all gathering dust! Got myself a pretty decent Sanyo p\r 800B but haggle like hel and get them to test it for you. No return! Unfortunately no blank tapes. Cheers! Fosa

Good news thankyou I'll pop down there.

Fosa did you find tapes anywhere?

As they say "no legs, no horse"

[crabstix]

Thanks meadish - will swing down there have a look tomorrow see what I find!

Great info crabstix! I was looking at the Pinnacle site yesterday and the Studio 700 PCI ver 10.5 looks like just what I need ($ 185) ! Captures both analog and digital video- for the future when my old analog camera ( 12 years! ) joins its player in heaven and I go 'digital'. Did you buy your Studio here in Thailand ? Have never seen Pinnacle products here and the retailers page on their website was down. Any info accepted!

Thanks again guys! Fosa

]

Yes I got the capture card 2 years ago in Panthip plaza. Set me back 7000 baht (I saw the same one selling in Chiang Rai for 8300 baht). wherever you get it, it comes with the pinnacle software. I am sure prices would have dropped quite a bit since then. I've heard that if you want something easier to use, then use Ulead. But pinnacle worked ok for me. Be warned though video capture sucks up tons of hard drive space. You should allocate a drive totally dedicated just for capture. You should allocate say 40GB for capture.