Transferring VHS tapes to a PC – these options are available

If you want to transfer your old VHS tapes to your PC, you need a suitable player and the right software. We tell you how to digitalise your old video cassettes.

Transfer VHS cassette to PC: This is the equipment you need

To transfer your VHS to your PC, you need a few devices. These will allow you to watch the videos stored on a video cassette on your PC.

• In addition to a working VHS player or video recorder, you also need an A/D converter. With it, you digitise analogue data.

• These A/D converters are found in graphics cards with video-in, in analogue-capable TV cards and are built into video converter cards.

• In addition, you need software to record and save the transmitted video signals.

To transfer the VHS to the PC

It’s worth taking a good look at the equipment you already have before buying new ones especially for digitisation. There are many connections and devices that are suitable for transferring VHS to the computer.

• If you still have a video recorder, see what outputs it has. Common outputs are SCART, aerial cable, cinch and S-Video.

• Depending on the video output of your video recorder, you need a graphics, TV or video grabber card with an aerial connection, S-video input or cinch input. With an adapter cable you can easily transfer the video signal from the SCART output to a cinch input.

• A common software for digitising VHS is the freeware Virtual Dub. You can find out exactly how to use the software in this guide.

• If the effort is too much for you, you can also have your VHS tape digitised. Several websites such as scancorner.de or medienrettung.de offer this practical service.