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Ask Slashdot: Which VHS Player To Buy?

Posted by timothy on from the and-which-8-track dept.

stkpogo (799773) writes "I have several old VHS tapes that I'd like to digitize but my old VHS machine died years ago. What's a good VHS player to get so I can make nice clean digital videos from my old tapes before they're gone? I have a few TV -> USB adapters." How would you go about this, especially with tapes (like old home movies) you might be worried about sticking into a low-end VCR? And with what number of tapes does it make sense to outsource the digitizing?

5 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. I remember my first VHS player by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was like my first first post.

  2. Bees knees by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Buy a broadcast-quality Sony player from eBay.

    BTW remember to retension the tapes, which means to rewind the tape, then wind it to the end of the reel, then rewind it again.

    1. Re:Bees knees by arth1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Buy a broadcast-quality Sony player from eBay.

      "Broadcast quality" Sony players run Beta, not VHS.

  3. least amount of pain.... by Velociraptor101 · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ... "Toshiba DVR620 DVD/VHS Recorder" Highly recommend it. Read reviews and follow fellow buyers recommendations and its fantastic. Non-tech users can be taught to use it as well.

  4. Re:Pre Macrovision with 4+ heads by HTMLSpinnr · · Score: 5, Informative

    The number of heads only matters if the content was recorded at SLP/EP speed. On a 4-head VCR, 2 wider heads are optimized for SP playback, and the other two narrower heads are optimized for SLP/EP.

    --
    $ man woman *
    -bash: /usr/bin/man: Argument list too long