Easy Come, Easy Cap.
I was clearing out my den the other day and came across a bunch of old VHS tapes that the children used to watch when they were little. One of them was marked "Home Video - 1993".
I also found an old VHS recorder.
I managed to get the player going and discovered that I had no means to actually view the output. I could of course just take it downstairs and plug it into the TV - but that would be too easy. The actual mission was to convert the tapes to DVD and then get rid of the tapes and player, thereby clearing some valuable space in my room.
So, I ordered a Chinese knock-off "EasyCap" USB video capture-to-PC device off eBay (new) for a fiver.
Now, this actually worked - well at least it played the video, the sound was lacking, but it worked sufficiently to see what was on each tape - which I religiously viewed "start / middle / end". Each one taking ages to forward wind etc. I previewed "Gone With The Wind", "Disney's Robin Hood", various TV programs and "RoboCop 1 & 2". I vaguely remember NOT letting the children watch that particular tape.
I finally put in the last tape - the Home Movie, and, it was blank.
I should of course have stopped there, but it annoyed me that there was no sound so I trawled the Internet looking for solutions. Amazingly enough, I found one that got the sound back, but it asked for a reboot - which I did. When the PC finally came back I found that both the video drivers and sound drivers were completely screwed.
I am still sorting this one out.
I'll let you know how I get on.
I also found an old VHS recorder.
I managed to get the player going and discovered that I had no means to actually view the output. I could of course just take it downstairs and plug it into the TV - but that would be too easy. The actual mission was to convert the tapes to DVD and then get rid of the tapes and player, thereby clearing some valuable space in my room.
So, I ordered a Chinese knock-off "EasyCap" USB video capture-to-PC device off eBay (new) for a fiver.
Now, this actually worked - well at least it played the video, the sound was lacking, but it worked sufficiently to see what was on each tape - which I religiously viewed "start / middle / end". Each one taking ages to forward wind etc. I previewed "Gone With The Wind", "Disney's Robin Hood", various TV programs and "RoboCop 1 & 2". I vaguely remember NOT letting the children watch that particular tape.
I finally put in the last tape - the Home Movie, and, it was blank.
I should of course have stopped there, but it annoyed me that there was no sound so I trawled the Internet looking for solutions. Amazingly enough, I found one that got the sound back, but it asked for a reboot - which I did. When the PC finally came back I found that both the video drivers and sound drivers were completely screwed.
I am still sorting this one out.
I'll let you know how I get on.
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