The best method to convert VHS tapes to digital (using OBS)

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This is a step by step easy guide to backup your old video tapes to your computer using OBS Studio.

You'll need the following:

1. VHS player
2. AV to HDMI converter
3. HDMI USB Capture Card device

Note: The first time you launch OBS and connect up your video source, you might not be able to hear any audio.
Navigate to EDIT, Audio Properties

For Desktop Audio under Audio Monitoring, select 'Monitor Only (Mute output),
for
Mic|Aux, select 'Monitor and Output'

You should now be able to preview the audio from your video capture source prior to recording any footage.

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Script, video capturing, editing and illustrations by Cabbage Water

[cabbagewater]

Please give this video a THUMBS UP and SUBSCRIBE if you haven't already! 😎

Also i've had a few comments 'correcting' me that the name of the movie is 'Airplane', and not 'Flying High'. Fun fact the movie was renamed to 'Flying High' in Australia and New Zealand. Which name is better....🤔

[gregwaldrop]

Great tips! In the states we call that movie Airplane!😂

[MMICCIARELLI]

Dear friend, I scrupulously followed the instructions kindly suggested by you in your post: I carried out the following experiments on two machines with the following characteristics, using OBS Studio 30.0.2:
First case:
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
CPU: Celeron Dual Core T3500, @2.10 GHz, 2095 Mhz, 2 cores, 2 logical processors
During the digitalization of a VHS cassette I observed a CPU involvement of close to 80%. This anomaly, in my opinion, could have led to a regrettable increase in temperature of the processor.
Second case:
OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Home
CPU: INTEL Core i5-10210U, @1.60 GHz, 2112 Mhz, 4 cores, 8 logical processors.
While digitalizing the VHS tape mentioned above I observed that the processor load never exceeded 10%.
I hope this information can be of help to someone.

[darylducha]

I can not get this process to work. Something tells me I bought the wrong products. Is there anyway to talk to you off Youtube?

[joshuapowell]

People like myself are cleaning out mode switches in VCR players and fixing broken vhs tapes with Scotch tape it starts playing again with out no problem's

[troysvisualarts]

Thanks for this tutorial, I generally record to DVD recorder burn to disc and copy vobs to hard drive and process them with my software. My DVD recorder is now broken and am now looking into straight video capture method like yours. Back in the 2000s I had horrible issues with audio and video sync and frame drops when using MPEG and AVI capture devices which was why I use DVD recorder up till now. Question, do you have AV sync issues and frame droppage issues when recording via capture devices and can you pick the file format and compression to save it to?

[Wrestlelesson]

I don't know what is wrong first it worked and after I fixed my computer I connected the tools again but now OBS does not pick up any signal of the VCR the screen stays black when I want to record some of my tapes now. What could be wrong?

[duncanmacleod]

You know when you hear OBS you’re about to see a bad capture.

[unpopularmoviereviews]

Is this the highest quality method of converting VHS to digital? I have used several devices (Elgato, Clearclick, a Magnavox DVD recorder) and these methods all vary widely in their video quality. I wish someone could just say "here is the best quality method to convert VHS to digital" instead of "this is good enough for what it is"

[toddpa-c]

Is this only the “Easiest “ but What creates the best quality

[TheCocoaDaddy]

Great video! I'm going to be attempting this soon and I have a question about using the HDMI connection. If I use HDMI to connect my PC to my monitor, I'll need a second HDMI input available for the video converter, right? Or would I change my PC to use VGA, DVI or DisplayPort to connect to the monitor and then use the HDMI input for the HDMI video converter? Thanks again for posting this!

[Dean_DiGiacomo]

You cant just plug the converter hdmi right to the graphics card hdmi?

[joshuapowell]

Damage blue ray disc movies doesn't play at all I have Cinderella blue ray disc don't play y it is damage

[BobFallz]

Thanks for presenting this video. I had it working fairly easily with your instructions, however today I cannot get any audio. The mixer bars are not moving therefore I am guessing no audio is getting to OBS studio. The audio works fine in other applications. I have spent nearly the whole day researching this, but to no avail. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you

[ama]

could you do this but backwards? and what i mean by that is could you record a normal video then somehow display it on the vcr to get that look

[shaneenglish]

My audio is fine when playing in vcr but is delayed differently throughout the recording

[joshuapowell]

What is the point of doing that you can go behind people's back and buy VCR players cleaning tapes vhs movies with out them knowing it

[dddd.]

It's able to transfer from Sony Hi8 camcorder to mobile phone android? And how to transfer

[isaacfelton]

Great video.
This might sound like a silly question but after you rip the video do you think it would be possible to upscale the footage to 4k and record it back on the VHS?

[joshuapowell]

Am buying vhs movies offline from images from ebay for 10 dollars and they are new vhs movies not used