Old video camera tapes

No birthday parties but some of our travels. Much safer on DVD.

We bought an adapter that can capture the video signal from a video cassette player directly through USB to a PC. You can burn a DVD from this ... although nowadays easier to transfer via the computer, USB, Internet as an MP4 file.

I think our converter wasa Magix one. No longer works as I can't get the USB drivers (about 8 years old) but I'm sure there's modern equivalents.

Have a look at this:
www.magix.com/ie/vhs-to-dvd/

You might be able to get something cheaper on Amazon but check it has drivers for your PC! As I said, my Magix USB is a few years old but can't get the drivers for Windows 10.

Thank you everyone, I was hoping someone might have used a company they could recommend. I still have my old computer with Windows XP and a CD drive, I've just been downloading all my photos to a USB.

Hard keeping up with tech isn't it, but my husband is on this tape, I'll definitely look at the link HolySox, thank you.

My DSiL lent us a gismo which transferred the tapes through an old video recorder but because they were only snippets of holiday videos I'd pit together it took forever and I gave up. I'm interested too in any suggestions.

That Magix link looks interesting, if expensive when I haven't a clue what they're talking about!

I've just read the link but don't think it'll work for me - I'm talking about the tiny tapes that were inside our video recorder. I'll keep researching, thanks for all your suggestions.

We used to be able to watch ours on a video recorder, I kept one for years for this purpose, now that’s packed up we can’t watch them.
I know they can be transferred to DVD, but without the video recorder, to get them into some sort of order, they’re only about 20mins long, I don’t know where to begin.
I’d like to see my young thin self again.

We recorded the children's early birthday parties, when I last saw them I was in the background in an administering capacity, and like you Sarah, even when I last saw them, I did think "was I ever that slim? and why didn't I think so at the time?"

It was years ago now, but we had a lot of old camcorder tapes transferred to DVDs. I found a local company to do it. Have you tried helpful Mr Google?

Yes, I really must look into it, my youngest daughter used to watch them for hours when she was little, if anyone else made an appearance for any length of time she would fast forward it.

Now you've mentioned it Shandy57. I've got some under the bed probably still in the camcorder and really should find out what to do with them. I'll keep an eye on this post and hope so one will know

If you want to do it yourself,
suggest buying a used/second hand video/DVD recorder.
But you will need a VHS small tape adaptor,you can borrow mine if you want.

Just a top,
if you were thinking of sending the tapes to any company that does the transfer,please don't.Those tapes are precious to you.
I would not like any of my tapes to be "lost in the post"

I don't know where you are, but there is a company near us who do that - they are called Treasured Memories Scotland, and can transfer VHS, camcorder, cine, slides and photos onto DVD or in digital format such as USB/memory stick.

I've just had old VHS tapes put onto a memory stick.

A family friend who does videoing for a living transferred our cine films onto dvd a few years ago, I keep meaning to sort all the videos out for him to do the same, but never seem to get around to it. I should, I want to see them all before I kick the bucket.

Max Speilmann on the high street transferred all ours. I preferred to take them into a shop in case they got lost in the post. They sometimes have a deal were you can have a few done at once cheaper.

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I have just had about 20 old VHS tapes transferred to usb stick. It was a local guy who advertised on Nextdoor and he gave me a price upfront...but charged me less as some of the tapes were damaged. Sitting watching them on the TV has been fab and I'm dying to share these memories with my adult sons!

Go to a local guy - check your local FB page - I had mine done - good luck -