Please recommend VCR to computer USB port converter. Does not need to be ultra high quality.

I plan to use VLC to record and then burn to DVD. Use something else?

Don't know if this one specifically is any good. Any rca to usb thing should work.

https://www.amazon.com/TCRAYCH-Captu...19478210&psc=1

It depends on the type of video outputs.

Any linux compatible UVC video capture device should work. There are some USB devices too.

Ditto - I'd probably try something cheap like this and see if it works well enough. I've also heard good things about Magewell hardware (and they generally support linux officially, which is nice), but it gets expensive.

I haven't work with the 'analog' stuff in a long time, so I do not know what the best or ideal device would be for today's technology, but back in the "old days" (which is merely 10 years ago for me), I used a miniDV/VHS VCR that came with a Firewire port for this kind of work (on an Apple computer). It gave me excellent digitized SD/DV footage.

Maybe your VCR has a Firewire port. Downside is you'll need a Firewire cable and a computer with Firewire port (either builtin or via a pcie card) to complete this. And software that will read from the Firewire port. I know ffmpeg has this ability but I've never tried that. See 3.9.2 sub-section for the CLI examples.

I will consider that. I have a mid 2006 iMac. Will check to see if it has fire wire port. Have an older G3 Mac as well. It would be easier to add a card to if needed.

AFAIK, the only VCRs with 1394/FireWire ports are D-VHS decks, and the port is there for HANA support (that is, to send digital video in/out), not as a digitizing interface. You'd still need an ADC somewhere in the chain even if you had a 1394-equipped Mac, and I'd probably preference a modern system over a G3 or G4, just for the benefit to encoding/transcoding times.

obobskivich, I used to work with miniDV tapes and that was the only VCR I worked with so you are probably right. For what it's worth, this is similar to the device I recalled working with. It's likely overkill for what borgward is looking to do here, lol.

https://www.porterelectronics.com/jv...nidv-recorder/

Note the small Firewire port on the left-hand side of the device. 4-pins, I think? The cable I used had a 4-pins connector on one end and a full-size Firewire connector on the other end. I do recalled having to keep a blank miniDV tape inside it in order to digitize the VHS tapes.

It's worth looking at if you already have these Firewire-equipped devices laying around but yeah, I agreed, if you don't have them handy, it would be better to buy whatever is on today's market that can connect via the composite/component RCA jacks and get the benefit of USB technology and perhaps more modern codecs, too. I never got that far so I can't give advice on which are the best buy.

A lot of digital video formats used 1394 in some form or another because there wasn't a good alternative, but actual VHS is analog, so you'd have to ADC that make it work over 1394. I'd also not be surprised if that machine can't do 1394 <-> VHS - the description on that site leads me to believe its 1394 <-> DV, but it may allow linear playout of DV to VHS transfer. I will concede that I had forgotten about (blocked out?) miniDV when thinking about D-VHS, but I don't think either platform would help here, since we're dealing with (as I understand it) actual analog VHS, which will need an ADC stage involved somewhere to talk to the computer.

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Why? I know you said you do n't care about quality, but why not? If its family video, you're likely only going to analog-->digital once ever, so why not do at best possible quality. And if its commercial video, why would you want to encode from VHS, there's gotta be a better source...

Anyways the main thing is to know what outputs on your VCR. If you have a decent one it should have s-video or component. So any video capture device that has the input you need should be good. Don't use composite unless you have no other choice....

I got the device from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/TCRAYCH-Captu...19478210&psc=1

It has 4 leads in - CVBS, Audio In, R+ L, and S-Video. The Sanyo Tape deck does not have a S-Videoport. Inserted tape, made connections but nothing is showing up on my laptop. I am running Linuxmint 20.1.

As for doing a low grade copy, I want to keep the process simple for the first attempt.

I did
Bus 002 Device 009: ID 534d:0021 MACROSIL AV TO USB2.0[/code]

How do I get VLC or Shotwell to connect with it?

This might help.
https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Talk:Easycap

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I got VLC to display the video. Failed to get audio. Audio device name drop down shows hw:0,0 and hw:1,0. Tried each one w/out success.

I left everything else at defaults. I did get sound with the VCR connected to the TV.

I did look at Pulse Audio Volume Control. At the bottom is AV TO USB2 Mono. Port only shows "Microphone". The sound level indicator indicates sound activity.

Does the machine have its own audio input? Have you tried just attaching directly to that?