[Bobro44]

After 3-4 TVs visits we've sold our "Up North" home and face the daunting task of downsizing as we prepare to head south to find our new forever home. Instead of just pitching them, I'd prefer to convert to digital format some dozen or so VHS tapes of family functions, but w/o knowing exactly what we've got I find the $600 minimum charge of Legacy Box type services a bit steep. Are there any tech/computer clubs in the The Villages that might teach me how to do such a conversion? If so, I'll hang onto the ancient DVR player now on our Salvation Army list.

Thanks in advance to all my future TV tech-ee pals.

[Inexes@aol.com]

I purchased a reasonably priced Panasonic VHS to DVD convertor a couple years ago and did it myself. It is simple, just takes a long time to do so. Just insert VHS and DVD and turn it on and let it run. Worked great. There is a place on 441, in Belleview, that does this. Video Vault Productions, 347-9008. I don't recall that their price was too high if you just have a small number of tapes. I had many and decided to do it myself. Hopes this helps.

[blueash]

This is a do it yourself project that involves less than 100 dollars in equipment and then just your time.

Transfer VHS tapes to your computer - CNET

Several other online websites will describe how to do it. Really important is be sure your VCR heads are clean.

[John_W]

...

[retiredguy123]

Amazon has a VHS to digital converter for about 30 dollars. It just connects a VHS player to a USB port on your computer and creates a digital file, which you can copy onto a flash drive. No need to make DVDs.

[swissy]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Amazon has a VHS to digital converter for about 30 dollars. It just connects a VHS player to a USB port on your computer and creates a digital file, which you can copy onto a flash drive. No need to make DVDs.

I had the same problem and bought a video grabber.
With this adapter you can connect the VHS player to a USB port of the PC and then watch or record the VHS movie on the PC. This worked perfectly for me.
You can buy such a video grabber (Video Capure Card Device) in many electronics stores for 30 - 40$. For recording the movies on the PC I used the free software OBS (Open Broadcast Software).

[Tunesmith]

Up North in Wisconsin, I live in a small town (Mukwonago) that has a population of only about 8,000 people. At the public library, they have a room with an assortment of 'media devices' that can play back many of these older formats, along with a desktop computer that manages the media conversion from analog to digital. Maybe you can check around The Villages and surrounding area to see if any of the local libraries have similar services. Here, it was free.....you just needed to provide your own USB stick, CD/DVD, etc. to copy your converted data to.