I recently set out to convert all my old VHS tapes to digital files, and found the process way more complicated than I was expecting. Eventually I figured it out, so I figured I’d make a quick tutorial so no one else has to go through the same confusing process.

Things you’ll need:

VCR (duh). If yours is broken, you can find them pretty cheaply online. I used Denarri* to find mine. Video Capture Device. This is the adapter that connects your VCR to your computer. I managed to find a pretty decent one for $12. Male to Male RCA Cable like this one. A Windows computer, or a Mac with Windows installed either through Bootcamp or using Parallels. The reason for this is because the adapter I listed, and the vast majority of the other ones, only seem to work with Windows computers.

Directions:

Install the software that came with your Video Capture Device. If you’re like me and got stuck here because the software is on a CD (who has CD drives in their computer anymore?), then worry not, you can download it here. Once you’ve downloaded it, open the folder, double click autorun.exe, and click “install”. Plug your video capture device into your computer, and connect its white and yellow plugs into the white and yellow ports on your VCR. Make sure you connect them to the Video Out and Audio Out ports on your VCR. Don’t worry if your VCR doesn’t have a red port, that just means it has mono audio and doesn’t need it. Run the honestech TVR 2.5 program that it will have installed on your computer. It will probably ask for a product key (no idea why), you can generate a product key here.

Once it’s open, click this button:

this will open up the settings, under “video capture device” choose your device, it should be listed as “OEM Device” or something similar:

4. Turn your VCR on and put the tape in. Press the red record button in the TVR program and then press play on your VCR.

5. That’s it! It should now start capturing the video from your VHS tape as it plays. Just hit the red record button again when the tape is finished playing. Unfortunately you have to let the tape play all the way through in order to capture everything.

Hope this helped!

*Disclosure: Denarri is an app I created, but I did use it to buy all the stuff I mentioned, and it was the easiest way to do so (I did design it that way after all).