:idea: Idea!

Edutainment · Post by **Edutainment** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 2:44 pm

Lately I've been buying a lot of VHS movies ('cause they're $2 at Cash Converters) but I like to watch movie sometimes when I'm on my computer, like I can with DVDs. So a few days ago, I had a completely rad idea!

Ready?
...

A VHS Drive!

Like a CD drive, in your computer and whatnot, but for VHS. IT'D BE SO TOTALLY RAD (and by rad I mean redundant). Do you think it's possible?

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 2:56 pm

VCR + Capture card = Yes!

(but large)

Post by **bicostp** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 3:16 pm

iam7805 wrote:VCR + Capture card = Yes!

That's what I use, and the final burned DVD is nearly iniscernable from the VHS tape. (Be prepared to have up to 4 gigs of MPEG-2 video on your hard drive, though.) Unfortunately you get tape artifacts if you don't want to spend a lot of time re-mastering the video.

ShockSlayer · Post by **ShockSlayer** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 3:29 pm

iam7805 wrote:VCR + Capture card = Yes!

(but large)

Its

Code: Select all

= WIN

Have you ever seen a small vcr?

SS

Edutainment · Post by **Edutainment** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:04 pm

ShockSlayer wrote:Have you ever seen a small vcr?

No, but it would make it plausible.

Mario · Post by **Mario** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:12 pm

You know, I've seen something that looks like it might be an external vcr for a computer. I'll try to get some pictures up.

Metallica Man X · Post by **Metallica Man X** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:42 pm

I once gutted a VCR down to a small size....with some work, you can get them pretty small (provided they're already small in size). Perhaps, it could be feasable as a tiny external device. Unless your case is fair sized, I doubt you could do a good internal device tho.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 pm

If you can find the hardware means to connect a VHS player to a computer you could use the tape as a tape drive. I don't know the size, I know the speed will be about 4 hours. It'd be a good use for those old useless black tapes laying around and a chance to use the tar command on Unix.

Krepticor · Post by **Krepticor** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 6:15 pm

to close this I remember seeing a VHS drive already made for win98...now finding one will be hard

this is as close as it gets

Super Cameraman · Post by **Super Cameraman** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 6:46 pm

Your best chance to find a VCR that small is on an old video camera that has VHS tapes.

-Super

dman762000 · Post by **dman762000** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 7:06 pm

go to wally-world, freds, dollar general, any other such retailer and buy a modern cheap vcr (about 20 bucks ) then gut it down to bare parts and voila there ain't that much to them anymore the hardest part will be getting the slot to fit the width of your tower but with a little hacking it should be feasible

Sir Games-A-Lot · Post by **Sir Games-A-Lot** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 7:37 pm

iam7805 wrote:VCR + Capture card = Yes!

(but large)

Also add a cheap irda USB dongle to the computer its destined for so you can control the record and playback functions from within the operating system (make it seem more like a regular drive.)