Converting VHS tapes to digital format (MacBook Air) and DVD-R

You need an analog capture device (Elgato makes one that’s Apple Silicon compatible). You may be able to find a cheaper one.

You need capture software (I think Apple has some native stuff that will recognize this card. If not; they provide a software that’s well regarded. VLC is free as well)



This is super manual though- you’ll put in a tape, hit “record” on the software, then “play” on the VCR and come back when it’s done and trim the end off the file if you let it go too long.

to you both

The online brochure mentions playing the converted video back from PC, iPad, etc. but doesn't mention if you can save it to external devices such as thumb drive - can you?

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The online brochure mentions playing the converted video back from PC, iPad, etc. but doesn't mention if you can save it to external devices such as thumb drive - can you?

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Yes- you can save these files to your local hard drive. I’m not positive offhand that you can directly record to an external drive (as opposed to the local machine’s hard drive then move it) but there’s a 99% chance that you can record (directly) to any device that’s recognized by the computer.

Here are the specs from their website worth noting:
On Mac OSX:
H.264 at 1.4 MBit/sec or MPEG-4 at 2.4 MBit/se
VIDEO FORMAT FOR PC SOFTWARE
H.264 at 1.4 MBit/se
AUDIO
AAC, 48kHZ, 128 kBit/sec
Generated files can be synced with video capable iPads, iPods, iPhones and Apple TV and can be edited in iMovie or Windows Live Movie Maker without re-encoding.

So you can select either h.264 or .mp4 on OSX (only the former on Windows).


What I’m not totally certain that you’re asking is if you can put these files on a thumb drive (absolutely) or if you can plug a thumb drive with these files directly into a specific player/Roku/TV and play them without a conversion step (like Handbrake) in between, in which case the answer will depend on the player. But can you do it on one computer, put it on a portable drive, and play it on another computer? No question- yes. And if you stay with h.264, you should theoretically be able to record them on OSX and open them in Windows Live Movie Maker (or vice versa, this assuming that the drive is formatted in a way that both OS can read or shared in a way over a network (like SAMBA) that both have compatibility with), but if you use .mp4, you may not be able to directly open them in WLMM (I haven’t looked up the specs of the program and am too lazy to do so).