Moving video from VHS/HD recorders to a PC

[doppelkorn]

I've got two related but different requirements.

I have some recorded programmes on a Hitachi HD recorder and some old VHSes I'd like to back up on my laptop (MacBook Pro if it matters).

I'd have thought there's be a relatively easy way to get digital video files from one hard drive onto another, but Googling around it seems you have to capture them in real time like VHS, so with that in mind, does anyone have any proven tools/workflows/techniques?

[Dex Sawash]

I have used the "fuck that shit" method.  No idea what all those things saved on the old DVR box are.

[asids]

Can you not just take out the hard drive from the HD recorder and connect it to your laptop, and transfer the video files that way? You can get HDD-to-USB/Lightning adapters online.

As far as "capturing them in real time", I guess the most obvious option for that would be a capture card. Only issue is you're talking 60 quid or more for a decent HD capture card.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Can you not just take out the hard drive from the HD recorder and connect it to your laptop, and transfer the video files that way? You can get HDD-to-USB/Lightning adapters online.

As far as "capturing them in real time", I guess the most obvious option for that would be a capture card. Only issue is you're talking 60 quid or more for a decent HD capture card.

What can make it a bit of a kerfuffle is they often tend to use linux-based filesystems so you need to either install drivers or use Linux to shift them off. The cheapo one I had seemingly used a nonstandard implementation of ext2 so even under Linux there was a bit of fucking around. I couldn't be arsed when the PSU died and eventually skipped it when I moved house.