I've got a machine that'll play vinyl in a format I can save on my computer, why is it much harder to find a cassette recorder/player that'll do the same thing?

I've got lots of tapes that really need converting as they're starting to degrade (hell, some of them are as nearly as old as me and I've been degraded for years!) as well as some that have been played to stretching point...

Anyone have any recommendations?

LTS