Tech: equipment needed

Subject: Tech: equipment needed
From: kendall
Date: 12 May 07 - 08:24 AM

Can someone tell me what I need for equipment to copy an old video tape onto an audio cassette or a CD?

Subject: RE: Tech: equipment needed
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 May 07 - 09:11 AM

try the headphone socket of your video player to cassette deck.

or perhaps there are audio out things on the back panel.

Subject: RE: Tech: equipment needed
From: jeffp
Date: 12 May 07 - 10:19 AM

Most videotape players or combo DVD/VHS machines have audio outputs. They will be the red and white ones on the newer machines (red=right). They are line level and should go into the line in on your cassette

Subject: RE: Tech: equipment needed
From: Amos
Date: 12 May 07 - 11:10 AM

You're presumably talikng about just the sound?

You need a patch cable that runs from the earphone jack or the output jacks of the VHS player to the souond in plug of your tape recorder.

For a CD you need a patch plug that will go to "Sound In". Alternatively you can use a device such as the iMic which accepts standard sound in and inputs them into the USB port of your computer.

Then, you need sound-editing software to capture the sound as it is played, one track at a time or all in one big track. This requires a good chunk of disk space to write the file to.. Then you can burn that file or set of files to a CD.

A

Subject: RE: Tech: equipment needed
From: open mike
Date: 12 May 07 - 11:21 AM

it has VIDEO yet you only want to capture the audio?
I know that some engineers have used VHS tapes to record
only audio since they can fit 6 hours on one at slow speed.

there will be 3 RCA plugs...as mentioned the red is right
(channel audio) the white is left and the yellow is video.

you might as well put it on c.d. if possible since cassette
and VHS are both older forms of media. But perhaps you do
not have a c.d. burner?

As one web site i saw said--if you are having trouble with
recording this, ask any teenager....

good luck cap'n and let us know how you do on this!

(i have a stand-alone c.d. burner and dvd making equipment,
too if you need me to do anything on this.)

in the link below there is a device for sale for less than $70
that makes it possible to interface between audio devices and
your computer.

there are also many businesses these days doing these transfers.
i saw one ad yesterday for $12-15 to transfer VHS to DVD.

i did this with all the old 8mm family movies--now they are on VHS
which at the time seemed modern...but now i should transfer again
to digitize them to DVD.

Subject: RE: Tech: equipment needed
From: open mike
Date: 12 May 07 - 11:24 AM

the link below the previous page was this media transfer unit here. (a google ad)

Subject: RE: Tech: equipment needed
From: kendall
Date: 12 May 07 - 12:20 PM

The problem there is that the patch cords and the Mike plug have two quite different shapes. Neither will fit the other.

Subject: RE: Tech: equipment needed
From: kendall
Date: 12 May 07 - 12:26 PM

The CD burner is about 20 feet from the VCR.

Subject: RE: Tech: equipment needed
From: s&r
Date: 12 May 07 - 01:08 PM

Tandy/Maplin have a range of adaptors to convert virtually any plug to any socket. If your cable's too short, move the VCR.

Stu

Subject: RE: Tech: equipment needed
From: open mike
Date: 12 May 07 - 01:44 PM

take a trip to radio shack!
they have oodles of adapters.

the head phone jack may be 1/4 " phone jack or 1/8 (mini)
(these are often called Tip,Ring and Shield)

one with two "rings" visible on the plug is stereo.

what inputs does the c.d. burner have?

XLR (3-prong microphone jacks), RCA, the red/white/yellow ones,
or some other?

there are pictures of some of these adapters here:
http://www.audiogear.com/connectorsandcable.html

it is quite common to find an adapter chord with 2 rca jacks
(red and white)on one end and a stereo mini-phone jack on the other

good luck...you could either move the units closer or get o\longer
wires between them, although there may be some line loss if toooo long

Subject: RE: Tech: equipment needed
From: kendall
Date: 12 May 07 - 03:14 PM

I'll sort it out eventually.

Subject: RE: Tech: equipment needed
From:
Date: 24 May 07 - 01:48 PM

Kendall, have you sorted this out yet?

Couple of questions come to mind

1 - What format is the original tape in? Is it a VHS or Beta Cassette type videotape or professional videotape? or 8mm Video?

2 - Are you converting to another type of video cassette or just keeping the audio onto an Audio cassette? Is the CD for Audio only? There are Video CDs or CDs that have different video files on them.