Portta VHS to Digital Converter, Video to Digital Recorder with Remote, Compatible with VHS, VCR, DVR, DVD, Hi8, Mini DV Players, Camcorder, Gaming Consoles (VHS/Tapes/DVD Player Not Included)

For years, I have been debating whether I should use the online analog-to-digital conversion services for some of my old VHS tapes. But thanks to my anxiety, I couldn't deal with the possibility of losing my original media. So I thought I'd give this a try. I cannot believe it was THIS easy to convert my old VHS video (analog) to digital format. At first, I tried using my old flash drive for data transfer, and it didn't work. I thought maybe I needed a newer USB Flash Drive to try. Then guess what? Problem solved! I was able to convert my old videos into digital format seamlessly! I will be looking for more videos to convert.

I’ve been wanting to convert old VHS and cassette tapes to digital for a long time. I thought about using a conversion service but one time tried that and the original was lost in transit. I bought this as a solution to do it myself and this device did the job perfectly. No glitches and easy to use. No computer or software needed which was an extra plus. Just connect it to your VCR or cassette player. A good solution for digital conversion of those old tapes.

This works just as specified to help us convert VHS to digital files and preserve them. Check your inputs and outputs to make sure your origination device (in our case, the VCR) is compatible, and you should be good to go. We watch them on our TV as we are converting, which we are enjoying. Good value for this important outcome.

Overall: The product works most of the time. It's simple and easy to work with, however, there's only one issue I found.The Setup: I had a portable hard drive connected to the device, and the device was connected to the VCR to record from VHS tapes. I used the 3-color cables and had the display showing the recording so I could monitor the device from a distance as I needed to record dozens of hours of recordings.The problem: Every once in awhile, the screen would freeze up showing a still picture and the audio would continue playing. I attempted to stop recording to save the data, but the device was frozen, even when the 3-color cables are disconnected. I would be forced to disconnect the power cable since the screen continued to remain frozen, and all data from that recording session would be corrupt. Once the session was restarted, the recordings worked as intended. It's a bit of a pain, but luckily this has happened 3 times over 30 sessions of recordings so take it with a grain of salt.

This converter works perfectly the first time out of the box. Unlike the previous different brand I am now returning to Amazon. Don't waste your time with other brands or models, get this one and get to converting.

I just finished a 3 week stint of digitizing all of our old VHS, VHS-C, and Hi8 family videotapes. The Portta worked great!I did replace the RCA cable that came with the Portta because it wouldn't connect reliably to our old Hi8 camcorder, but I suspect that's more the ancient camcorder's problem rather than the Portta's. You may want to use a higher-quality RCA cable than the one that comes with the Portta.I read several one-star reviews of people complaining about stuttering video or corrupted files. I suspect these problems (which I didn't experience) have two causes: 1) a USB thumb drive that can't keep up with higher video rates, and 2) not waiting for the Portta to finish saying "Saving..." before removing the USB thumb drive. If you buy a high-speed USB thumb drive and follow the instructions, the Portta should work great for you.

The description states "No capacity limitation for the USB drive", however this is not always the case. While transferring longer recordings (say 45 minutes) from a VHS or Hi 8 to a micro SD, the recording does not transfer over to the SD card. The steps were followed, the device reported it was saving though never did after multiple attempts to multiple SD cards. This takes time to manage and adds the greater potential to older tapes failing while being played to record. I will say that shorter recordings tend to save to the SD card. Longer recordings would need to be stopped incrementally to allow the device to actually save the increments to the storage device though this is not an ideal experience.

This item works great and it’s helping to bring videos of my mother who I lost to cancer to life. Thank you for a great product that actually works.