VHS to DVD

[mommieswamie]

I recently upgraded to OS 10.15.1 Catalina. Prior to this upgrade I was using Roxio Easy VHS to DVD to convert VHS tapes to digital format. Now with the upgrade to Catalina, this 32 bit software does not work. I have corresponded with Corel Roxio on several occasions and there is no immediate plan to produce a "patch" so that their software will work with the 64 bit upgrade to Catalina.

Does anyone know of any VHS to DVD software that will work with the upgrade to 64 bit Catalina?

I have a VHS tape player and numerous tapes waiting to be converted. Very frustrating as I had already converted 40+ VHS tapes successfully before this OS upgrade.

Thanks so much for any ideas and help.

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

I searched but it appears Roxio may be the only game in town.

Did you make a backup of your Mac before upgrading to Catalina? If you did, we suggest restoring your backup to your former version of macOS. Many folks have been caught short having 32 bit apps that will no longer run in Catalina. Apple has been warning us for some time that our 32 bit apps would no longer work in the next version of macOS.

You can of course pay to have your VHS tapes converted. Best Buy will convert them but you might want to look for other options to do the converting.

 

[pm-r]

Did you make a backup of your Mac before upgrading to Catalina?
If you did, we suggest restoring your backup to your former version of macOS.

+1. I totally agree. Unless possibly there's some new Catalina feature you just must have.

Or if nothing else, create two partitions if your hard drive is large enough, one for Catalina and the other for your previous macOS version where everything you needed still worked.


- Patrick
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[mommieswamie]

Thank you both for your suggestions. Yes, I do have a backup, but I love the upgrade to Catalina and everything works just fine, including some upgrades for software that I already had, except this Roxie software. I suppose partitioning is a possibility but a lot of effort just for this Roxie software. There have been a lot of “complaints” to Roxie about this. They may come around at some point. And I do know I could send the VHS tapes out to be done, but I have so many to do yet - so expensive. I was really hoping someone would know of some other software that would work on this Catalina upgrade.

 

[chscag]

The best I can suggest at this time then is to hang on to those VHS tapes and wait on Roxio to update their software to 64 Bit. And yes, having those tapes digitized will be costly.

 

[Slydude]

This is a long shot but do you know anyone that has a TiVo DVR? I've transferred VHS videos that way without using the Roxio software. I'd need to know which TiVo unit to see if it can be done without 32-bit software.

The process varies a bit from model to model depending upon what software version is installed on the TiVo. It can be a time-consuming process.

 

[ferrarr]

Maybe you could get an external USB3.0 SSD drive (128GB) and use that with the older macOS, as needed?

 

[pm-r]

Does anyone know of any VHS to DVD software that will work with the upgrade to 64 bit Catalina?

First off, we had some of our more precious VHS tapes converted to DVD when Costco had a super special on a year or so ago. but even at that, I guess the price could get pretty high if you had a lot to do.

As for software, I haven't used Roxio toast since version 6 and then they started removing features on later versions, but I don't think that was the same with Easy VHS to DVD as I never used it.

For alternate software have a look here:
MacUpdate Search

As four normal disc burning, I've just used Burn.app which is 64-bit (v. 2.5.1) and Free, but I don't know if it will do what you want to do. But I don't see why not.
Burn for Mac - Free Download Version 2.7.8 | MacUpdate



- Patrick
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[Slydude]

Burn will do the DVD burning aspect of this as long as you don't want fancy menus similar to those on a commercial DVD.

The problem s getting the video footage into the computer to begin with. That's where the Roxio software came in handy.

BTW there are a number of USB devices out there that handle video capture and many of them are cheap. The problem is that in many cases the software makes no mention of Mac support. Even one or two that claim to work do not if you are using a Mac. Those apps have issues pre-dating the switch to Catalina. I had one that claimed to work as far back as Snow Leopard. When it didn't work the company's response basically was a badly translated version of "install under 10.6 (Snow Leopard)" I informed them that I had tried that and their response basically was "install under 10.6".

Edit: You might try the video player VLC. It has a function that captures from some Video hardware. I have seen reports that it does not work on Macs at all. It did not work for me but that may be due to the hardware I was using.

 

[MacInWin]

Sly, Sly, Sly, what they meant was to install it 6 feet under the machine with 10.6 on it. In other words, bury it, it's dead. Can't you do the translation?

 

[Slydude]

After I tried two or three time to make them understand that I had tried it under 10.6 numerous times I gave up.

Judging from the wording in the email and low cost of the device I suspect a Chinese knockoff. Nothing else in the advertising for the device would have provided it wasn't a US/British company.

 

[chscag]

Right now she's better off following the advice I gave her in reply #5. Roxio isn't the most responsive developer out there and usually are slow updating their software. And since they are now owned by Corel, that makes matters worse.

If she has access to a Windows machine she can continue to use Roxio there with the Windows version.

 

[krs]

I have used one of those super cheap VHS to DVD converters called EasyCap
Found software that got it to work on a Mac and converted a whole bunch of family VHS tapes to DVD.

I could never actually get the audio to work through that EasyCap device - so I ended up connecting the audio to the Mac directly and just use the device for the video portion.
Worked fine!

I was afraid that the video and auf dio might be out of sync and I would need hours to fix that, but that didn't turn out to be the case.
The recording was fine with the audio and video in sync.

The biggest problem was the automatic tracking control on the VHS player which didn't always work too well.
I just managed to find an older VHSplayer with a manual tracking control, so that might work better.

But of course the software I have is 32-bit as well, so that doesn't really help the OP.
Maybe there is a 64-bit version

 

[Slydude]

@Charlie I think you're right there. That's certainly the easiest route. If the OP has access to a Windows box the Windows version of VLC might work as well.

@KRS Do you happen to remember what software you used? I have two of those cheap converters neither of which works on the Mac and one doesn't seem to work with Windows 10. I haven't tried the other one. I have less need for that kind of capture than I did a few years ago.

 

[krs]

@slydude
The software is called EasyCapViewer
I remember at the time there were many of these Easy Cap dongles, all about $20.- or so, and I remember it took a while to find the right one to work with this software.
Now when I launch that software which is from April 2013, I get this message:

Please connect an EasyCap DC60 to your computer. Please note that the DC60+ is not supported.

 

[pm-r]

@Charlie I think you're right there. That's certainly the easiest route. If the OP has access to a Windows box the Windows version of VLC might work as well.

Anyone else finding the suggestions to use a Windows box, that also seems to be increasing in frequency, to do a job a Mac is no longer able to do rather disappointing and discouraging. Rather sad to me.

I remember not too long ago that Mac users could do many things that Windows users could only dream of doing. So times change and Apple just changes the direction of their macOS and its capabilities I guess.

But maybe that gives added reasons for keeping an older Mac and it's older OS X available for doing just such old type projects. At least one that actually has all the reqired ports that might be required and without spending a fortune on any required adapters.



- Patrick
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[Slydude]

Thanks for that info. I only have one or two VHS tapes left and we gave away the player a few months ago and we don't even have a cable box anymore after cutting the cord recently. I'm not likely to need the software soon but it's handy to know what's available and working.

 

[pm-r]

Does anyone know of any VHS to DVD software that will work with the upgrade to 64 bit Catalina?

This looks rather interesting, if they would sell the software separately. But maybe it's also available elsewhere if one can find out what it is.

VHS and Camcorder Video Capture Kit. For Mac OSX. Works with Catalina 10.15 (only kits bought after 11/11/2019), Mojave (10.14), High Sierra (10.13), Sierra (10.12), El Capitan (10.11). Includes USB capture hardware, leads and capture software. Links your existing VCR or Camcorder to your Apple Mac. Copy, Convert, Transfer VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, Digital8, Video8, Mini-DV and Betamax. For all iMac, Macbook Pro, Mini and Pro models. Includes video tutorial and digital download link for Macs without DVD drives. Not compatible with Mac OS High Sierra 10.13

Robot Check




- Patrick
======

 

[krs]

This looks rather interesting, if they would sell the software separately.

Getting just the software wouldn't buy you anything.

For these devices you need to get the hardware and software as a package - chances that this software will work with some dongle you already have are pretty much nil

The ad doesn't show you a picture of the dongle or the name and model - just that it uses the VHS recorder/player composite outputs.
The EasyCapViewer I have has those composite inputs as well but also an S-VHS input, so that dongle for instance is unlikely to work with this software.