Saving Your Analog Data from Oblivion
Saving Your Analog Data from Oblivion
If you have old VHS tapes or audio cassettes lying around, the hardware to play these analog formats is becoming more difficult to find. Here's how to convert those old analog treasures to digital format for future enjoyment.
Transferring VHS tapes, audio cassettes, and other analog home media formats to a digital format, such as Ogg or Matroska, can be a complex and expensive process with archival-grade conversions. In this article, I show you a simple and inexpensive method for digitizing your VHS tapes that is perfect for personal use.
Shopping List
To convert a VHS tape to a digital format, you need two pieces of equipment: a playback device for the original medium and a capture device to read the playback device's output. In addition, you need transcoding software to process the data that the capture device retrieves from the playback device. For a list of what I used in this project, see the "Software and Hardware Requirements" box.
For the playback device, you can find a used VCR for less than EUR100 online ($100-$200+ for NTSC/PAL/multisystem). Keep in mind that your chosen playback device must match the color encoding system of the VHS tapes you intend to transfer. Trying to play a PAL VHS on an NTSC device won't work (see the box "PAL vs. NTSC").
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.
-
So Long, ArcoLinux
The ArcoLinux distribution is the latest Linux distribution to shut down.