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)

Exactly what I needed to convert old Mini DV & Video tapes to a digital format. I’d been looking at sending the tapes off to a third party to transfer the many, many tapes we had but all of the prices were unaffordable. I decided to see if there was a way I could transfer them myself and I came across this. This device was a fraction of the cost of sending the tapes off to a third party and I didn’t have to worry about them getting lost or damaged! You do need a working VHS player or video camera to use with this device (which I have so wasn’t an issue) but worth bearing in mind if you don’t have access to either. Really easy to set up, good quality video (which can be adjusted to suit your needs) and great sound quality too. It does take a little while to transfer the video but only because it is essentially recording from the VHS tapes or video camera tape so if you’ve got a 3 hour video it will take 3 hours to transfer. This wasn’t really an issue for me - I just set it up, pressed record and left it to it. Simple! It’s great to know I now have digital copies of all of the videos from my childhood & of family holidays - Even found footage of family members who long since past and great to know that footage is now safe & secure!

This absolutely brilliant piece of kit is worth its weight in gold, it might be small but boy does it do its job, I cannot praise it highly enough, the person who invented this should be given an award. It works straight out of the box, plug in your RCA Cables to the red, yellow & white sockets or your S Video lead into the S video socket (if you are using one) or the Audio cable into the Aux if you want to record an mp3 of your favourite music (I have'nt tried the photo option yet) plug in your Portta machine to the mains, it will automatically switch on, make sure you have your Camcorder or whatever machine you are transferring from switched on otherwise it will show a message on the Portta screen "No signal detected" and make sure you have your usb plugged in. Camcorder tapes, VHS Tapes, Cassette Tapes all degrade overtime, I have over 50 Camcorder tapes, I have transferred all tapes apart from 4 that would'nt rewind or fast forward properly and snapped in the camera, its so important to save all your precious memories before they are lost forever. I can thoroughly recommend this wonderful machine, its worth every penny.

This item is a godsend. I have VHS-C and mini DV cassettes. I fear one day that the tapes will get chewed up, become damaged or they'll be nothing to play them on so I wanted to find a way of converting them into MP4's. I didn't know there was such an item until I randomly checked here a few weeks back. I took a chance and bought it. It's doing a fabulous job converting both cassette types. A few useful configurations in settings but not much to really make a difference to the output quality. Sometimes you can see a few unwanted small effects on the output video of VHS-C's but nothing to make the quality really noticeable that it is bad. Who's to say it's this gadget though because the DV cassettes output is fine. I just wish it had a higher quality output resolution than the max 1920 x1080 so I could test the quality difference. It is worth noting though, this is not an upscalling device so I doubt there would be. I doubt that, if the resolution was even 3250 x 1920, there would be any difference either. I have tested the lower resolution and the output is pretty poor so needs to be set to 1920 x 1080. It will obviously downscale but not upscale. In my opinion, the output recording will only be as good as the cassettes recording anyway. Unless there's a signal at the beginning, it won't record. You can miss the 1st 1 or 2 seconds of a video because of this. I prefer to press record and off it goes. If you lose signal whilst it's recording, it seems to carry on and not stop which is good. On occasion, it seems to get itself in a pickle as it can take ages to save the recording onto the USB stick, sometimes won't save at all. This could be for a number of reasons not associated directly with the device. Most of the time it's almost instant. This device it an absolute godsend in my eyes. No, it isn't cheap but it does the job very easily and does it well. Simple to use and is made of pretty good quality materials. The screen is very convenient because this means you don't have to watch videos on the tv only. Also, I think it's the perfect size.

Great bit of kit. Managed to copy VHS & (S)VHS-C with adapter from a VHS video player. Plus 8mm Super directly from the camcorder. Using a Scart adapter with appropriate out/inputs. Had problems with audio when using S-Video cable. Otherwise the only other downside is the rather basic UI on the device. Worth the cheaper cost though if you are just looking to do basic recovery. Was paired with a generic external desktop HDD with its own power cable.

Like many people, we had loads of old VCR tapes from camcorder days. All gathering dust. Never viewed. To put into a commercial transfer studio was going to cost about £1,000! We still had a (very) old VCR player (you'll need one, or a camcorder, to 'play' the tapes). Unsure if it would be up to it we bought a similar 'box' from a different manufacturer to transfer onto a USB stick. No good. Black and white and no sound. Sent it back. Invested in this make/model as a last effort and ..... BINGO! Just plugged the included cables into our VCR and 'box', stuck a USB stick in and pressed play. In colour. With sound. Absolutely brilliant. We now have all of our treasured memories on a 2 sticks to keep. Or transfer to a laptop etc. Probably still never get viewed lol but we have them safe. A great purchase

Great converter works really well. Make sure you get yourself a memory stick though.

At last an analogue to digital video converter that actually works. Easy to set up easy to use. Great results

This product is fantastic. It allowed me to convert old family videos and camcorder recordings to U S B sticks. Very happy buyer. 10 out of 10.