"tossed on the horns of a fearsome dilemma"

[marsden_online]

I have many VHS tapes containing episodes of old (90's) TV shows like Highlander, Forever Knight, a bit of Raven, Viper ...

I'm not actually likely to ever sit down and watch these again, and if I really feel the need at some point in the future I'm sure I can track them down online on DVD or some other format.

Now is as good a time to throw them away as any (I seem to be having a bit of a purge the past couple of months), but I do have this VHS -> PC setup working ... not a small project though...

[Poll #1340631]

Comments

[bigdee.livejournal.com]

Save them! Please. Everything from the shows themselves, to the ad breaks recorded with them, will have a whole lot of nostalgia value. And there's no telling which shows are going to be nigh impossible to get on DVD, thanks to licensing problems. Sounds like you've got quite a trove there, and it'd be well worth preserving for posterity's sake.

[silent-vash.livejournal.com]

I fully agree with what is said here.

[martial-lore.livejournal.com]

You could look and see what you can get hold of online and then discard those ones and digitise the rest?

[salahdra.livejournal.com]

Can you set the system up to digitise while you are out of the room or something. That would save your time.

[marsden-online.livejournal.com]

Yes, depending on if I want to cut out ads or not. I can even do other stuff on the computer, it only takes up to 25% of CPU and a bit of RAM.

It doesn't reduce the number of hours it will physically take playing the tapes though.

[marsden-online.livejournal.com]

And of course watching the recordings to make sure they've copied OK.

[salahdra.livejournal.com]

You could ask if anyone nearby wanted to help out by checking the recording for/along with you.

[marsden-online.livejournal.com]

I think the odds are about as high as finding anyone who actually wants to watch them with me on tape :-p

Just torrent them

[(Anonymous)]

You have a legitimate (tv recording is legit) copy so just torrent as format-shifting-by-proxy.

Chuck the tapes when you torrent the same show.

Re: Just torrent them

[marsden-online.livejournal.com]

You're making some pretty big assumptions about both torrent and bandwidth availability there.