I've been scouring the forums for a few hours now and have to say that I've learned quite a bit. However, I'm not much closer to making a decision on what products I should buy to get started in digitizing my VHS tapes. I have about 300 VHS tapes taking up a lot of room in storage boxes, many of the tapes are not labeled, and most of them, I believe, can be thrown away as they're just recorded shows and stuff. However, there are some that are home videos that I'd like to digitize.
I'm in the US, so I'd be looking at NTSC from what I have read and understood. I'd prefer to be able to do this work on my desktop which is running an ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe motherboard which unfortunately doesn't have AGP. However, I want to feel comfortable with being able to throw away the VHS tapes when I'm done, so I want to have very good quality, if not lossless, digital copies. That said, I do have another machine with AGPs but it's very old and very slow.
That said, I have a few questions:
1) What is a fast way to safely (without increasing the chance of a tape getting 'eaten') to go through the tapes to see if there's anything worth keeping on them? Would watching the tape on fast forward be my best option? Does it increase the risk of losing it?
2) Is the difference between the ATI 600 USB2 and the ATI AIW cards truly noticeable or would I likely be more than satisfied going the USB route?
3) I saw
this thread suggesting various VCRs but it doesn't really mention the differences between each model. Any personal suggestions as to which one I should shop for?
4) How do I know if the VCR has TBC or not?
5) Should I get an external TBC device? Would it be better than one built into the VCR and if so what should I be looking for when shopping for such a device for my purpose?
Thanks