You have probably seen them in a catalogue or on a marketplace site. A small plastic box marked „EasyCap“ or „VHS to DVD“ promising VHS transfer to a PC for a few hundred crowns. It looks tempting: „I'll do it at home and save money.“

The reality, unfortunately, is that these cheap USB grabbers are the single most common reason people end up coming to Záloha vzpomínek anyway – only by then they have lost a great deal of time and patience. So why does the output from these cheap devices look so poor?

1. Sound drifting out of sync with the picture

The biggest failing of cheap capture devices. The start of the video looks fine, but ten minutes in you notice the sound running ahead of or behind the picture. The longer the video, the worse the drift. On a two-hour wedding recording it becomes unwatchable.

The professional equipment we use has hardware synchronisation that locks sound to picture for the whole length of the recording.

2. A jittery picture and no TBC

Old video tapes have an inherently unstable signal – the tape waves and stretches. Cheap capture devices cannot correct those errors. The result is:

  • The top edge of the picture waves or breaks up.
  • The picture jumps vertically.
  • At the slightest static on the tape the device loses the signal and records nothing but black.

We use video recorders with TBC (Time Base Correction). That technology digitally straightens and stabilises the picture before anything is even recorded. It is the single biggest difference in quality, and you see it immediately.

3. Washed-out colours and blocking

The cheap chips in these grabbers have very little dynamic range. Dark areas are simply a black hole and bright areas are blown out. On top of that they use aggressive compression, which puts ugly blocks (artefacts) into the picture, especially where there is movement.

Video tape digitising here runs through professional Canopus A/D converters, which keep colours faithful and hold detail even in the shadows.

4. The driver and software trap

You buy the box and then find the bundled software CD does not work on Windows 10 or 11. You go hunting for drivers online, install dubious software and your computer starts stuttering.

With us that worry disappears. The price (see the price list and calculator) covers not only top picture quality but the peace of mind that the equipment is our problem, not yours.

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Mind the risk of damage. You only have one set of memories. If the tape is damaged during a home attempt in a poor second-hand recorder, nobody can bring it back.

Is the saving worth it?

Once you add up the cost of the USB grabber, the time spent installing it, the dozens of hours of recording (which then have to be redone because of errors) and the electricity, you find that home VHS digitising does not pay off financially, let alone in quality.

At Záloha vzpomínek we use equipment worth tens of thousands of crowns so that your family videos look good even on a modern 4K television. Tried it at home and been disappointed? Have a look at our frequently asked questions or write to us through the contact form – you will see the difference.