VHS tapes and MP4

[IMANUT46]

I have a ton of VHS tapes, (50 years worth) that I want to have commercialy converted to MP4 Files. I feel that the size of all these videos may burden my Pixel 6 if they are all installed on the Device.
I am considering having them placed on a combination USB C jump drive.
I'm looking for some suggestions, recommendations and advice on how this should be done. Thanks.

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[tube517]

What is VHS?

 

[B. Diddy]

It shouldn't be a problem. If the USB drive has its own USB-C plug, then it ought to work by just plugging it into your phone. Otherwise, use the USB-C to USB-A adapter that came with the phone. You can use any good file manager (like Google's own Files by Google, or Total Commander) to access the drive and the videos on it.

Just to be sure, though, I would test the drive on your phone first before you go through all of the process of converting the video and saving it.

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

50 years? have you actually stopped buying tapes lol. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "jump drive", I am certified to repair hyperdribe systems on all classes of interstellar ships if that is what you are after...

My sarccasm aside, you are probably going to pay a lot to have these done commercially... might be cheaper to get some equipment yourself if you have a bit of tech know how and some time. are these regular movies or home ones? If you care about them, definitely DO NOT only store the files in one place. I'd recommend two copies on external drives (I would use an external SSD rather than a flash drive) and a cloud backup.

You may even want to consider getting a NAS so that they are both backed up and also readily available on your network (assuming they aren't the kind of videos you wouldn't want to be always available on your network lol ). ...

 

[IMANUT46]

I've seen Jump Drives called Thumb, Flash etc but you know what I mean.
When you've been around as long as I have, and have taken many videos over the years, you will accumulate quite a bit.
I want the commercial converter to place the finished product on a FLASH DRIVE.
After I plug the Flash drive into the Pixel 6, will it have a Drive letter like A, C etc. Can the external Drive be formatted?
Is there a tutorial on how to deal with this issue?

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[fuzzylumpkin]

Drive letters are an old DOS/Windows hangover, they aren't applicable in Android (or Linux in general). But it should be visible and readable in your files app as long as it is properly formatted. Any external drive can be formatted, and these days will probably be preformatted in exFAT which is best for Android 13, but may not be compatible with older devices.

 

[B. Diddy]

When you connect a USB drive to your phone via USB-C, it should show up in the Files by Google app under Storage Devices as "USB Mass Storage Device." If the drive isn't formatted with a compatible filesystem, the phone will prompt you to format it (so be careful if the drive is full of important data).

Android can use FAT32, Ext3, Ext4, and exFAT (but the latter is only on Android 13). https://knowtechie.com/which-file-systems-can-android-read/. NTFS (Microsoft's filesystem for Windows) is not natively supported. So when you prepare your flash drives to save the video files to, make sure they're formatted as FAT32 or exFAT. exFAT is better (assuming you're only going to use phones that have Android 13 or above), because it supports files >4 GB in size. Not sure if any of your videos would be larger than that, but better to be safe than sorry.

 

[mustang7757]

What is VHS?

 

[J Dubbs]

What is VHS?

Yeah it kinda reminds me of Betamax

 

[IMANUT46]

You have provided me with the information I was looking for.
I'm an old DOS convert who got started with DOS, moved on to WINDOWS wirh my Dell Inspiron Laptop {that my wife still uses for Microsoft Word) , then to Android. I personally haven't used Windows since 2010.
Back then, all of my videos, were on VHS tapes.
Since I want the converted videos on a Thumb drive, do I need to provide the converter with any specific instructions, or will they know what to do to make the transition (format of the Thumb drive). Thanks.

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[FF22]

Interesting discussion. Then there of those who have 8mm films!!!!! Actually, I think my sister had some of those converted to VHS years ago. Time for another conversion. huh!

Years ago, when I broke my foot, I converted a ton of LP records to mp3 or some digital music format. I got a turntable that plugged into the audio ports on the computer. I would record an entire side and then tediously break the tracks apart for individual files by finding the silence, well, the snaps, crackles and pops that old records had. Those files have followed me and my various devices for decades now including an mp3 player and most recently my Pixel 6 Pro.

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

Interesting discussion. Then there of those who have 8mm films!!!!! Actually, I think my sister had some of those converted to VHS years ago. Time for another conversion. huh!

Years ago, when I broke my foot, I converted a ton of LP records to mp3 or some digital music format. I got a turntable that plugged into the audio ports on the computer. I would record an entire side and then tediously break the tracks apart for individual files by finding the silence, well, the snaps, crackles and pops that old records had. Those files have followed me and my various devices for decades now including an mp3 player and most recently my Pixel 6 Pro.

I could convert VHS to digital by cobbling together some bits and pieces I have, but actual projection film is something I'd imagine would be a real pain lol.

I would imagine you would have to project it into a camera and capture it that way... not sure... I think my grandmother had an 8mm projector, but it's something I never saw used.

 

[B. Diddy]

You have provided me with the information I was looking for.
I'm an old DOS convert who got started with DOS, moved on to WINDOWS wirh my Dell Inspiron Laptop {that my wife still uses for Microsoft Word) , then to Android. I personally haven't used Windows since 2010.
Back then, all of my videos, were on VHS tapes.
Since I want the converted videos on a Thumb drive, do I need to provide the converter with any specific instructions, or will they know what to do to make the transition (format of the Thumb drive). Thanks.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using AC Forums mobile app

Just make sure the converter creates mp4 files, which I'm sure will be the default selection anyway. There are other less common video formats, but it'd be odd for them to choose one of those over what is by far the most popular format. If they're the ones who will format the thumb drive as well, tell them that you need it to be compatible with Android (and therefore it should be exFAT or FAT32).

 

[IMANUT46]

All very useful information. One poster mentioned converting old 8 mm movies by using an 8 mm projector and copying them to VHS Cassettes. I did that and it was very time consuming. All of you have helped me. I really appreciate it, and I will undertake this project soon. Thanks again.

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