Review: ION VCR 2 PC Converter Saving Old VHS Tapes is Easy!

We have over 40 or so old home videos on VHS tapes just sitting in our home. I have wanted to convert these VHS tapes to my computer because I knew if I didn't do it soon, my childhood memories would eventually be destroyed.

I wanted a way to save them, cherish them forever, and mostly, if God forbid we ever had a fire or something, we'd lose things most precious to us, old photographs, and our home movies.

I began looking online for a VHS converter that would allow me to somehow get my old VHS tapes onto my computer for digital storing.

I came across quite a few programs, but none of them offered what I wanted. I wanted something simple, none of that complex crap. I wanted a system that would allow me to slip the old VHS tapes into a VCR, connect it to my PC using a USB port, and wallah, finished done!

I didn't think my want existed though. That was until I found the ION VCR 2 PC unit. When I found the unit I told my boyfriend about it hoping he'd get the hint and order it for me for Valentines Day.

Well, it turned out he actually did get the hint, and he ordered me the system.

I was so excited when he gave it to me, and I went straight to work. I gathered up all of our old home movies, and then went ahead to setting up the converter.

Appearance:
 
The ION VCR 2 PC looked just like an old school VCR system. A plain black box, with large simple Play, Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward, and a Power button all located on the front panel of the unit. The only difference with this device was that it had a USB port located on the face plate as well.

The option to hook it up to your TV, and use it as a VCR is also available. Talk about bringing retro back!

The VCR 2 PC can also get video by plugging in old camcorders, or new ones to transfer video onto your PC as well.

Besides that though it also can burn DVD disc's, can upload video to some mobile phones, and PSP handheld consoles.

Set Up:
 
Whenever I get a new electronic I always assume that the thing is going to be frustrating to set up. I cannot even count on one hand how many times I've bought products that claimed to be simple, and they turned out to be more hassle than they were worth. I was praying the VCR 2 PC would be simple.
It was...

The unit came with a wall plug, and a USB cord.

All I had to do was plug the unit into an outlet, and then place the installation set up disk into my PC.
Once the installation CD ran, it popped a screen onto my PC telling me how to install the unit. On the CD there is also available software to install in order for the unit to work. Installing the software was simple...but I ran into a HUGE issue when installing the actual unit.

To begin the installation process all I had to do was plug in the USB port from the the unit into an available USB slot on my desktop.

I did this, and the installation process began.

It sadly though never finished. I kept getting a windows error message stating that the drivers were defective. I messed around with it for about an hour, and gave up. I took my search to the ION website, to see what the hell was going on, and if there were perhaps new drivers on the site I could download.
Unfortunately after hunting and pecking around on the site I discovered that the VCR 2 PC was not compatible with Windows XP, and Windows Vista computers that were 64 bit!

Yup, my desktop was too advanced for the frigging unit, and it highly pissed me off because NOWHERE on the Hammacher site, or ION product description site did it state this!

I had to hunt and find this information on my own, after purchasing the unit. It would have been very nice if the company would have stated that clearly on the description page! Instead they hide this important bit of information in another tab in the FAQ section on the manufacturers site.

The unit is also not compatible with Mac computers. So if you don't have a windows operating system, you may as well skip this one all together.

Thankfully for me, I was able to hook it up to my 32-bit laptop, otherwise I would have to send the unit back as it would have been completely useless to me.

It angered me though because the unit would have worked so much better, and a hell of a lot faster on my 64-bit desktop.

At any rate though I was able to set it up on the laptop, so all was good.

Once the unit was installed, all I had to do from there was plop in one of my old VHS tapes, rewind it, and hit play. On the software screen I then quickly had to hit record in order for the recording process to begin. It worked flawlessly. My old home movies were playing and recording right on my PC.

It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

My home video began to play, and record on the PC. Once it was finished, I simply hit stop on the screen, and my video was saved in my video file right on my PC.

From there I could upload my video to Photobucket, Myspace, or any other video storage website on the Internet.

I did however have to compress my large video files in order to shrink the files size, because many sites will not allow you to post anything over 100mb. Compressing was easy, and I was able to do it right in Windows.

Issues:
 
Besides the fact that the unit only works on 32-bit, the VCR 2 PC has other issues.

One is the rewind feature, and fast forward feature on the unit. It rewinds painfully slow, so if you have an old working VCR, then rewind your tapes on your VCR, because this one will take around 10 minutes to rewind a 1 hour VHS tape.

Another issue I encountered was again while rewinding. Every 5 minutes or so, the unit would begin playing my movies without me hitting play. The video was not fully re-wound and it play without me prompting it! This issue only seems to pop up while on rewind though.

The final issue I had with the unit was that while hitting play, instead of playing it would instead spit the tape out of the slot. It freaked me out because old VCR's would sometimes do this after chewing up the tape. Thankfully my tape was still in perfect condition, but the eject should not have occurred, and I feel the need to add a note on it.

The unit has done this to me twice so far. It does not seem to be a major issue, but its definitely a tid bit of a malfunction.

There seems to be no other issues with the unit, as it seems to work perfectly otherwise. While my video played and was being recorded I encountered no problems, so as long as my tape recorded onto my PC without problems I'm happy, and so far it seems to do just that.

Overall:
 
If your Windows operating machine is 32-bit than the ION VCR 2 PC is a very good buy. It does of course have some minor quirks, but all in all I am now storing my old home movies into digital format, and I am able to burn DVD copies, so I'm very happy with how things worked out.

My boyfriend picked this unit up for me off of the Hammacher for $129.95 on sale for a limited time. It normally runs to $199.99, so it was a really decent price for what it does.