Portta VHS to Digital Converter VD22P — the best for the price? Comparison tests and setup advice.

The Portta VHS to Digital Converter with 5" HD Screen is a unique offer in the market of standalone analog-to-digital video converters in terms of video quality and price, converting interlaced analog video into smooth 1080p60 HD.

The Portta VHS to Digital Converter VD22P (CHR202P) (https://amzn.to/3WtWXD5, $180, power adapter or battery, 5-inch screen) has the following important features:

■ It converts analog interlaced video into digital progressive-scan video by converting each field into a separate frame using a high-quality deinterlacer.
■ It upscales standard definition video to 1080p high definition using a high-quality scaler.
■ It is resilient to timing errors and dropouts in low-quality input video.
■ Brightness (black level), contrast (white level) and audio level can be adjusted to better fit the requirements of your viewing device or video editing tools.
■ It can be powered from an industry-standard Sony NP-F battery for use in the field. This also allows to capture live video from a tape-based camcorder, avoiding recording on tape ("tapeless build").

Products with similar specs and a larger 7-inch screen (standalone analog-to-digital video converter, 1080p60 max resolution):

■ Unisheen UR500A (up to 4K30 input, 1080p60 recording, power adapter or battery) | $309.00 | https://amzn.to/4899bHy
■ Unisheen UR500 (up to 4K60 input, 1080p60 recording, power adapter or battery) | $319.00 | https://amzn.to/4oYLYxu

Products with similar specs and a smaller 3-inch screen (standalone analog-to-digital video converter, 1080p60 max resolution):

■ King Ma 60 FPS (1080p60, power adapter or battery) | $200 | https://amzn.to/4odPeVT
■ Unisheen UR500A-Mini (1080p60, power adapter or battery) | $229.00 | https://amzn.to/4hs4tHY
■ ClonerAlliance Box Pro Pocket (1080p60, power adapter or battery) | $280 | https://amzn.to/3WXZBRz

Lesser products that do not deliver full 60 fps rate, thereby halving both temporal and spatial resolution of the original video (standalone analog-to-digital video converter, 1080p30 max resolution, 3-inch screen):

■ Unisheen UR230A (1080p30, USB power) | $109.00 | https://amzn.to/47fq6rS
■ Unisheen UR230A-B (1080p30, USB or battery power) | $119.00 | https://amzn.to/4nqPcsr
■ Portta (1080p30, USB power) | $130 | https://amzn.to/47tEUSm
■ HGEVFL 30 FPS (1080p30, USB power) | $130 | https://amzn.to/4oy0MmP
■ King Ma 30 FPS (1080p30, USB power) | $159 | https://amzn.to/4p01GZt
■ ClonerAlliance ViewLite AV (1080p30, USB power) | $172 | https://amzn.to/4p01oBR

A popular product among "tapeless build" crowd, ImmersionRC PowerPlay, has risen in price from $89 to $150. It does record at 60 fps. You pay less for the PowerPlay, but its deinterlacer is very crude, it is just a simple line doubler, so the video quality is markedly worse than from the Portta VHS to Digital Converter with 5" HD Screen.

■ ImmersionRC PowerPlay | €149 | https://shop.orqafpv.com/products/imm...

Its clones costs the same.

■ RunCam 2025 Latest Immersion RC PowerPlay Vintage Camera Monitor | $148 | https://amzn.to/3JV9Gfa

Chapters:

00:00 Unboxing
01:11 Controlled tests
04:44 Digitizing: Andrea Bocelli off-TV recording
07:09 Digitizing: VHS-C home movie
08:45 Digitizing: NBC promos and ads
09:40 Digitizing: The Spy Who Loved Me
10:41 Verdict
11:42 Tripod socket
11:51 Input selection
12:32 Power adapter
13:17 Aspect ratio selection
14:26 720p
15:23 Video levels
16:35 Final thoughts

#camcorder #vintagecamera #tapeless #digitization