VHS player

I was planning to convert a VHS tape to DVD or computer file for a friend, and spent several hours trying to find the necessary leads, connectors and the interface, and software to do this, then I discovered my VHS player no longer works. I've failed to fix the issue, so I'll have to abandon the project. Fortunately I did the conversion on most of my own VHS tapes some years ago, when the player was still working.