Converting VHS to Blu-ray

[wiki131wiki]

How would you convert VHS to Blu-ray?

[Sussudio]

VHS? What's that?

One way I can think of - and there might be an extremely easier way of doing this - is to record the VHS into the computer via a video capture card and then burn the video file onto the Bluray. You'd be able to store a great deal of video, too.

[PH3AR]

Originally Posted by Sussudio

VHS? What's that?

i think its a big bulky black rectangle that plays movies at home, but the catch is terrible PQ

[My_Two_Cents]

Why?

VHS quality will still be VHS quality copied onto a BD. Copy them onto DVDs. You'll get the same quality.

[Sussudio]

Originally Posted by Ricshoe

Why?

VHS quality will still be VHS quality copied onto a BD. Copy them onto DVDs. You'll get the same quality.

you would be able to fit a lot more on a Bluray then DVD, however, it probably does make more sense financially to just put them on DVDs.

dvd burners are ridiculously cheap now, as are blank dvds. bluray media and recorders are still fairly expensive, so unless there's some dire reason you need it on a bluray sticking to dvd backup might be the more efficient solution.

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by Sussudio

you would be able to fit a lot more on a Bluray then DVD, however, it probably does make more sense financially to just put them on DVDs.

Exactly! That would be a waste of storage space, if it's recorded on a blu-ray. Blank DVDs is more than sufficient, blu-rays aren't necessary.

[raven1138]

Originally Posted by Ricshoe

Why?

VHS quality will still be VHS quality copied onto a BD. Copy them onto DVDs. You'll get the same quality.

I agree with him, unless it's something like a wedding vid, but even then a DVD will do just fine.

[Anthony P]

if you are willing to wait a bit I think someone is comming out with a BD/VHS combo

[spcamaj]

lol vhs thinking of those is like thinking of stuff that happend 100 years ago

[Bobby Henderson]

The only way to get VHS footage burned on to Blu-ray is by copying to a computer hard drive somehow.

You can do that by attaching the VHS tape deck to a PC-based video capture card. Or you could attach a MiniDV video camera to the VHS tape deck and then capture that dubbed MiniDV footage to the computer via Firewire.

[dv8pdx]

while we all agree, VHS quality will stay VHS quality when recorded on blu, but it will still be VHS quality when played on a big HDTV... SO I say WHY NOT have a single blu-ray disc with 50+ hours of family videos, vacations, babies first birthday, graduation etc from days gone by all on one disc. I'd be all for it, and it would be easier than pulling out that old VCR for family time or playing 20 dvd's... isn't that all the entire point of mass capacity blu-rays... its not just for HD. I think it will be a huge plus for blu as the blank disc prices start to fall more.

show the consumer something like this to wet their whistles...

[jmadeley]

Originally Posted by spcamaj

lol vhs thinking of those is like thinking of stuff that happend 100 years ago

Only 30 years ago, but I made most of my family stuff on VHS then SVHS soon after introduction. I was too dumb to use blu-ray. Do blu-ray camcorders exist today?

[FlipperWasIrish]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

if you are willing to wait a bit I think someone is comming out with a BD/VHS combo

This is my LAUGH for the day.

[Jeff Kleist]

Guys, you are all missing a point suggesting converting VHS to DVD rather than to BD. Yeah, you can't make resolution any higher. In fact when I used to convert VHS to DVDs, I was using half D1 (352 x 480) resolution instead of a cropped (704 x 480) or a full (720 x 480) one to obtain better results in the motion. However, the maximum bit rate allowed on DVDs is only 9.8 MBs. BD allow 48 MBs max bitrate, right? Using higher bit rate will allow less compression for the motion picture that will result in better quality (less pixelization).

On the fly encoding is never a good solution, and you'd probably receive similar results going directly to Blu-ray. You're much better off investing in a computer capture card and doing a multipass encode to DVD if quality is an issue

[justin81]

I have a question about this...

I too have a large collection of VHS tapes that I would like to transfer to DVDR. I have actually been transferring to DVDR since 2003 or thereabouts. My capturing computer died recently so I am in the market for new equipment.

Would my transfers be at least slightly better with Blu ray?

9537mbps (video) + 256kbps (audio) = roughly 1 hour recording time on a standard 4.7gb disc.

Since most movies require longer record times than one hour, the bitrate has to be adjusted. For example, 2 hours with a 256kbps rate for audio is roughly 4820mbps for video.

In theory, could I attain better results by using Blu ray because I could do 2+ hours without having to lower the bitrate from 9537?

Just wondering...

Thanks.

[AintNoSin]

Converting VHS to Blu? That would be like coverting my answering machine tapes to 24-bit lossless.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by justin81

In theory, could I attain better results by using Blu ray because I could do 2+ hours without having to lower the bitrate from 9537?

You're only going to get longer running times with 480i video (actually VHS is less than that). You could solve your problem by using a double-layer DVD-R. It's cheaper than BD-R25.


fuad

[Midnightsailor]

lol

[marzetta7]

Question...is it possible, once you've converted VHS to a digital source, say on a computer hard drive, to upconvert the dvd quality to 1080i or 1080P? Much like a TV upconverts DVD quality?

I'm curious, as my madre has several VHS tapes she wants to convert, and I'm wondering if I can upconvert them to HD?

Thoughts?

[marzetta7]

Hmm, I see they have Blu-ray/VCR Combos that will allow you to record your VHS tapes onto a hard disk or a Blu-ray disc as seen here...

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/09/16...-with-blu-ray/

...however, what I don't see are the specifics, like what resolution it records the VHS tapes in when it puts it onto the hard disc or a Blu-ray disc? Does it send the VHS image through an upconverting circuit then onto the harddrive or Blu-ray disc? What is it encoding the VHS source in? MPEG4 (I hope)?

Is there a quality way of making this transition (VHS to High-Def/Blu-ray) at this point in Blu-ray's lifespan?