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.

[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.

[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.

[MAPdead]

I don't see the point... unless its something thats not released on dvd

[Bobby Henderson]

I agree, there's no point in dubbing VHS material to Blu-ray when DVD is sufficient. The one exception is dubbing a LOT of SD material to a single, high capacity Blu-ray disc.

Nevertheless, VHS to Blu-ray is do-able.

[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...

[Anthony P]

one more thing. One can make a BD-9 (4) with the right SW and a DVD drive. This is content that will play on a BD player but not a DVD player but uses a recordable DVD. The benefit of BD-9 (4) over DVD-9 (4) is that the BD can use AVC or VC-1 which should be better at compressing the content.

[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?

[GodofBlu]

I recently transferred family videos to DVD and can see his point. It took a lot of time and DVD's. I used a VHS deck to DVD recorder. Personally, if I had it to do over again I would have purchased a ATI all in one wonder video card and transferred them straight to PC. Do your editing on the PC and then burn to your PC's Blu-Ray drive. You could store you entire life in VHS to a Blu-Ray disk.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Blu-Ray does seem like it would be the storage medium of choice due to sheer capacity. Yeah, the quality won't be any better, but you can store a lot on a single disc.

But as has been pointed out, recordable Blu-Ray technology is still rather expensive. It might almost be worth it to just wait a couple/few more years for when prices come down to transfer everything over.

If you are worried about your VHS tapes deteriorating more in the mean time, depending on what you already have available in terms of HD space and how much VHS content you have to transfer, you could digitally transfer them now and just keep them on a Hard Drive until prices go down. Or, you could just store the raw data files on a bunch of cheap DVD-Rs for now (by doing this, you would be maximizing the DVD space for basic data storage, without the menus and layouts to play on a normal DVD player), and then eventually take those files and transfer them to Blu-Rays discs that actually play in BD players.