VHS to digital?

[krazeyeyez]

what options are available to convert old VHS to discs, im talking stuff like old family movies etc.....

are their any cheap options when it comes to this like equipment to have on hand to do it myself, or would i be better off finding a service that does this, if so anyone know how one would go about finding a place that handles things like this

[brettallica]

Originally Posted by krazeyeyez

what options are available to convert old VHS to discs, im talking stuff like old family movies etc.....

are their any cheap options when it comes to this like equipment to have on hand to do it myself, or would i be better off finding a service that does this, if so anyone know how one would go about finding a place that handles things like this

You will have to stream the VHS to a digital recorder of some sort. In my case, I have a DVD/VCR recorder that allows me to put in a VHS tape, then simply hit a few keystrokes to record to the blank DVD in the DVD bay. It's really easy. The prices for these units has really come down in the last few years. When I bought mine in 2006, it was about $300.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by brettallica

You will have to stream the VHS to a digital recorder of some sort. In my case, I have a DVD/VCR recorder that allows me to put in a VHS tape, then simply hit a few keystrokes to record to the blank DVD in the DVD bay. It's really easy. The prices for these units has really come down in the last few years. When I bought mine in 2006, it was about $300.

That's a really good option. I suppose it depends on how much you have to transfer..maybe using a service is the better option. Remember this though as I'm sure you know......MEMORIES ARE PRICELESS!

John

[vamsilak]

to the OP
Now days even just dvd recorder will do the job
iam sure you already vhs recorder
u can get dvd recorder less than 110.00 or even u can borrow from friends that they have
all u need to invest in good blank discs
they have gold plated dvd-r available

[brettallica]

Originally Posted by John72953

That's a really good option. I suppose it depends on how much you have to transfer..maybe using a service is the better option. Remember this though as I'm sure you know......MEMORIES ARE PRICELESS!

John

Yeah, using a service is a nice idea, especially if you're less than tech savvy. With a service there might also be some kind of guarantee of quality. I suppose they'd probably use "more professional" equipment, too. Then again, when you're going from VHS to DVD, I'm not really sure how much magic you can work regardless of the equipment you're using.

But yeah, memories are priceless. I remember when our family was just starting out (2002) we had a film still camera before we went digital later that year. There was less than a year's worth of images from our film camera before we went digital, so that was good. That was still a lot of scanning to get that into digital and permanent storage, though! Now all pictures are saved onto a hard drive (obviously), and I back up all those every so often onto high-quality discs. I've also got a digital camcorder, which is a really nice thing. We won't have to worry about VHS to digital transfer years from now. Also great is that even though it doesn't do HD, it does shoot in 16:9 ratio, which is cool for modern TVs, as we can shoot what we see, and when we watch the playback, there is no stretching or anything. I love that feature.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by brettallica

Yeah, using a service is a nice idea, especially if you're less than tech savvy. With a service there might also be some kind of guarantee of quality. I suppose they'd probably use "more professional" equipment, too. Then again, when you're going from VHS to DVD, I'm not really sure how much magic you can work regardless of the equipment you're using.

But yeah, memories are priceless. I remember when our family was just starting out (2002) we had a film still camera before we went digital later that year. There was less than a year's worth of images from our film camera before we went digital, so that was good. That was still a lot of scanning to get that into digital and permanent storage, though! Now all pictures are saved onto a hard drive (obviously), and I back up all those every so often onto high-quality discs. I've also got a digital camcorder, which is a really nice thing. We won't have to worry about VHS to digital transfer years from now. Also great is that even though it doesn't do HD, it does shoot in 16:9 ratio, which is cool for modern TVs, as we can shoot what we see, and when we watch the playback, there is no stretching or anything. I love that feature.

I did the same a few years ago. I had hundreds and hundreds of pictures (some going back to when I was like 3 yrs old - around 1956) and it took me a long time, but now I have digital copies of them as well. Sometimes I just do a slideshow on my computer, which is a lot of fun. Brings back some great memories.

So to krazeyeyes....get those pics transferred! You'll be happy you did!

John

PS: Thx brettallica...running slideshow now!

[Uniquely]

Easy Peasy! Get a $30 capture card for your PC (if it doesn't already have one) plug your VCR into the PC..... play and record..... then burn to DVD if you wish.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by robinandtami

Easy Peasy! Get a $30 capture card for your PC (if it doesn't already have one) plug your VCR into the PC..... play and record..... then burn to DVD if you wish.

Excuse my computer ignorance robinandtami, but what is a capture card?

John

[brettallica]

There are tons of options for capture cards or similar devices. I agree that those are easy, too, but probably a little more techy-oriented than a VHS-to-DVD burner, as VHS-to-DVD burners are design specifically with that task in mind. Video capture cards for the PC are little more involved, but do work well. Leadtek is a good manufacturer of said equipment.

[Uniquely]

Originally Posted by John72953

Excuse my computer ignorance robinandtami, but what is a capture card?

John

A video capture card. You can get an internal one that you'd have to install in your PC.... or an external one that connects via USB. It has audio and video inputs that allows you to plug a device such as a VCR or game console into your PC so that your PC can record what is playing on those devices.


http://www.google.com/products?q=ext...num=5&ct=title

[Chevypower]

Some digital video cameras will allow you to input an analog signal and output a DV signal through firewire, without the need to record and playback. I use that for bringing digitized VHS in to my computer without compression.

[krazeyeyez]

lmao forgot i posted this, thanks for all the responses, i am tech enough i think i can handle the capture card and that sounds like a good option that will allow me to do more beyond this transfer, thanks again all