VHS to DVD or Digital converter?

warble2

Gerry Lopez status
May 5, 2008
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Buddy of mine just snapped his ankle skating and is laid up for a bit. He's younger and I'd like to share some surf video content I've got on VHS that is collecting dust. Videos that are home made, not on the web, aren't readily available for purchase, or copyrighted. What's the best way to go about converting VHS to DVD or digital format?
 

afoaf

Duke status
Jun 25, 2008
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I'd say the best/easiest is to find someone locally who will do the transcode for you

otherwise you need a video card for your comp that accepts RCA (or other) inputs
and the software to handle the transcode from analog to digital and then the DVD
authoring and burning.

it's tedious as fk...a business that is already set up for this type of thing (like photo
and camera shops) will probably do it for a fair price that saves you the cost to
get yourself geared up for a one-off
 
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Dekerwild

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Jul 28, 2017
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I recently took all my old VHS surf tapes and some cassette music tapes plus home movies of my radical surf days to my local video converted enhancer guy in NFL....probably 12vids and 3 Music tapes....$100 converted to DVD’s...stocked to watch Searching for Tom Curren on the big screen!!!!
 

PJ

Gerry Lopez status
Jan 27, 2002
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I have a Panasonic VHS to DVD recorder. If you type Panasonic VHS to DVD in Ebay they have them like mine - they are silver in front with a round push button on the lower right - several models which look fairly the same. You put the VHS in one side, the DVD in the other and it copies. And you can watch the VHS while it does it. They go for $175 - $300. Kind of expensive and you wind up with an extra piece of gear but it's sort of forced us to watch all the old videos which has been fun.
 

92122

Michael Peterson status
Jul 29, 2015
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Have the Panosonic dual deck VHS>DVD that will convert too. Keep in mind once it goes to DVD you are still stuck and wont be able to create a web / media player file from that, so probably best to go from VHS straight to a Media file like .mp4, h.265, .mov, etc etc. because you can take that and use it anywhere, including putting it down to a DVD.
 
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plasticbertrand

Duke status
Jan 12, 2009
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I think transferring VHS to DVD is a waste of time, unless you really, really need a DVD.

You are transferring one obsolete video format to another.

The best bet is RCA to USB converter which will let you slap it on the hard drive and share it from there.

Something like this, cheap and cheerful:

 
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grapedrink

Duke status
May 21, 2011
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There are services that will do that for you, like Memory Box. Never used them personally so not sure about the cost, but if you figure in the cost of the gear and time I imagine it's economical. I've been meaning to convert old dvds to digital for years now, and even with all the time freed up by the Rona I still find other projects around the house that take priority.

Also, agreed on not converting to DVD. Those things need to just die already. It was garbage technology and bordering on obsolete last decade.
 

Mr Doof

Duke status
Jan 23, 2002
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San Francisco, CA
Long term storage of data......it is an amazing history of humanity's effort various attempts/efforts at preserving knowledge.

Obsolescence as another face of entropy seems like a recent thing, but, probably isn't. In a way, obsolescence could be viewed as 'that group of people didn't survive, so their language and history died with them'.

Anyway, that capture device of plastic bertrand seems like a great idea if you have a few tapes (and have a tape player) and don't have a DVD player. I wonder what the resulting file size is for a say 1 hour of tape at best quality.
 

warble2

Gerry Lopez status
May 5, 2008
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Appreciate all the feedback. I'm on the hunt for the converter PJ suggested. Splitting the cost with a buddy who's got a bunch of VHS family footage he'd like to convert and distribute. I fully agree with the DVDs going the way of the dodo, but just in asking around I've had multiple requests along the lines of "Get back to me when you find one, I'll kick you a six pack or two to convert some flicks"

Side business for beer bartering. Should recoup the $75-$150 investment quickly as I like fru fru microbrew.

Just about everyone I know still has a dvd player or gaming system that will play the discs. Could always down load the disks to a hard drive at a later date. Thanks again for the input and suggestions.
 

plasticbertrand

Duke status
Jan 12, 2009
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Anyway, that capture device of plastic bertrand seems like a great idea if you have a few tapes (and have a tape player) and don't have a DVD player. I wonder what the resulting file size is for a say 1 hour of tape at best quality.
At 480p resolution, probably not more than 50mb