OT - transfer VHS tapes to DVD

Apologies for posting on this group, please point me towards a more appropriate group if necessary.

I am considering ditching our old VHS tape recorder/player but we have a few sentimental tapes of family weddings/special holidays etc which we want to be able to play in the future. We have a DVD player only at the moment. What would I need to do to transfer the home recorded VHS tapes to DVD? What kind of kit do I need? Can I get it done commercially?

Thanks in advance

Pete K.

Reply to
petek
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In message , petek writes

I used a USB convertor to take the signal from the VHS player and copy it onto the computer hard drive. This is then burnt to DVD. you can get stuff that will do this in one go. but I think it's better to take the copied video and use video editing software to create the DVD, you can edit/combine video if you want, make chapters etc.

The convertor will normally come with software to do this - it might not be fancy but it will do the job, there are of course plenty of other alternatives.

This sort of thing:

Though I used one from ADS a few years ago, because it was the cheapest I could find.

Alternatively an analogue TV card in the computer will take the input and do the job

For a one off I'd be tempted to look to Ebay, buy it and then sell it on again.

Yes

Reply to
chris French

Can you not borrow a dvd recorder then scart it to your vhs player?

Reply to
brass monkey

In message , petek writes

Can you still buy a video / DVD machine

I have one

If I had been bothered, I was going to copy all that crap which is never going to get watched again across

In the end, I saw sense and just ditched the lot of them

Reply to
geoff

Are you intending to replace the old VHS with a modern DVD recorder? I've replaced mine with a Panasonic PVR which records to both hard drive and DVD. The odd VHS that I want to keep has been transferred by simply connecting the two together with scart and recording from the appropriate AV channel. It has also worked for the majority of "bought" tapes that I want to keep, only a few have failed because of the copyright signal. Probably illegal to do it but I figured that if I was binning the old tapes then I would still only have the one copy that I paid for.

Reply to
Tinkerer

A Hauppauge Hybrid USB TV Stick for £40)ish) will let you do it and will have other uses as well (Watching Freeview). The stick has digital TV/Analogue TV tuners with composite and S-Video inputs. Software supplied with the stick allows you to capture video from a VCR or camera.

Computer Hauppauge USB Hybrid Stick

some freeware:

formatting link
Can I get it done commercially?

Yes. Provided that your movies don't include inappropriate images of children or copyright works made by other people. Even then I suspect some people would do it for you.

Reply to
Steve Firth

What about VHS C, mini DV and other camcorder tapes if you no longer have the camcorder?

Reply to
Count de Monet

I've not used a USB convertor but I have heard many of them produce a poor quality output.

For the best results it's probably worth paying someone to do this for you because it is a skill to get the best results, especially if the VHS tapes are old.

If you want to DIY then Canopus make some very good products. Have a look at the ADVC-55 or ADVC-110 (not cheap though).

Reply to
Mark

You can buy stand alone DVD recorders quite cheaply these days - but if you have a desktop PC that's reasonably specified and doesn't have a DVD recorder, fitting one to that is probably the cheapest option. They usually come with basic software for making DVDs.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Plenty of places will copy them for you. But don't expect it for pennies.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I'd expect to pay through the nose to have any processing done.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The free windows movie maker (live) will do the job if there is nothing else.

Reply to
dennis

Don't forget that the shelf life of home burned DVDs is abysmal - far worse than VHS tape. Be prepared to copy your DVD masters, ideally every year. Many of my three year old DVDs are now unreadable, twenty year old tapes are generally acceptable.

GrahamC

Reply to
Graham C

Disk drives are what you need.

You can get 100 videos on a big 500GB disk. and it probably costs less than 100 burnable DVDS anyway.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

The only hard drive enclosure arrangement I've seen had a lousy interface, sorted titles in a seemingly random fashion, and scrolled painfully slowly. Maybe not helped by the USB 1.1 connection on the dvd player

Reply to
Stuart Noble

In message , Mark writes

I think the output from mine was fine. played back side by side once can't say I saw any great difference between them.

for the best result, quite possibly, depends I guess on the source and how important it is to get the best results.

Reply to
chris French

Perhaps you should stop storing them in the toaster? I've done accelerated and real-time aging tests on CDs, DVDs and other optical media (such as Plasmon PD). The main problem with optical media is the speed of evolution of the drives and the fragility of the drives. I have unrecoverable optical media in some odd formats simply because the drives failed mechanically long before the media became unreadable. Fortunately there was a backup strategy in place.

Reply to
Steve Firth

I am doing the same thing. I have pinched the domestic dvd re writer with hard dive from the domestic part of the house and put it up into my hobby room. Connect a scart cable between the video recorder and the DVD recorder and sort out the TV connections you are looking at what is through what, and it is simple. I have done about 30 over the last month

Dave

Reply to
Dave

Friend wants 2 190 minutes video 8 camera tapes copying. The camera has been found, but the cable has not (The camera is half way between a match of the day camera and one that was made ten years ago :-)

It's huge.

I went to the local camera shop and they want £25 for the first tape and £20 for the second one. Don't know if that is for two copies of the first tape or not.

Dave

Reply to
Dave

Are you saying that old copywrighted videos would not transfer here? I am having a similar prpblem.

On a pre made DVD I use DVD decrypt and then DVD shrink. Works like a charm.

Dave

Reply to
Dave

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