VHS to DVD Video Transfers - What it Takes

Some people really like to do things themselves. If you are one of those people and you have a lot of old home videos, you may just have a new DIY (Do-It-Yourself) project on your hands - a video transfer project. Here is a broad overview of the topic to get you pointed in the right direction.

Video transfer is the conversion of analog video (VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, Betamax, Video8, Hi8, etc.) to a digital format such as DVD. Even though Digital 8 and mini DV are already digital and not analog, they are often lumped together with this first group because they are also recorded on magnetic tape. Magnetic tape has a limited life span and needs to be transferred to digital before long in order to preserve its video data. Preservation is the main reason home videos are transferred to DVD. Other reasons are that DVD is more convenient to store, view, duplicate, and mail to family and friends.

DIY results are not always perfect. Quality is limited not only by the state of the tape being transferred to DVD but also the methods and equipment used and your knowledge of how to use it. That said it could be fun and very rewarding to transfer your family videos on your own. I would suggest that you consider all of your options first, though. I personally prefer a professional transfer house to do the work with their high quality equipment. If you decide that you prefer a DIY method, then you are ready to get started.

First, do your research before buying any new electronic or computer equipment. Utilize any user manuals you can get your hands on - both for the equipment you already own and the equipment you plan to buy to make sure you understand how they all will work together. If you are going to use your computer as a component of your transfer studio, then you will need to make sure your computer has adequate speed, memory, and disk space. You may need to purchase an external hard drive or extra RAM, etc. Be sure to calculate any additional expenses and add them to your budget.

One DIY transfer method is to use a video capture card, video capture device, or a graphic card with video capture capability to capture the analog signal and translate it into a digital file format that your computer can read. This will allow the video images to be saved to your computer.

If you have a Mini DV camera, you can bypass video capture and use the built-in FireWire (also known as ieee 1394) to connect directly to your computer via a cable. A variation of this method is to connect your tape player via cable to your Mini DV camera, and then have the camera record the material from the tape. Then connect the Mini DV camera to your computer to record the same material to the computer.

If you want to completely bypass your computer, you can use a method that records directly to DVD from your tape source. The one big drawback is that you will not be able to edit your video afterward. It will be on DVD - but not on your computer where you could edit it with software. An example of this method is the VHS/DVD Combo Recorder. This device plays VHS and records to DVD all on one machine. Also, there are DVD Recorders that can connect to your tape source and record to DVD. You'll just need to connect the two machines with the appropriate cable for your particular machine.

I hope this article has whetted your appetite for more and gets you into action on preserving your family history in a safe and convenient digital format. Good luck!

For a decade Marty Holthaus coordinated on Hollywood visual effects films and now enjoys blogging about DVD VHS and film conversions for home movies. To read more about the topic of this article - - DIY digital transfers, click on this post from his site DVD VHS Transfer. There you will find more information on how to preserve old movies and videos, convert them to DVD and hard drive, and edit them on your computer.

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