Transferring VHS to DVD

sjt269 · 29 May 2008 at 19:34

In short, how do I do it? My parents have rediscovered a load of old family videos from when myself and my brother were young (cue much embarassment) but are a little concerned at how worn out the tapes are getting. I know it's possible to transfer VHS onto computer, but last time I looked (several years ago) it involved buying a fairly expensive piece of hardware. They've asked me to see if I can figure out how to back this all up to DVD and/or computer format so that if the tapes give up, they won't lose it all.

I'm going to look into it more myself, but you guys might be able to save me some time if you're already familiar with this kind of thing. I'd like to do it on the cheap, but I'd like to retain as much quality as possible, or even enhance them slightly - the tracking seems a bit off which leads to fuzzy lines at some parts, is it possible to get rid of this too?

Thanks in advance
tTz

Paul11 · 29 May 2008 at 19:58

i just got hold of a vhs to dvd recorder. nice and easy, put in said vhs and hit record and it burns a dvd

the other way, is to get a video capture card and plug the vhs in to your pc and record them all to your hard drive, then burn them to dvd.

Furton · 29 May 2008 at 20:13

There's an article in PCPro this month about doing this.

Tomsk · 29 May 2008 at 22:27

Cheapest way is a DVD recorder @ <£60 assuming you already have a working VHS player.
Easiest way is a combined VHS/DVD recorder @ <£130
Neither of the two methods above will give you much control over picture quality or DVD menus.

My workflow is convoluted, but only because I've accumulated all the bits over the past years.
VHS -> Digital8 camcorder -> PC -> edit with Pinnacle Studio -> DVD

TwoSaints · 29 May 2008 at 22:40

I convert VHS to DVD as part of my job at work, I do it with a VCR connected to a cheap DVD Recorder, Bush DVR3006 to be precise.

But I have also had to use a similar way as mentioned above using a dv camcorder and a mac, but that is way too much effort, but I was making a special DVD

Mint_Sauce · 29 May 2008 at 23:04

I found my old VCR player in the loft, plugged it straight in to my 8800GTX and then recorded the VHS to hard drive and then finally encoded to mpeg. It's done a great job, no loss in quality either.

Paul11 · 30 May 2008 at 09:37

Mint_Sauce said:
I found my old VCR player in the loft, plugged it straight in to my 8800GTX and then recorded the VHS to hard drive and then finally encoded to mpeg. It's done a great job, no loss in quality either.

i never knew you could go straight to a gtx.... cool

Mint_Sauce · 30 May 2008 at 10:56

Paulus said:
i never knew you could go straight to a gtx.... cool

It migh have been my 7800GTX but either way they both have the extra din plug thing on the back. Using the cable that comes with the card to plug in to that I made up a Scart cable to an RCA phono type plug. It was a bit of a bodge job as I didnt have any solder at that point but it worked great.

Luckily my friend who works in audio gave me a proper cable after I had done one or two which made the whole thing easier so proper solutions are available.

I also used the Audio output RCAs on the back of the VCR player to convert to a stereo jack plug for my Sound blaster and plugged that in. Job done!

sjt269 · 30 May 2008 at 18:25

I forgot about this thread.

Thanks for the replies so far guys, much better response than I'd actually expected.

Tomsk said:
Neither of the two methods above will give you much control over picture quality or DVD menus.

That's the crux of the matter right there - if it's just the video's tracking that's a bit off, that could probably (hopefully?) be fixed..if it isn't, and the tape's damaged, then I'm stuck with dodgy quality either way.

How do you go about transferring to the camcorder? I don't know anyone who owns one, but my dad has a few gadget loving friends who might have one he could borrow. Is it just a case of plug it in and press record?

Furton said:
There's an article in PCPro this month about doing this.

I'll keep an eye out, thanks.

Mint_Sauce said:
I found my old VCR player in the loft, plugged it straight in to my 8800GTX and then recorded the VHS to hard drive and then finally encoded to mpeg. It's done a great job, no loss in quality either.

I was wondering about this, but I didn't think it was possibe. I shall have a lookie at all the various connectors and see what fits.

rickyt · 1 Jun 2008 at 09:09

I've done a few video to PC tranfers using a cheapy Jetway TV card ,with Video2000 tapes . Quality wasn't too bad considering the tapes were 22 years old .Using Pinnacle9 to capture .
The other way is too buy a cheap DVD recorder and link the Video player to that .One way is too get hold of a newish camcorder , some new models have a video input in which to playback your video using the correct leads into the camcorder to record .My camcorders dont have this facility so I haven't tried this method but they say the built in encoding software on the camcorders do a very good job .You would then playback the new camcorder footage using a Firewire card in your PC and capture to disk .Once onto the PC you can do a range of things to the footage .ie. edit ,add text and background music etc before putting onto DVD.

sjt269 · 1 Jun 2008 at 12:57

I've no interest in adding text or music to any of it, but I wouldn't mind cleaning up the video if possible. I can't seem to find any way of doing that, though, so looks like I'll have to keep the dodgy picture on some parts of the video. At least that way I'll save what's there, rather than leaving it to deteriorate and fade away completely.

rickyt · 1 Jun 2008 at 15:58

One thing though ,dont just rely on DVD as a means of backup . There rubbish , I've tried all types and makes and after 8 or 9 months they'll go blocky ,then freeze.[I bought some Tuyo Yuden disks but have'nt tried them ]Same with my Panasonic disks from the home recorder . My mate had a Panny bought at the same time as me ,put all his holiday footage onto to disks and some on to RAM disks . There unwatchable now .He's totally miffed and say's he would NEVER buy another recorder .He's keeping the tapes .I now use a media player [external hard drive] ,you just put your finished files [vob's ,mpegs ,divx ] etc into folders and copy them to the Media player . These will connect to any monitor ,plasma ,TV for playback , all without messing with disks .

sjt269 · 1 Jun 2008 at 17:46

I was definitely going to keep the tapes too, but hearing that, I think I'd be tempted to keep it all on the PC, and also on the backup harddrive that I have, and all the backup media I keep planning on getting but never ever do. IcyBox and a massive harddrive have been on the cards for a very, very long time, I just keep finding more glamarous things to do with my money.