Salvage your home movies with our DIY help tutorial
When transferring your home videos, the pluses of DVDs outweigh those of VHS tapes. Video tapes can degrade over time and the cassette casings are vulnerable to damage also as well make the tape useless. Storage is easier with DVDs since they take up less space than videos. In addition the quality of the picture and audio is greater on DVDs.
So how does one convert video tapes to DVDs to salvage them for the future? There are many options. For starters, you could use a VHS to DVD converting company that will do the transfer for you. We are one of those companies. Visit our conversion page today at http://www.vintagevhs.net/vintagevhs_services.html
But if you are computer savvy you can do it yourself, and even though we are in the converting website , we also like to help out where we can and share the knowledge we know, so you know.
The computer savvy will use their laptop to transfer their home movies to DVD. It requires copying the video to a digital file on the computer using an analog converter. The file gets compressed to MPEG-2 format before being burned onto a DVD. This method takes some time, but it allows you to make changes to the movies , like special effects or music , before you burn it . Depending on the burning program that you use, you possibly could add a menu or other special features. The process can be very slow because you have to transfer the file twice: first from the video to the computer and then again from the computer to the DVD.
To spare some time and effort, you can copy the film to a DVD without the use of a computer. There are two ways to do this:
The first involves purchasing a DVD recorder that allows input from another source. Just attach your VCR player by cables to the DVD recorder and while the footage plays, it records.
The second option is to purchase a combination DVD/VCR recorder. It does the same thing as the previous option without needing to connect any cables.
If you do the conversion yourself, be sure that you have cleaned the heads of the VHS tapes between copying movies. Old tapes carry a lot of dust or other particles that could block up the VCR. And because you are copying directly from the videos to the DVD, any picture quality issues you have with the video will show up on the finalized DVD. Knowing that if you have movies which are recorded at S.L.P. you will not get the same quality of recording onto a DVD as if the video was recorded at S.P. If you find the quality is not acceptable for you, consider changing your method of converting.
For more assistance visit our blog at http://www.vintagevhs.net/Video_Editing_blog.html
Converting family movies from VHS tapes present only minor dificulties. VCRs and VHS or Hi-8 recorders are with R.C.A. modulation video and sound outputs that can be easily connected to a DVR or a DVD Recorder as well as to a computer port such as U.S.B. using an adapter and video program.
Unlike VHS and Hi-8 cassettes viewed on VCRs and camcorders, older video reels of family videos present a different obstacle to convert them to a digital formats. The older 8mm projectors do not have video video output jacks. The older film projectors never converted the movies to any analog signal, what they did was just to simply pass the photo images on video in front of the projector light. There's no simple way to directly duplicate this content to a digital format.
Consider using lVintage VHS conversion services to transfer the videos; just $10 a reel!
http://www.vintagevhs.net/8mm_conversions.html
Based on how many 8mm reels you have and your budget, hiring a professional to do it may be the best choice . Family members might usually are more than happy to chip in for the conversion if they end up with copies themselves. Getting a group of contributors could make this option even more affordable.
