I know nothing about this and my father keeps asking me how and what he will need to do this. I am sure my dad is like everyone else's parents and he has about 200 home movies on VHS that are out of date since I think we only have a VHS player in storage or something. I don't think it is worth the time but he really wants to get them onto dvd's. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this? I know they make a VHS/dvd combo thing that I think you can do it but I just don't know how much they are and how easy they are. Anyway if anyone has anything let me know!
There is the vhs/dvd combo that you spoke of...but I know there are some electronic shops that you can bring your vhs' to and they will convert them to dvd for a fee. I have no idea how much or where to go, but I know some places do this...
I have hooked up a video to DVD recorder for my GF's mom, it works great just set it and forget it. It is time consuming but worth it IMO.
Best Buy or Target have a video - DVD recorder for like $80..... all in one... tempted to get it... I have a couple of videos that I would love to change over...
I have a Plextor ConvertX PX-M401U I'd be happy to sell. I never got around to using it, as the camcorder we bought not long after also does analogue to digital conversions. If you're interested, make me an offer. Stuart.
There are two ways of going about doing this: with or without the aid of a computer. Without a PC you can get one of those combo DVD/VHS that can record to DVD from VHS. This is by far the simplest method but quality is often dubious. You're also very limited on (or not allowed) menus and chapter points. The option with a PC will require a decent VCR, a video source converter similar to the one stoooo posted, a decent PC with a DVD burner, and some assorted software depending on the amount of effort you want to put into it to make it look good. The biggest problem is with dropped frames when capturing from VHS as there are almost always going to be little hiccups in the playback that need to be edited out. Depending on the authoring/encoding software you use you'll be able to put in chapter points and menus to make navigation easier when you play it back. You can also clean up rough spots in the video with some of the better editing suites but then things can get pretty involved. There are some good walkthroughs and guides for this sort of thing at www.videohelp.com as well as links to a lot of the freeware you can use to make things easier.
Thanks for all the information! I think I will look more into those DVD/VHS combo deals! If they were mine I would do it through a computer, I really don't have the time to help my father do them and my computer is the only one that would be able to. And I know what would happen is I would end up doing it all for him cus he would make me feel guilty for living with them 22 years hahaha. He doesn't need chapters and menus and all that jazz anyway! Thanks for your info!
