VHS to CD question

Does anyone know what is involved (equipment & expense) of converting VHS tapes to CD format? Just call a service in the phone book or ??? Looking to copy some VHS tapes to CD format for preseervation sake (OLD tapes of shows & movies).

 

There are a number of ways to go about this type of thing. But first I have to ask, do you really mean CD? Or are you actually talking about DVD (i.e. similar to the type of disc you rent at Blockbuster & playable in a set-top DVD player)?

 

You need to covert the VHS to a digital signal, store it on your hard drive and then burn a DVD. If you have a newer Mac it is already on there with iMovie and iDVD. Getting into the computer is the hard part. Easiest way that I've found is to use a Sony camcorder that passes through the signal to the computer. Otherwise you have to copy the VHS to Hi8 and then play the Hi8 into the computer. Using passthrough saves time.Video takes lots of space, too.

 

Actually, you won't be converting to CD, more correctly, you will be converting to DVD. CD (compact disc) is the common terminology for a music (audio only) disc. DVD (digital video disc) is the common terminology for a disc that contains audio AND video.

You will need a recordable DVD deck and recordable DVDs.
The recordable DVDs come in 4 formats:

DVD-R is an older RECORD only disc. Record one time and that's it.

DVD-RW is an older RECORD and reWriteable disc. You can record and reWrite multiple times like recording on a tape.

DVD+R is the newer RECORD only disc. Record one time and that's it.

DVD+RW is the newer RECORD and reWriteable disc. You can record and reWrite multiple times like recording on a tape. But the DVD+RW and the DVD-RW formats may have problems playing back on the older decks.

All boiled down in a nutshell, buy yourself a DVD recorder that records on the DVD+RW discs and you can copy your movies. (provided that they are not commercially recorded VHS tapes that will probably include a copy protection signal called Macrovision). You will have to run 3 patch cords from your VHS playback deck to your DVD recorder. One cable for VIDEO, one for LEFT channel audio and one for RIGHT channel audio.

 

1) You can run the VHS output to a DVD recorder, but those are still a bit expensive.

2) You can use this device, which can hook-up between a VHS player and a PC that is DV camcorder enabled (has Firewire port and software). Sony has discontinued the example here, but you might find one for cheap on ebay or some other companies still make similar ones (Canopus) but are expensive.

http://www.insanely-great.com/reviews/da1.html

3) If you have a DV camcorder, you can play the VHS output to a DV camcorder input to record to DV tape, then connect the DV camcorder to a PC that is DV camcorder enabled (has Firewire port and software) and replay the tape and have the PC capture it.

4) You can buy a hardware card (<$100?) to add to your PC that takes analog video/audio in and converts to MPEG, then play the VHS output directly to your PC and have the card capture it.

E.g. http://www.shopping.com/xPF-Sigma_Design_REALmagic_Xcard

Once the media content is on a PC, then you can encode as a VCD or DVD depending on if you have a CD or DVD writer or both. Most DVD players and PC's will play VCD's if you only have a CD writer. As far as resolution (video quality) is concerned, a signal sourced from VHS will only have VCD resolution anyway.

 

i just got one of these
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7273862&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat13900050019&id=1117178431066

it works great.

 

http://www.transfermyhomevideos.com/