How to Convert VHS and Other Video Tapes to DVD for Free

Being a child of the '80s and '90s, I've got a lot of old video tapes laying around. Birthdays, weddings, vacations, and being the techie that I am, I knew it was high time that I backed these up to digital before they deteriorated into nothingness, but I wasn't too sure how to do it. To my surprise, I hadn't searched long before I came across Golden Videos by NCH Software. Golden Videos allows you to convert VHS tapes to DVD, avi, mpg, wmv, asf, mov and mp4. And best of all, it's absolutely free! Here's how you use it.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• A PC
• A VCR with video and audio outputs
• A way to capture audio and video to your PC (capture card, etc.)
• Cables
• A DVD burner in the PC (if you want to burn)
• Blank DVD

1. Set Up Your Equipment

   To accomplish this you must first have a way to get the audio and video from your VCR into your PC. The most obvious way to do this would be to install a capture card into your PC. Then you would run your cables straight from the VCR to the capture card in the PC. Another way (which is the way I use) is to use a DV camcorder as an intermediary device. The DV camcorder is connected to your PC using a Firewire or USB cable. Then you connect the VCR directly to the camcorder. The audio and video then feeds from the VCR, through the camcorder, and into the PC simultaneously. It sounds complex, but it's really not. Check your camcorder manual for more information on how to set it up.

2. 

   Download and Install the Software

   There is no purchase or registration required for Golden Videos. Just download the gvsetup.exe file and install it as norma (see link in Resources below).

3. 

   Run the Program

   When you first run the software a very friendly window will open with a nice large button marked "New Recording." Hit that button.

4. 

   Read the Overview

   The next page gives you a brief overview of the steps involved in the process. It also gives you a few settings you can change. Leave all of the settings at their defaults and click "Next."

5. 

   Specify the Audio and Video Sources

   Click the Video Device menu and choose the correct source for your video signal. On the right do the same thing for the sound. You should be able to see the video playing in the window, hear the audio and see the volume meter jumping back and forth with the audio. Once you have these things you're ready for the next step. Click "Next."

6. 

   Choose the Format

   Here you specify in what format you would like to save it. For this tutorial we want to save it directly to DVD, but you can save it to avi, mpg, mov, mp4, pretty much whatever you want.

   See Step 11 below for information on how to save it into other formats later. Choose "DVD." Type in a name for your disc, point it to the drive that is your DVD burner and choose your format. Click "Next."

7. 

   Set Video Capture Options

   This page is where you can set up cues that will tell the program to stop recording. For example, when the screen goes to static or the audio cuts out. Pretty handy if you can't stick around to babysit the recording. We're just going to leave these at the defaults. Click "Next."

8. 

   Capture the Video

   Cue up the video on your VCR, hit play, and when you are ready, hit the big red record button in Golden Videos. You should see the video, hear the audio and see the audio level meter moving. When you are finished recording you can hit the stop button yourself, or if you have left it set up to stop automatically you can let it run until there is static. Click "Next."

9. Preview the Video, Add a Title or Caption and Make Adjustments

   On this page you can see a preview of the video, add a text title or caption and tweak the brightness, contrast and gamma of the video. There are also some presets you can use to make the video black and white, negative or sepia toned. We're just going to leave these at the defaults. Take this moment to put a blank DVD into your DVD burner, then click "Next."

10. 

    Burn the DVD

    It will start converting the video files and writing the disc right away. As far as I can tell, this process takes about a minute of time for every minute of video there is. If you made a mistake and forgot to put the DVD in and got kicked back to the first screen, don't panic.

    Click the button that says "Save to DVD" and you can get back to the burn screen without re-recording. Once it is done burning it will quickly eject and re-close the drive and begin verifying the burn. Once verification is done it will tell you "Wizard has been completed" and send you back to the first screen.

11. 

    Choose Your Final Options

    Congratulations, you have successfully converted your VHS tape to a DVD! Once the program sends you back to the main screen you'll notice that there are a lot of new options available to you.

    You can go back and take the recording you just did and save it in a different format on your hard drive, or you can burn another DVD. You'll have these options available to you until you either close the program or record something new.

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to check out my other eHow articles for more cool stuff you can do with your PC!

Resources

• Golden Video