VHS to DVD: Reasons to Convert

Series Summary

The general transition from VHS to DVD has left a lot of people with stacks of old tapes that they no longer watch. Whether Hollywood movies or home videos, these treasures do not have to go the way of the dinosaur. There is something that you can do to save your videos from extinction.

In this free electronics video, a professional videographer will teach you how to convert your old VHS tapes to shiny new DVDs. He will tell you what supplies you will need and how to prepare your tapes for capturing. You will learn various ways to connect your VCR to your computer. He will give you tips on using your computer to capture your old videos. He will then teach you how to edit your videos on the computer and transfer them to DVDs.

Video Transcript

"In this clip, I'll be explaining the reasons you want to convert VHS to DVD. The most important thing to understand is that by converting VHS over to DVD you aren't gaining any quality. You're not gaining increased resolution or image quality by doing so; even though DVD's can support a much higher resolution and image quality than VHS tapes can. What you're doing is increasing the life span of your video footage. VHS is an analog format; meaning over the lifespan the tape gets worn down, and loses image quality every time you play it, rewind it, or just use the tape, or don't use the tape; even though it's just sitting there in storage it's losing image quality; even though you may not notice it, after fifty years you look at it, and it's not the same. A DVD won't lose quality, and its lifespan is much longer. Now, they say that the lifespan of a DVD is about a hundred years or so, but that can't be proven without waiting a hundred years, and technology hasn't been around for that long. But I guarantee you that it will last longer than a VHS tape. Another reason to convert is convenience and storage. Looking here you can see this is a VHS tape, which you're all familiar with, and this is a spindle of fifty DVD'S. Here's five tapes, right here; make that six, and it's already considerably bigger than the fifty DVD'S, so you can store it much easier. Another reason to convert is ease of access. With VHS you have to fast forward and rewind to find certain points in the footage, and if you convert to DVD correctly then you can access different scenes and jump directly to them, so it's easier to find the footage that you've shot."