When it comes to converting your old VHS tapes to digital you might think it is quite a complicated process. In fact, it isn’t and it’s one of the easiest ways you can preserve your favourite memories without spending any money. The reason why it isn’t as complex as you may think is because all you need is a computer, a DVD burner, and a good picture to start with. Digital video recorders (DVRs) have revolutionized home video preservation allowing you to enjoy your home movies again for less money than ever before.

Why VHS to DVD Conversion is Important

VHS to digital software and converters can help you preserve your family memories no matter how rare they are. You should think of converting your VHS tapes not as something you are doing once but rather something you are doing for the long term. It is important that you do not burn in your VHS tapes but instead choose to preserve them on DVDs. Converting your old tapes to digital storage media can be time consuming but the results can be priceless.

Use Less Space

You can even store five times more data on one DVD than on fifty tapes. Imagine if you had five digital video recorder tapes stored on one DVD! That would be like one terabyte of information! This is far more than the amount of data on an average sized DVD player so you will be able to store your valuable memories on a much larger scale. A great way to get started with this is by finding out which formats are best for recording on VHS.

Old School Formats

The most popular old school format for VHS to DVD conversion is called “video8” or “super 8”. There are actually three different versions of this tape format, video, super eight and happy. The most recent was designed and developed by Intermatic Corporation, but the older version is still in production and is known as “freed videopro”.

Accessible To All

One disadvantage of using video cassette tapes is that it is very difficult to convert them into digital form. There are special software programs available to do this, but they can be very expensive. Fortunately there are now affordable alternatives. They are USB video-capture devices that are available from several online retailers.

Summary

Although these can be used for VHS to DVD conversions, they really just serve as a cheaper alternative to the more expensive, but still good audio/video transfer devices such as the RCA DVDs and the Vitaflex CDs. They can, however, be used for copying video from your webcam to a DVD disc. Digital video capture devices are also excellent if you need to burn a movie and only have the video on one hard drive, although for multi-media enthusiasts converting to VHS to digital is probably the best option.