talkmagic.co.uk

I don't think I am breaking any rules by asking this, but if so, I offer my apologies.

Does anyone know the best (cheapest?) way of converting VHS to DVD? I've got a few International Magic Close Up Competition videos, a Chad Long lecture and a Larry Becker lecture that I want to convert onto DVD. Thanks.

If they're not available in digital form and won;t be, i don;t see the issue with preserving them in digital for for your own use.

I wrote an article for Computer Shopper about converting analogue media to digital last year. For video, I went with the Terratec Grabster device. The quality is good and it doesn't cost too much.

There are a million and one ways of doing this.

You can buy VHS to DVD software, which consists of a CD-ROM with an editing suite and a cable that will plug into the video and audio ports of your VHS or S-VHS player (the yellow, red and white holes) and a USB connection on the other end to your PC tower.

Once you've got the files onto your computer you can use the same program to edit them and then burn them to DVD.

The other way is if you own (or know someone who owns) a stand-alone DVD recorder. They're getting a lot more popular these days since analogue video cassettes are on the way out. DVD recorders will usually just record in real time from whichever input you shove through them so you'd just hook a regular VCR up to it, press play and record away.

Another way I can think of is if you shop around you can probably find a tech shop that offers a VHS to DVD service where they'll do it all for you for a tenner a tape or something. It's normally the little computer repair shops that do this on the side rather than big chains like PC World, but if you ask around I bet there's one in your town.

The way that I transferred my VHS tapes to DVD was to buy a player that has both DVD and VHS ports. As long as the VHS tape doesn't have the blocker chip, the machine records from one to the other.

Most of my VHS tapes allowed me to transfer the recording from one to the other, but there were a few that had the blocker on them (notably, Daryl's VHS card sleights collection doesn't allow you to do this).

Regarding copyright infringement...If you are transferring from VHS to DVD for you own, private use, it is legal. If you try to sell the VHS tapes after doing such a thing, then you are pirating. However, owning the VHS tapes allows you to do what you will, as long as it is for private use only. They are yours, you own them and you have the right to make copies to ensure that you have them for your viewing pleasure even 100 years down the road. That is your right.

After I made the transfer from VHS to DVD, I gave very careful consideration to destroying the VHS tapes...I just couldn't bring myself to do that. So, I packed them away in a box and into a closet they went.

Anyway, look around at electronic stores and see if you can't lay your hands on a VHS/DVD player that allows the copying/transferring of one product to the other. My machine, specifically, is an LG (that's the product/company name, I think).

The other way, as stated above, is to get software for your computer that will allow you to do such a thing. It is far more expensive than the DVD/VHS player that I'm talking about, but for the money, you are able to bypass the chip that stops the copying process. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Mike.

Thank you, all. Some very helpful info there.

Our VCR has kicked the bucket and I don't really want to go out and buy a new one just so I can watch a few tapes. Of course, this also means PC conversion software is no good to me without a working VCR. And for the same reason a DVD recorder would be no help either. That's the reason why I want to have them converted to DVD. They would definitely be for my own use and I have no intention of selling the tapes afterwards; on the contrary, I was going to retire them to the attic for all eternity, never to see the light of day again! Muwaahahaha!!

Ahem.

Anyway, I found this site...

http://www.transfervideo.co.uk

...who will convert my tapes for £5 per hour of footage. Seems reasonable, I guess. But then I would also have to pay postage charges for sending them the tapes and for them to be returned to me afterwards. I've been looking at International Magic's website and they are charging £25 each for the DVDs; seeing as the duration of the tapes is about 2-3 hours each, I'm thinking it wouldn't be that much more for me to just buy the DVDs from IM and be done with it.

Actually, that's an idea. It would give me an excuse to visit the shop....

I recently bought a DVD/Video/hard-drive 3 in 1 combi system that copies video to DVD etc, so if you find it's too expensive, I'd gladly do it for free - you'd just need to pay all the postage costs, etc .

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?KW-VSUSB
how cheep is a vhs+dvd recorder then?.

magicdiscoman wrote:http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?KW-VSUSB
how cheep is a vhs+dvd recorder then?.

I paid $80.00 (40 pounds, roughly) - you found the better deal!

Mike.

I used these people to convert my old baby videos to DVD for my mums birthday, I know a few other people who've used them too and they've always been really good.

http://www.convertmyvideo.co.uk

Thanks, Lommy. It's always good to get personal recommendations; I'll check them out.