OT: Best Method for Converting VHS to DVD

[Nittany Ziggy]

I have some professionally produced documentaries (including one on JoePa with Keith Jackson) that I want to preserve/convert to DVD. I have an old Panasonic VHS/DVD player that does the job but it is old and the resolution is terrible. I prefer to not mail them away and want to use a local business. Does anyone have any tips on what types of questions to ask to ensure that I am getting the highest quality results using the latest technology? Thanks in advance.

 

[psuro]

Where do you live that would constitute as "local"?

 

[mlvnsmly]

DVD is obsolete also. You need to get them on a PC and back them up online.

 

[Nittany Ziggy]

Where do you live that would constitute as "local"?

Pittsburgh and suburbs would be local for me.

 

[Nitwit97]

I agree with the other poster - don’t bother going to DVD, have them saved and downloaded.

 

[brupsu]

Honestech.com This worked for me.You basically hook your vhs player to your laptop.Play the vhs and record to DVDs.I would imagine there is a newer version that may be faster than the original.Quality seemed to be pretty good.

 

[tez101]

You should upload these videos to YouTube and share them with your fellow psu fans.

 

[Nittany Ziggy]

Where do you live that would constitute as "local"?

DVD is obsolete also. You need to get them on a PC and back them up online.

Pittsburgh and suburbs would be local for me.

I agree with the other poster - don’t bother going to DVD, have them saved and downloaded.

Honestech.com This worked for me.You basically hook your vhs player to your laptop.Play the vhs and record to DVDs.I would imagine there is a newer version that may be faster than the original.Quality seemed to be pretty good.

You should upload these videos to YouTube and share them with your fellow psu fans.

I used Costco's conversion service and then burned the DVD's to a removable hard drive for backup.

Thank you for all of the replies. I will most certainly have my tapes converted to a digital format that makes them “thumb drive” portable.

Does anyone know about “upscaling” or resolution enhancement and what is the best “commercially available” technology (for a project like this)? I am willing to pay for studio quality work but want to do so as an educated consumer.

 

[Big 0]

I am currently converting all of our old home videotapes to digital. Going to burn some to DVD to use as Christmas gifts for family members. I have a higher end Sony VHS player that I use to play the tapes in order to convert them to video. Have the 60mm video camera and player for the old 60mm tapes from the 1990’s.

I use Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus software that comes with composite video to USB hardware to record the old tapes to my PC and then convert the video to MPEG 2 files. I then use PowerDirector 16 software to clean up and edit the video (fix lighting, color, noise, etc. as well as trim the video and add transitions between the different segments). This was needed for the home videos, but probably not so much with commercial tapes. You can also find decent free editing software such as VSDC and authoring software to burn your videos to a disc such as DVD Flick.

 

[Pinkhippo PeanutButter]

Joe Paterno working the 1974 OSU vs Michigan B10 game with Keith Jackson