How To Convert VHS to DVD Maryland

VHS tapes and technology like VCRs are becoming extinct with the advent of DVD and digital media. This article gives you some tips on how to conert your old VHS tapes to DVDs so you don't lose any of your favorite movies.

Local Companies

Hawkins Home Electronics
410-543-9883
620 Naylor Mill Road Unit 2B
Salisbury, MD
Chesapeake Smart Homes
410-604-3600
337 Log Canoe Circle
Stevensville, MD
Branch Electric Supply Co
(301) 791-1300
Hagerstown, MD
Specialty Plastics Co Inc
(410) 356-7700
9 Gynns Mill Ct
Pikesville, MD
Arrow Electrical Supply Co Inc
(410) 939-8030
128 E Pulaski Hwy
Elkton, MD
Maurice Lighting Designers Inc
(301) 468-7300
981 Rollins Ave
Rockville, MD
Hagemeyer North America
(410) 295-6645
161 Gibralter Ave
Annapolis, MD
Hagemeyer North America
(410) 761-2870
114 Roesler Rd
Glen Burnie, MD
Tyco Electronics
(301) 388-0523
13102 Buccaneer Rd
Silver Spring, MD
E D Supply Co Inc
(410) 643-8222
2134 Didonato Dr # A
Chester, MD

Provided By:

Tips

  • Clean the tape heads on your analog VCR or camcorder. Older tapes, especially, can deposit a lot of residue on the heads, resulting in dropouts and other picture flaws.
  • If your VHS VCR has a sharpness control, turn it down. A softer image has less noise and that enables the MPEG-2 encoder to do a much better job. Some tape players also have an "Edit" button which affects playback sharpness. Put it in the position that provides less sharpness.
  • Connect a video processor to the output of your analog tape player and then connect the output of the processor to your capture device. So-called "proc amps" and timebase correctors (TBC's) provide tools for stabilizing analog video, changing brightness and contrast levels and adjusting color. Just being able to adjust levels and color can result in a DVD that looks much better than the original VHS tape.
  • If your want to convert Hi8 and 8mm to DVD, one of the best ways to import it into your computer is with a Digital 8 camcorder. Several models of D8 camcorders can playback analog tapes and convert them to DV and have built in digital noise reduction and TBC's to clean up the analog video before it's converted to DV and sent to your computer via the Firewire cable.
  • If you transfer two hours of VHS to a DVD it can result in a significant loss of quality unless you have a high quality MPEG-2 encoder or use methods that encode the video at "half resolution." The normal DVD video resolution is 720x480 for NTSC, but some encoders and DVD authoring programs allow you to use 352x480 resolution. When you convert VHS to DVD this smaller resolution can still deliver very good results at the low data rates (bitrates) required to fit two or more hours of video on one DVD, especially if you use an analog-to-MPEG2 encoder or a standalone VHS to DVD recorder that bypasses the analog-to-DV step.

Steps

  1. Capture the VHS video to a computer video editing program using an analog-to-DV converter (which includes many DV/Digital8 camcorders as well as standalone analog-to-DV converters), encode it to MPEG-2 and author a DVD, This is the most time-consuming method but it gives you the flexibility to edit the video as much as you want, adding transitions, special effects, music, etc. But, between the capture time, the editing time and the often considerable time it takes for software encoding to MPEG-2, this can result in several hours of work for your computer - and you - for each hour of video.
  2. Capture the video to the computer as MPEG-2 using hardware capture devices that convert the VHS to MPEG-2 as they capture and then author and burn a DVD. A one-hour video is captured and compressed to MPEG-2 in one hour, but you are generally limited to doing "cuts-only" editing of the MPEG-2 files. However, if your original tape doesn't need editing this is a fast way to convert VHS to DVD, but still have the flexibility to create custom DVD menus. Many of the inexpensive hardware analog-to-MPEG boxes can deliver very good quality, in part because the analog source video does not have to be converted to DV before being encoded to MPEG. Converting VHS to DV can add artifacts that make it harder to get good MPEG compression.
  3. Connect your VHS VCR or camcorder to a standalone DVD recorder that works much like a VCR. This VHS to DVD recorder basically gives you a DVD copy of your tape in real time. You don't have a lot of flexibility as far as menus, buttons and chapter settings, but it's the fastest and easiest way to convert VHS to DVD. If you get a "DVD VCR" with Firewire connections you can plug a DV/Digital8/DVCAM camcorder or VCR into it and transfer the tapes to DVD at even higher quality than by using the analog connections.

Warnings

  • If you do convert your analog video to DV before putting it on DVD, don't be shocked when you see the size of the DV file it captures to your computer. DV files take up almost 14 gigabytes per hour.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Convert a VHS to DVD. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Featured Local Company

Hawkins Home Electronics

410-543-9883
620 Naylor Mill Road Unit 2B
Salisbury, MD

Related Articles
- Digital Imaging Explained Maryland
If you want to know more about the digital imaging process, read on. This article goes through digital imaging step-by-step so you can understand what's going on when you take digital photos and then tranfer them and store them.
- Converting to DVD NYC Quality Maryland
- How To Transfer VHS to DVD Maryland
- DVR Through Your Computer Maryland
- Converting WAV to MP3 Maryland
- Samsung Digimax I6 PMP Maryland
- Learning A New Programming Language Maryland
- Sharing iPod Music Maryland
- DTV Receiver Maryland
Regional Articles
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Annapolis MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Baltimore MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Bel Air MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Beltsville MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Bethesda MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Bowie MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Brooklyn MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Capitol Heights MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Catonsville MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Chevy Chase MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Clinton MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Cockeysville MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD College Park MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Columbia MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Crofton MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Cumberland MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Derwood MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD District Heights MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Dundalk MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Edgewood MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Elkridge MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Elkton MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Ellicott City MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Essex MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Forest Hill MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Fort Washington MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Frederick MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Frostburg MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Gaithersburg MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Germantown MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Glen Burnie MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Greenbelt MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Gwynn Oak MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Hagerstown MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Halethorpe MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Havre De Grace MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Hyattsville MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Jessup MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Joppa MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Kensington MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD La Plata MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Lanham MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Laurel MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Lexington Park MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Lusby MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Lutherville Timonium MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Middle River MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Millersville MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Montgomery Village MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Mount Airy MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Nottingham MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Odenton MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Olney MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Owings Mills MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Oxon Hill MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Parkville MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Pasadena MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Pikesville MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Potomac MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Randallstown MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Reisterstown MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Rockville MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Rosedale MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Salisbury MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Severn MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Severna Park MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Silver Spring MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Suitland MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Sykesville MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Takoma Park MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Temple Hills MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Towson MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Upper Marlboro MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Waldorf MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Westminster MD
- How To Convert VHS to DVD Windsor Mill MD
Related Articles
- Learning A New Programming Language Maryland
If you're learning a new computer programming language, the process can be difficult. In the following article, you'll learn some helpful hints that will make the process run smoothly and efficiently.
- DTV Receiver Maryland
- How To Transfer VHS to DVD Maryland
- Converting WAV to MP3 Maryland
- Converting to DVD NYC Quality Maryland
- Samsung Digimax I6 PMP Maryland
- DVR Through Your Computer Maryland
- Sharing iPod Music Maryland
- Digital Imaging Explained Maryland

Rss   Delicious   Digg   Add To My Yahoo   Add To My Google   Bookmark   Search Plugin

Topics:
Advertising Family Home Services Real Estate Resources
Business Services Fashion Industrial Goods & Services Retail & Consumer Services
Career Financial Services Insurance Software
Cars Food & Beverage Internet Technology
Computer Hardware Franchise Legal Telecommunications
Construction Health Miscellaneous Trade Shows
Education Holidays Nightlife Travel
Entertainment Home Appliances Online Database Weddings
Environmental Home Electronics Pets World History