Have you converted your old home/VHS movies to other formats?

Trying to get rid of all of our old stuff, we just have so many of the kids' ball games and band competitions (and rock band rehearsals LOL) on VHS. But I don't want anymore VHS players, they just don't play nice with the new HDTVs

My husband converted his parents' old VHS home movies to DVD a while back....but he does video-related stuff for a living.

I have one or two home videos leftover. The highlight is about two hours worth of driving around east Memphis during the 94 ice storm. Lots of uprooted old trees. I think I'm gonna have to find a way to watch that, since I no longer own a VCR. Great memories, yet a horrible few weeks for most, including myself. Seemed like that should have gotten more national attention.

What else would I have? Beta?

(02-25-2014 07:23 PM)TigerBill Wrote:  What else would I have? Beta?

Good one!

I do have a Beta in storage that belonged to my father in law.

For someone who made a living in technology he sure made some funny choices at times.

I've got one somewhere. Haven't used it in years. Don't know if it still works.

(02-26-2014 12:19 PM)UofM_Tiger Wrote:  I've got one somewhere. Haven't used it in years. Don't know if it still works.

I just wonder how long the tapes last. Some of ours are easily over 20-25 years old.

I've got one, but the clock is still flashing 12:00, 12:00,12:00.

(02-26-2014 10:12 AM)Tiger46 Wrote:  

(02-25-2014 07:23 PM)TigerBill Wrote:  What else would I have? Beta?

Good one!

I do have a Beta in storage that belonged to my father in law.

For someone who made a living in technology he sure made some funny choices at times.

Well I will up that one, I need a beta, never transferred all my tapes over to vhs, so looking for one to put over to dvd. I do have vhs left, will trade someone.

(02-26-2014 12:29 PM)KRB Wrote:  I've got one, but the clock is still flashing 12:00, 12:00,12:00.

classic

(02-26-2014 10:12 AM)Tiger46 Wrote:  

(02-25-2014 07:23 PM)TigerBill Wrote:  What else would I have? Beta?

Good one!

I do have a Beta in storage that belonged to my father in law.

For someone who made a living in technology he sure made some funny choices at times.

Re: Funny choice.
Actually, not a surprising choice from someone that knows their technology. Betamax is a superior recording format over VHS due to higher resolution, superior sound, and a more stable image. Betamax recorders were also of higher quality construction. But these differences were negligible to most consumers, and thus did not justify the higher price and shorter recording time.

Re: OP.
I still have a VCR, and still pull out my old tapes occasionally. Classics are still classics. Stored properly all your old tapes should be fine. I recently converted a VHS tape (video camera home movie* from 1983) to DVD format with no problem. (*You can't make copies of most commercially made VCR movies due to copy-protection encoding.) I convert my own. There are commercial services that will do it for you. I'm not sure about price, but 'do it yourself' is going to cost you also. Besides time and effort, you'll need the hardware. If you have a DVD writer on your PC, all you need is an analog-to-digital transfer device. Connect the VCR to the PC via the transfer device, record the VHS video to the PC's hard drive, and then write the recorded video to DVD using the PC's DVD writer. Note: Although you now have 'Jenny's Wedding' on DVD, the quality of the source material determines the quality of the recording. For example: If 'Jenny's Wedding' was recorded on VHS-EP with bad lighting, simply putting it on a DVD won't get you DVD quality. It will however get you all the conveniences of discs over tapes. Of course another option is a DVD recorder (if you can find one), but that means more hardware. I prefer converting primarily to my PC, and storing everything 'in the cloud'. That way there are no tapes, tape players, discs, or disc players. Everything is always organized and just a few 'clicks' away. Also it's easy to share 'in the cloud', and you can always make hard copies if needed.

And yes, the old Betamax still thinks it's 12:00...

I thought the VCR "encoding" was simply those little tabs on the sides. Cover them up with tape and you could copy all day long.

(02-26-2014 06:43 PM)wildbill4UM Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 10:12 AM)Tiger46 Wrote:  

(02-25-2014 07:23 PM)TigerBill Wrote:  What else would I have? Beta?

Good one!

I do have a Beta in storage that belonged to my father in law.

For someone who made a living in technology he sure made some funny choices at times.

Re: Funny choice.
Actually, not a surprising choice from someone that knows their technology. Betamax is a superior recording format over VHS due to higher resolution, superior sound, and a more stable image. Betamax recorders were also of higher quality construction. But these differences were negligible to most consumers, and thus did not justify the higher price and shorter recording time.

Re: OP.
I still have a VCR, and still pull out my old tapes occasionally. Classics are still classics. Stored properly all your old tapes should be fine. I recently converted a VHS tape (video camera home movie* from 1983) to DVD format with no problem. (*You can't make copies of most commercially made VCR movies due to copy-protection encoding.) I convert my own. There are commercial services that will do it for you. I'm not sure about price, but 'do it yourself' is going to cost you also. Besides time and effort, you'll need the hardware. If you have a DVD writer on your PC, all you need is an analog-to-digital transfer device. Connect the VCR to the PC via the transfer device, record the VHS video to the PC's hard drive, and then write the recorded video to DVD using the PC's DVD writer. Note: Although you now have 'Jenny's Wedding' on DVD, the quality of the source material determines the quality of the recording. For example: If 'Jenny's Wedding' was recorded on VHS-EP with bad lighting, simply putting it on a DVD won't get you DVD quality. It will however get you all the conveniences of discs over tapes. Of course another option is a DVD recorder (if you can find one), but that means more hardware. I prefer converting primarily to my PC, and storing everything 'in the cloud'. That way there are no tapes, tape players, discs, or disc players. Everything is always organized and just a few 'clicks' away. Also it's easy to share 'in the cloud', and you can always make hard copies if needed.

And yes, the old Betamax still thinks it's 12:00...

Great info. I'm not worried about copying movies, those are easily purchased for $5 here and there. I am more concerned about personal stuff like weddings, ball games, family reunions, graduations and some videos that have my dearly departed relatives in some of their finest moments.

Someone at work told me that Walgreen's will do this for you, and I've seen a guy advertise in a monthly magazine that he can transfer any media to DVD. Thought about buying the computer interface or a VHS/DVD recorder, but figure a professional has much faster equipment.

So what's next after DVD? Having everything stored on a server or in the cloud?

I've got a VHS/DVD recorder combo unit pop the tape in deck 1 drop a blank DVD in deck 2 and hit the copy button. I was just given about 75 VHS tapes with old tiger games on them that I'm slowly working through

(02-25-2014 07:23 PM)TigerBill Wrote:  What else would I have? Beta?

What is this Beta, VHS, and DVD you guys speak of? I still shoot and watch my Super 8 movies with a projector. I hate it every time the splice breaks!!!

(03-01-2014 10:37 PM)tigerjeb Wrote:  I've got a VHS/DVD recorder combo unit pop the tape in deck 1 drop a blank DVD in deck 2 and hit the copy button. I was just given about 75 VHS tapes with old tiger games on them that I'm slowly working through

I have been tempted to buy one of those, how long does the transfer take?

1:1. Real time

(03-04-2014 08:42 PM)tigerjeb Wrote:  1:1. Real time

Ouch, so let's see, about 50 home movies, two hours each so about 100 hours carry the one, nah I think I'll hire someone.

Although if my wife were to go on a trip for about a week I think I could get it done. Buy two machines and maybe I'm in business.

I have the Roxio VHS to DVD, but have barely begun converting a VHS library of over 600 we began in the early 80's overseas including a boat load of TV series like MASH A to Z. So, ya, I got a VHS player and a sizable project, among others, for retirement.

(03-05-2014 12:05 PM)Tiger46 Wrote:  

(03-04-2014 08:42 PM)tigerjeb Wrote:  1:1. Real time

Ouch, so let's see, about 50 home movies, two hours each so about 100 hours carry the one, nah I think I'll hire someone.

Although if my wife were to go on a trip for about a week I think I could get it done. Buy two machines and maybe I'm in business.

you dont HAVE to sit there and watch them as they transfer you know