# VHS Tapes



## Thisiseasy (Aug 3, 2017)

Does anyone know of a way to convert VHS tapes to something modern? I have hundreds of VHS tapes recorded at my church and people have started asking for copies of the footage at events (weddings, funerals, etc). I have a VCR so I can watch them but wondered if there's any easy way to either copy them to DVD or make a file I can upload to YouTube and share a link.


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## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

The market is full of VHS to digital converter devices.


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## diyorpay (Sep 21, 2010)

Semi recent article:








How to Convert VHS Home Movies to DVD


If you have home movies on VHS, here's how to put them on DVD. These are the best converters, and where to convert if you'd rather have someone else handle it.




www.pcmag.com





As I recall, many of 'Hollywood' movies were protected and difficult to copy.
'Home made' movies on a VHS camcorder will work.
Process takes time as tapes play at real time speed. Recording to DVD will give you a digital copy but quality will not be up to today's.
Ripping the DVD with software to mp4 will allow editing. But quality will not improve.


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## SpentPenny (Dec 15, 2020)

If you do not want to buy/rent/borrow equipment there are hundreds of commercial services that do it for a fee. I have used Walgreens and the results were great.


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## user_12345a (Nov 23, 2014)

Thisiseasy said:


> Does anyone know of a way to convert VHS tapes to something modern? I have hundreds of VHS tapes recorded at my church and people have started asking for copies of the footage at events (weddings, funerals, etc). I have a VCR so I can watch them but wondered if there's any easy way to either copy them to DVD or make a file I can upload to YouTube and share a link.


There's always a quality loss when converting.
One advantage is that you can apply noise reduction filters, etc.

The quality loss depends on what you're using including the vcr.

The best device for the job would allow you to encode in a lossless format and have master copies you can then edit and make DVDs and youtube videos from.


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## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

diyorpay said:


> Process takes time as tapes play at real time speed.


That's a good point. OP says they have "hundreds" of tapes. At 60 or 90 minutes each, it's going to take them a long time.


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## Bob Sanders (Nov 10, 2013)

The first thing to do is get it all on your hard drive with a video capture card. A simple usb capture card is like 20 bucks. Once it's on your computer, you have several options to output it to... dvd.... usb stick.... sd card....Youtube...

You do have to do it in real time so the more computers and capture cards you involve, the less time it will take.

usb capture card:


Amazon.ca


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## bob22 (May 28, 2008)

I did one tape some months ago. Freeware was a bit buggy and I’ll have to get myself motivated to do another. Mostly trying to archive my kids school sports on tape.


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

Thisiseasy said:


> Does anyone know of a way to convert VHS tapes to something modern? I have hundreds of VHS tapes recorded at my church and people have started asking for copies of the footage at events (weddings, funerals, etc). I have a VCR so I can watch them but wondered if there's any easy way to either copy them to DVD or make a file I can upload to YouTube and share a link.



Is there a college campus close by, that has a film maker class?

There would be a perfect opportunity for students to get hands-on experience copying, editing, and re-mastering these for the cost of supplies.


ED


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## AllanJ (Nov 24, 2007)

Theoretically a video capture card that can record an analog TV show or record from an analog video camera can also record from a VCR i.e. copy the tape program of the same format as in NTSC or PAL. Inability to do that would be due to copy protection or poor quality of the video signal or poor quality of the capture card, not incompatibility with VCRs..


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