Transferring Video from Tape to DVD

by Leonard Aaron Caplan

If your family is like most, you have a closet, attic or basement full of old VHS tapes. These are bulky, probably unlabelled and take up a lot of unnecessary space! You can solve not one, but TWO problems by transferring your old videotapes to DVD. 1. You can store DVDS in a fraction of the space those tapes take up. 2. While you’re transferring your tapes, watch them and make your ID labels for your DVDs.

There are a few ways you can do this. If you’re unsure or know nothing about technology, you can look in the phonebook or on the Internet for companies that either specialize in this or offer it as just one of their many services. If you’re not afraid of connecting wires, you can buy a DVD recorder, some blank DVDs and maybe even a label printing kit to not only identify each DVD but to give your collection a more professional feel!

Everybody asks what the difference is between DVD+R and DVD-R. I could go into a long explanation, but the bottom-line is both are about equally as compatible with standard DVD players. So buy the recorder that fits your pocketbook.

People say that DVD will one day be replaced by some other format that can fit more than 4.7 gigs of video information. Don’t let this stop you from making your tape to DVD transfers. As years pass, videotapes age and deteriorate. In my own collection, some of the tapes have lines through them and tracking problems. Don’t let indecision and speculation about what new formats MAY come along in the future stop you from preserving your collection! The truth is once your tapes are on DVD they will be in a digital format. Future formats are surely going to be digital so it should be a simple matter to transfer them from DVD to whatever they may turn out to be. Oxydation and time are your videotape collection’s greatest enemies. Act now and preserve your “forever” memories!

Posted in: