VHS to DVD Converter

If you have a shelf full of old VHS videotapes, then you'll need a VHS to DVD converter to put all the contents of those tapes onto DVD discs. You'll be able to extend the life of all those home-movie camcorders classics. But, before we get into the process for converting VHS to DVD, we better define exactly what VHS and DVD are.

Launched in 1976, VHS stands for Video Home System, a standard format for writing video and audio to magnetic tape. It was developed by the Japanese electronic consumer-products company JVC in competition with the Betamax format developed by Sony. The fight over which would be the prevailing standard continued through the 1980s, but JVC and the VHS format won out, mainly because JVC licensed the VHS technology to other manufacturers for lower fees than Sony did for its Betamax format. VHS remained the primary videotape format through the 1990s, even against the higher-quality Laserdisc optical disc format of that time. However, after 2000, the DVD format for optical discs gradually became more and more popular, eventually supplanting VHS and videotapes as the medium for movies and home video. The last new movie titles were shipped in VHS format in 2006.

DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc, and is the current standard format for optical disc media. It was developed in 1995 as a group effort by Sony, Toshiba, Philips and Time-Warner. Though the same size as a Compact Disc (CD), the storage capacity of a DVD is much greater. There are a few different varieties of the DVD format. DVD-ROM is the one used for mass-produced DVD discs popped out by molding machines -- the data on these discs can be read, but not erased or re-written. DVD-R and DVD-R+ are blank optical disc formats that can be written to only once, after which the disc works the same way as a DVD-ROM. DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM are all writeable and erasable formats for optical discs, allowing multiple recordings and erasures.

There are three ways to get your shelf of VHS videotapes converted to DVD discs:

• Hire a private commercial service to do the conversion.
• Use hardware that combines a VHS source with a DVD writer.
• Use computer software on a PC or Mac, in combination with a VHS source and DVD writer.

» Go to Part 2

VHS to DVD Converter

Converting VHS to DVD: Hiring a Private Commercial Service, Using Specialized Hardware

Converting VHS to DVD: Using Computer Software with a VHS Source and DVD Writer

Converting VHS to DVD: the Procedure

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