# Transferring tapes to DVD...



## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

We have a bunch of home movies, both VHS and 8mm which soon will be obsolete in that there won't be anything where we can play them in. So the question is, what's the best way to transfer these to DVD? 

I know there's DVD+, DVD-, DVD +/- .... for someone who firmly needs the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) principle here, you computer folks out there, what do you recommend? I'd like to be able to transfer them onto something I can view in any DVD player I can stick it into, as opposed to the ones that only play one type (+ or -). 

Looking forward to some good suggestions!


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## criminalhate (Mar 19, 2009)

The 8mm transfer is going to be the hardest and probably the most expensive ones to do at home so you may consider sending them out to one of the many companies who specialize in it. They also do a little touching up (removing dust specks and the like) when processing them. 

Now to the slightly easier one VHS. If you have a TV tuner card or a video card with inputs you should be able to to connect a VCR (you may need some adapters to get the video and sound into the computer) to your pc and use a recording software to "record" the VHS to a digital format. Once you have it in a digital format you will need a dvd recording program to burn the DVDs. Most newer burners/players are both + and - formatted so it shouldn't matter much. Something to be aware of though not all DVD players will play burned DVDs and some will only play certain brands of DVDs that were burned. 

So in the End depending on how many home movies your trying to transfer, it may be cheaper to get one of the many companies to do it for you. 

If you have any questions I can go into more detail for you.


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## intothenew (Aug 1, 2008)

Check this out. I have an older generation of one of these that I transferred a bunch of tape with. Simple item, no editing capabilities though. You will have to transfer this to a PC, or has been mentioned, tv card in to get editing abilities.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

A couple of thoughts...... 

I looked into this a while ago. Probably the best media for long term storage is either to purchase bulk hard-drive storage (remarkably cheap now) or mini-DV tapes. Regular writeable DVD's do store an excellent digital copy of your material but they're subject to degredation with time. It's very likely that in 10 or 20 years the data will be unreadable. Also, once a DVD is unreadable there is often no possible salvage option.

Mini-DV tapes also store the data in a digital format but they're supposedly more durable.

You can get a removable hard drive now that will hold a terabyte for a little over $100. This will allow you instant access via computer and once the data is in a digital format, you can do whatever you want with it.

1 TB will hold about 1000 hours of standard quality video or about 250 hours of high-def. If you have more than this you're a true home video nut. You do risk a physical drive failure, so if you go this route you might want redundant backup. There are off-site data storage companies that will back up large quantities of digital data for a montly fee too.

For your gee-whiz file, the entire content of the library of congress would fill maybe 10 TB.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

So, let's see if I get this straight, if I get a TV tuner card or video card with inputs, I can connect the VCR via RCA jacks to my PC. Then I can record the tapes onto the PC and store it into the hard drive. Correct? 

A TB for $100!!! Wow, memory and storage prices have come down.


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