Tom’s Guide is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. If you have old reels of film in the attic packed in iconic yellow Kodak boxes, they’re probably Regular 8 or Super 8 film. As a bonus, we’ve included advice on how to make sure the video you’re capturing today is still easy to read a few years—or decades—from now. You might also like to know how toconvert vinyl to digital. Or even your local Craigslist, though we recommend caution if you go those routes — always make sure your eBay seller has high review scores before proceeding.
Another option is to import the MP4 video into your iTunes library, then connect your phone to your computer and drag and drop the file from your library to the device. Then, if you have an Android device, look for a notification for USB options as – by default – it will only charge and not allow file transfers. The options will vary between Android devices, but once you’ve set the USB mode for file transfers, you should see it appear as a new drive in Windows File Explorer. If you decide that you do want to preserve some VHS tapes for posterity, you’ll need a VHS video player, so if you’ve already got rid of your old one you’re going to have to borrow or buy one. With Movavi Video Editor, you’ll be able to record a video from your VHS tapes and edit your recordings.
Prepare VHS Videotapes
It comes with its own video-capture software, and outputs at 640 x 480. Use the software that came with the video converter to “record” the videotape to a digital file. To convert from VCR to digital you’ll need quality VHS capture software. We like Movavi’s VHS Converter, which is ideal for converting VHS to digital, solving common problems and making sure the transfer and digital copy are as good as they can possibly be. If you’re sitting on a collection of Digital 8, miniDV, or the short-lived D-VHS, you’re probably wondering what can be done to make these recordings more easily viewable. Like their analog cousins, these formats will also degrade over time, so don’t let the word “digital” lull you into a false sense of security.
Movavi Video Editor takes you through the entire process, connecting to your VCR to digital capture card or device, converting the VHS video to digital and even enabling you to add special effects. After you save your converted videos to digital files, make sure they’re a part of your computer’s regular backup or put a copy of them in a cloud service like Dropbox or OneDrive. After you go through all the trouble of converting your videotapes, you wouldn’t want to lose them to a failed hard drive or broken computer. Converting VHS tapes to DVDs is a great way to preserve, share and enhance those old home videos that may not be aging very gracefully.
Burning DVD Disc
Here are three different ways to put those VHS tapes on your computer, or burn them onto discs if you have a DVD player. Wondering where to watch “Crossroads,” 20 years after its premiere? It’s not available on most streaming services, and the thrill of a rewatch is accessible only to those with an original copy and a DVD player.
How can I convert VHS to digital without a VCR?
Digitizing will happen in real-time, meaning you’ll have to painstakingly sit through the entire length of footage before you can finish up the project. Once it’s done, however, the contents will be forever preserved in digital format. Evolving technology has left many of us with our own videos in older formats.
Read more about transfer vhs to dvd here.
Depending on where you live there may be several local video transfer services that do the actual transfer themselves and don’t ship your tapes to another service. Transfer of videotape to both USB and DVD at Costco will cost $29.99 for the first 2 hours and $22.99 for each additional hour. This option is ideal for people that want to watch their videos on DVD but also want the videos stored on USB for easy transfer to a computer. Legacy Box uses a one-size-fits-all pricing structure when it comes to digitization.