How much VHS recording can fit on a DVD?

This causes discoloration, lost quality, blurriness, and other problems. In some cases, decay can cause you to lose your memories altogether. 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.

So you need to choose which services is going to meet your needs and budget. The average cost to transfer a single 2 hour VHS tape to DVD or digital is $22. The cost for mail-in services can be as low as $12 per tape as they offer many promo deals, and local drop-off locations can charge $30 or more. The overall cost will depend on how many tapes you need to be converted.

Vintage Film Rolls: 16 mm, 8 mm, and Super 8

There are a few options to do this, but if you want to learn how to turn VHS to DVD at home, then you will need some equipment. Simply dust any exposed tape and manually twirl the spokes to loosen them up before trying to play a tape. Although Kodak released 16 mm Kodachrome film in 1935, then 8 mm film a year later, home movies didn’t really take off until the 1960s, when Kodak released Super 8. If you have mini-sized tapes (called VHS-C tapes), you might need a camcorder rather than a VCR. There are also adapters that let you insert those old VHS-C tapes into an ordinary VCR. Unfortunately, if you want to preserve that digital information , you’ll need some very specific products.

VHS Tapes are Bulky

Remember, you should probably try this process with a test tape first, ensuring you don’t lose anything in the event that your equipment malfunctions. (some units only accept one of these formats, so double-check that) into the DVD player, then begin the transfer process.

Read more about vhs to dvd conversion here.

Alternatively, you can use a projector to play your film, and a digital video camera to record the display. We don’t recommend this method as it’s tough to get a high-quality video this way. Most converters come with downloadable software to process the transfer. Before you begin the process you will want to make sure that you’ve installed that on your computer. Once the software is installed in your computer you are ready to begin. Plug the USB side of the converter into your computer and the red, white and yellow cables into your VCR. If your VCR is new enough that it has an S-Video port you can use that, as it will give you slightly better quality.