Home movies can be recorded on tapes in either Standard Play mode for the best quality, or Long Play and Extended Play for longer recordings at a lower quality. In 1983 Sony released a consumer camcorder, called Betamovie, that used a small Betamax cassette tape and gave consumers instant access to their recordings—no processing fees required. Once you have your gear collected, connect the camcorder to the computer using the IEEE 1394 cable and follow the instructions that came with your camcorder. Once the tapes have been transferred, they will be in uncompressed digital video files, which can be huge. Using a program like Handbrake, you’ll be able to compress them with virtually no loss of quality but with significantly smaller file sizes. This process is more involved and requires a few additional materials, but it has its benefits. You can then copy and save the files wherever you’d like and transfer them to DVDs or Blu-rays.
Elgato USB Analog Video Capture
All of your videos will get transferred to a single USB stick, there is no time limit. Press “Pause” on the DVD recorder and fast-forward the VCR/camcorder through parts you want to edit out.
Time-Based Corrector
If you head to the YesVideo website, you’ll find conversion services starting from $30 per tape for the first two hours, and then an additional $30 for every two additionalhours of converting. But the price you pay at Walmart or Target could be lower. These prices have been trending upward in recent years, so if you’ve been waiting to get your tapes converted, you might want to get on it.
But we still hold dear weddings, childbirths, first steps kept in VHS format. Unfortunately, magnetic videocassette tapes crumble within several decades or their quality degrade. To extend the life of your videos from VHS tapes, you’d better convert old videocassettes to the DVD format. These prices are quite reasonable compared to other conversion services on the market.
Upgrade your lifestyleDigital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of tech with all the latest news, fun product reviews, insightful editorials, and one-of-a-kind sneak peeks. Under the “Sources” panel on the bottom, click the plus sign and choose “Video Capture Device” from the list. Choose “Create New,” naming it whatever you want, and click OK. Then, from the “Device” drop-down in the next window, find the option for your VCR’s adapter—mine was called “AV TO USB2.0”. The main window may look a little scary, but don’t worry—you only have to do a few things to record basic video.
Read more about change vhs to dvd here.