Transferring VHS TAPES TO DVD

[marveld]

I've had lots of success using Format Factory to get large video files from my camera down to a decent size.  Free, so might be worth you trying it.

Thanks, I've installed Format Factory. A useful software package for different file conversions.

[Duke Fame]

Has anyone used a local service or done this themselves successfully? Have your 3hr (ish) VHS tapes been transferred to a 3 hour single DVD without loss of quality?

The hardware I have at home lets me record a VHS tape to DVD, but setting the DVD machine to the highest quality recording (HD), this only gives me 1 hour of VHS footage before the single layer DVD 4.7Gb size it reached. Each VHS tape therefore will yield three one-hour DVDs, which is not ideal. I don't have a Blu Ray machine.

Any tips and advice appreciated.

It can be done at home but try 'Discgotech' on Bridge Street Brow (just up from the fishmonger) - he's quite reasonable.

[Howard]

I'd second the point on quality. VHS is such poor quality, event the lowest quality of DVD compression rate won't show any noticeable loss of quality.

Just try it with a few rewritable DVDs. Record 5 minutes of the same scene at high, medium and low quality and then do a blind test. I bet no-one will notice the difference.

[marveld]

Is it necessary to set the quality to HD? The original VHS tapes aren't HD quality are they?

I'm not 100% sure about this, but my logic is to ensure you keep the original quality of the VHS tape, you record to DVD using the highest setting. I appreciate the tapes aren't super high def, but I didn't want the end result to be any worse.

I guess I could do some transferring using SHD / SP / LP etc. to see if the HD setting was significant.

[admin]

Has anyone used a local service or done this themselves successfully? Have your 3hr (ish) VHS tapes been transferred to a 3 hour single DVD without loss of quality?

The hardware I have at home lets me record a VHS tape to DVD, but setting the DVD machine to the highest quality recording (HD), this only gives me 1 hour of VHS footage before the single layer DVD 4.7Gb size it reached. Each VHS tape therefore will yield three one-hour DVDs, which is not ideal. I don't have a Blu Ray machine.

Any tips and advice appreciated.

Is it necessary to set the quality to HD? The original VHS tapes aren't HD quality are they?

[sgk]

Has anyone used a local service or done this themselves successfully? Have your 3hr (ish) VHS tapes been transferred to a 3 hour single DVD without loss of quality?

The hardware I have at home lets me record a VHS tape to DVD, but setting the DVD machine to the highest quality recording (HD), this only gives me 1 hour of VHS footage before the single layer DVD 4.7Gb size it reached. Each VHS tape therefore will yield three one-hour DVDs, which is not ideal. I don't have a Blu Ray machine.

Any tips and advice appreciated.

I've had lots of success using Format Factory to get large video files from my camera down to a decent size.  Free, so might be worth you trying it.

[marveld]

Has anyone used a local service or done this themselves successfully? Have your 3hr (ish) VHS tapes been transferred to a 3 hour single DVD without loss of quality?

The hardware I have at home lets me record a VHS tape to DVD, but setting the DVD machine to the highest quality recording (HD), this only gives me 1 hour of VHS footage before the single layer DVD 4.7Gb size it reached. Each VHS tape therefore will yield three one-hour DVDs, which is not ideal. I don't have a Blu Ray machine.

Any tips and advice appreciated.