A simple and affordable way to convert your old VHS and Beta tapes to DVD, or other digital video formats.

Do it Yourself or Outsource it?

In our post  What Do You Do With Your Videos? we wrote about gathering your older video tapes with the idea you might want to convert them to DVD or a digital format.

Once you know what you have you can decide either, do it yourself or outsource to the professionals. In some cases you won't have a choice because it will be a job for the professionals simply based on specialized equipment needed.

Remember, VHS, Beta and other cassette tapes will degrade over time. Video quality can drop significantly in 15 to 20 years. Convert your VHS and other tapes to DVD or digital file while there is something still on the tape, or you will forever wish you had.

There are a few software programs that are packaged with the equipment that will convert your VHS and Beta tapes. You can also purchase VHS-DVD combination players that allow you to record your VHS to DVD, but not all combination players will record one to the other, they are just players.

Software

I use honestech VHS to DVD 3.0 Deluxe. It is easy to use and it doesn't cost very much. I have converted VHS, Beta, VHS-C, mm8, and mini DV tapes with little effort or expense. The key is to have a machine to play your tape on, it could be a camera or a video tape player.

If you plan on going this way, be sure to read the system requirements on the package before you purchase.

Important Note to the Reader

This isn't a review, it is the way I converted my older VHS and Beta tapes to a digital format. In recent years I have had a lot of coaches asking how to convert their older tapes. They often have a lot so outsourcing can be expensive. I often gave them this alternative. There are other software and hardware alternatives out there, and more and more everyday as this service is becoming very popular. This is the system I use. As a coach not having a lot of time to invest in learning all this technical stuff it works great.

Steps to Convert Using Honestech

Once you have the software and equipment the process of converting your old VHS and Beta tapes to DVD or a digital format is simple.

First you will need to select what it is you want to do. Your choices are;

easy Wizard Mode will transfer your video tape to DVD in a few clicks;

advanced Mode lets you capture, edit and burn your video.

Next you will be asked to insert a blank DVD in your computers DVD drive.

Select how you plan to connect to the software.

Make sure everything is connect as shown in the picture.

Press play on your video player and see if you can see the video play in the software program on your computer. If it plays you are good to go.

Click next, to pick the video quality. Click next again and then click on record. The program will go through a recording process and then burn to your DVD.

When the converting process is complete you will be notified with a message appearing on your computer screen.

I hope this helps. The bottom line is, there are a lot of coaches that have a treasure trove of VHS and Beta tapes I have heard of coaches paying as much as $50 a VHS tape. For one tape that might be ok, but if you have 10, 20 or more it will add up. I just wanted to give coaches in this situation an alternative to explore.

It has worked for me. But I still need to outsource some of the more challenging video formats.