How to Convert VHS to DVD

Converting home videos to DVD is a great way to preserve,
share and enhance those old tapes that may be aging not too gracefully and
"do it yourself" tape to DVD conversion can be easy and affordable.

If you want to transfer VHS to DVD, several options
exist for the VHS to DVD conversion and, if done right, the DVD's can
look even better than the original VHS tapes (for simplicity sake I use
VHS, but this process also applies to VHS-C, SVHS, Hi8, regular, even
Beta).

There are a few methods to convert VHS to DVD:

- Capture the VHS video to a computer video editing
program using an analog-to-DV converter (which includes many DV/Digital8
camcorders as well as standalone analog-to-DV converters), encode it to
MPEG-2 and author a DVD, This is the most time-consuming method but it
gives you the flexibility to edit the video as much as you want, adding
transitions, special effects, music, etc. But, between the capture time,
the editing time and the often considerable time it takes for software
encoding to MPEG-2, this can result in several hours of work for your
computer - and you - for each hour of video.

- Capture the video to the computer as MPEG-2 using
hardware capture devices that convert the VHS to MPEG-2 as they capture
and then author and burn a DVD. A one-hour video is captured and compressed
to MPEG-2 in one hour, but you are generally limited to doing "cuts-only"
editing of the MPEG-2 files. However, if your original tape doesn't need
editing this is a fast way to convert VHS to DVD, but still have the flexibility
to create custom DVD menus. Many of the inexpensive hardware analog-to-MPEG
boxes can deliver very good quality, in part because the analog source
video does not have to be converted to DV before being encoded to MPEG.
Converting VHS to DV can add artifacts that make it harder to get good
MPEG compression.

- Connect your VHS VCR or camcorder to a standalone
DVD recorder that works much like a VCR. This VHS to DVD recorder basically
gives you a DVD copy of your tape in real time. You don't have a lot of
flexibility as far as menus, buttons and chapter settings, but it's the
fastest and easiest way to convert VHS to DVD. If you get a "DVD VCR"
with Firewire connections you can plug a DV/Digital8/DVCAM camcorder or
VCR into it and transfer the tapes to DVD at even higher quality than
by using the analog connections.

No matter which method you use, you need to ensure
that the analog video has the highest quality possible: flaws in the original
video may be greatly magnified when you encode it to MPEG-2 and convert
it to DVD.

Some points to keep in mind for better quality
DVD's:

- Clean the tape heads on your analog VCR or camcorder.
Older tapes, especially, can deposit a lot of residue on the heads, resulting
in dropouts and other picture flaws.

- If your VHS VCR has a sharpness control, turn it
down. A softer image has less noise and that enables the MPEG-2 encoder
to do a much better job. Some tape players also have an "Edit" button
which affects playback sharpness. Put it in the position that provides
less sharpness.

- Connect a video processor to the output of your
analog tape player and then connect the output of the processor to your
capture device. So-called "proc amps" and timebase correctors (TBC's)
provide tools for stabilizing analog video, changing brightness and contrast
levels and adjusting color. Just being able to adjust levels and color
can result in a DVD that looks much better than the original VHS tape.

- If your want to convert Hi8 and 8mm to DVD, one
of the best ways to import it into your computer is with a Digital 8 camcorder.
Several models of D8 camcorders can playback analog tapes and convert
them to DV and have built in digital noise reduction and TBC's to clean
up the analog video before it's converted to DV and sent to your computer
via the Firewire cable.

- If you transfer two hours of VHS to a DVD it can
result in a significant loss of quality unless you have a high quality
MPEG-2 encoder or use methods that encode the video at "half resolution."
The normal DVD video resolution is 720x480 for NTSC, but some encoders
and DVD authoring programs allow you to use 352x480 resolution. When you
convert VHS to DVD this smaller resolution can still deliver very good
results at the low data rates (bitrates) required to fit two or more hours
of video on one DVD, especially if you use an analog-to-MPEG2 encoder
or a standalone VHS to DVD recorder that bypasses the analog-to-DV step.

- Try to use compressed audio on your DVD's. Uncompressed
- PCM - audio takes up a lot of space on the DVD that could better be
used for higher-quality video. Dolby Digital/AC3 is the best choice for
audio compression.

A warning: if you do convert your analog video to
DV before putting it on DVD, don't be shocked when you see the size of
the DV file it captures to your computer. DV files take up almost 14 gigabytes
per hour and at least once a week I answer a question from someone who
wants to know how in the world they're supposed to fit a 14GB movie on
a 4.7GB DVD? That's what the MPEG-2 encoder does: it compresses the video
to a much smaller size so that video, audio and menus all fit on a DVD
(which actually holds 4.37GB of computer data).