Converting 6-8 hr VHS tapes to DVD

[Mayr_77]

Hi
1)
No one seems to talk about the 6-8 hour VHS tapes that were used in 'the olden days'. I have a number of them with family movies on them and want to transfer them to DVD.
Since a DVD only has a 2 hour capacity, does one just plug in another DVD when the time comes? Is there a compression factor that can "make" the VHS format smaller? I just can't see how that would be possible.
2)
I could do the transfer with my own DVD burner and old VHS machine but do stores provide this service with these longer format tapes? It would be big bucks, I would imagine.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Mayr_77

 

[PhilFrisbie]

First, DVDs can hold more than 2 hours. Just like VHS tapes, they have a high quality setting that hold up to 2 hours, but they have other modes that allow them to hold up to 6 hours, and some machines support up to 10 hours.

Just like VHS, the more hours you put on a single DVD the lower the video quality. Since you are transferring form VHS that should not effect you very much.

Your DVD recorder should support modes up to 6 hours.

 

[Mayr_77]

First, DVDs can hold more than 2 hours. Just like VHS tapes, they have a high quality setting that hold up to 2 hours, but they have other modes that allow them to hold up to 6 hours, and some machines support up to 10 hours.

Just like VHS, the more hours you put on a single DVD the lower the video quality. Since you are transferring form VHS that should not effect you very much.

Your DVD recorder should support modes up to 6 hours.

Thank you PhilFrisbie! I really didn't know that. And I take it from your answer that 'since I am transferring from VHS that should not effect you very much'.....you are saying the quality won't be great, HD kind of DVD that one is used to with movie quality DVDs.
Is that correct?

Actually being family movies, I'll just be happy to be able to have them to show in the future and laugh at how we all looked in the past! regardless of the quality. If they look like the VHS looks, that's fine.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[FALC0N]

Console DVD recorders are good for this. Some have a setting where you specify the time of the recording and it adjust quality accordingly. You can then rip the video to your computer if you wish. Finding a good one isn't easy though.

 

[Mayr_77]

Best answer selected by Mayr_77.

 

[PhilFrisbie]

Thank you PhilFrisbie! I really didn't know that. And I take it from your answer that 'since I am transferring from VHS that should not effect you very much'.....you are saying the quality won't be great, HD kind of DVD that one is used to with movie quality DVDs.
Is that correct?

Actually being family movies, I'll just be happy to be able to have them to show in the future and laugh at how we all looked in the past! regardless of the quality. If they look like the VHS looks, that's fine.

Thanks for your advice.

Yes, the quality of long play VHS tapes are not very good to begin with, so they will look about the same at a lower DVD quality setting.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

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