Sidebar blog
Post Date
July,
18
2024
VHS tapes degrade up to 20% between 10 and 25 years.
Let me remind you (Although you probably won't enjoy it) that 10 years ago was 2014, and 25 years ago was 1999.
Given the rise of digital and disc media from 2006, almost every single VHS that anyone currently own today WILL be degraded.
This includes everything from VHS box sets of Tom and Jerry to your own home videos and taped weddings or childhood memories.
Given the degradation range for VHS tapes and how long its been since the final VHS was produced, it's more important than ever to make converting VHS to digital easy for everyone!
Use the methods below to save the media before it's too late, and protect it from any further degradation. Remember, in 2031 all VHS tapes in existence will be in degradation
1) Windows PC Converter for VHS to DVD
VHS to Computer
The most common and accessible way to save old VHS tapes is to transfer them to PC. With Windows still being the most-used Operating System in the UK, it's likely you'll have access to a Windows Laptop or PC.
To stop degradation affecting your footage you need to "Digitise" it. This is exactly what it sounds like, taking a form of physical media like tapes, and making it digital!
We call tapes and cassettes "physical media" because the actual data for the movie or video is present on the reel. There's an incredibly perspective-bending scene in Disney+ "Light and Magic" documentary that shows George Lucas and an artist drawing onto the physical film reel to add in blaster bolts fired by the film's blaster guns. It shows how film, back then, was just a fancy and efficient way of putting pen to paper!
If you have access to a Windows system that has a USB 2.0 port and you have your VHS player, you can begin transferring tapes right away.
Devices like the VGB350 convert VHS to digital using an RCA (That's the red, white and yellow cables) or S-Video (That's the single black cable for camcorders) to USB conversion.
This enables you to play VHS tapes right from the original player to your modern PC.
The software on your PC captures the footage in real time, and that creates a digital copy on your computer. This way, the physical media is still intact and you also now have a digital copy.
VHS to DVD
Once "digitised", your footage can be burnt straight onto a DVD from your PC disc drive. The software included with VGB350 can record, edit and burn your footage to disc all sequentially, with no app-switching needed.
Bear in mind that digital copies are incredibly versatile, so once you make one disc you can make hundreds more, or choose to make some USB drive copies, or upload them to the cloud and share online such as on Facebook or email.
It's much easier than posting the tape to someone!
2) How to Digitise VHS on Mac
Your second option, failing access to a Windows PC, is to use a Mac system. If you have a Mac you can still digitise your VHS, but may be unable to burn to disc depending on if you have a disc drive.
The VGB300 is a mac-friendly USB VHS converter which uses open source (Read: Free) recording software. Literally called OBS (Open Broadcast Software), the free program can capture and record your RCA or S-Video tapes / camcorder footage.
You can set recording formats and quality in OBS, to ensure your VHS footage is digitised effectively. This also means you can convert VHS video to MP4, a compact but high-fidelity digital format for modern systems.
The VGB350 for Windows can only reach MPEG-2 formats, but for VHS this is usually more than sufficient.
3) Convert VHS Video to MP4 Without a PC At All
Finally, if you don't have a Windows laptop or PC and also don't have a Mac, there's one option left.
You can digitise your VHS tapes right onto a USB stick, no computer needed!
The innovative VGB400 is a little black box with RCA inputs (for your VHS) and USB port for storage. The box itself has a record button, meaning you can record to USB without needing any software running on a computer.
If you want to confirm what you are recording, the VGB400 features an HDMI output too, so you can watch and record your VHS tapes on modern HDMI Televisions.
The VGB400 doesn't convert video to DVD directly, but once you have a digital file on the USB stick you are free to transfer it to any system you like and then burn your DVDs from there.
This is particularly handy if you don't have access to a computer right now, but want to save the VHS tape files for later on, or give to a relative to make into a DVD.
Whatever You Do, Do It Now
By 2031 all VHS tapes in the world will be susceptible to degradation, or have degraded already. Get ahead of the curve and safeguard your important footage, be it VHS of TV shows you can't get online or personal footage from childhood, weddings and holidays.
Using a VGB350 for Windows, VGB300 for Mac or VGB400 if you have no computer at all will change VHS to digital before the worst degradation can take place.
These devices will work if you just need an okay copy as soon as possible but they’re not good for high quality. You don’t want to record to DVD or MP4. It’s best to record as lossless so you can de-interlace and compress it properly. For the highest quality, you need to record either S-Video (even regular VHS natively stores that) or the raw signal from the spinning silver part, clean it up with a TBC, and de-interlace it properly with QTGMC so you don’t get the annoying comb pattern. I wrote a long comment on Reddit about this. https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/s/2oXZS8nK3T For digital tapes, no TBC is needed. You should use a program like WinDV and capture them as DV with FireWire. You should not capture analog tapes as DV. For analog and digital tapes, you should de-interlace them with QTGMC to 59.94 or 50 fps.