Converting My VHS Tapes To DVD

[lithoguy]

I have started to convert my episodes of California Dreams to DVD and was wondering if anyone needs any episodes to fill their collections. I have 54 episodes available and would be interested in trading for the ones that I am missing. Please let me know if there is any interest.

Rich

[lithoguy]

Well, I am finished with my DVD conversion but only could find 49 episodes of which one is pre-empted for coverage of the war. So I guess that makes 48.5 episodes actually. In any case, I no longer need my VHS tapes so I am offering them to anyone interested in trading or buying them. Please email me if you want to work out a deal for these.

Rich

[Clockworx]

Are you selling them or copies of them at all???

[lithoguy]

I am selling the original VHS tapes, not copies. I just found another tape the other day with 4 more episodes on it so the total number of episodes is 52 complete episodes. If you are interested, please email me at richc@stjoelive.com. Thanks!!

[Tejas Dalvi]

Hello,

In response to your thread, if it's no trouble, could you explain to me in a step by step manner how you converted your VHS tapes into DVD format? If you can help me with this, I would really appreciate it.

Is this process difficult? Or is it very easy? I have a lot of VHS tapes and i want to convert them as well? Please help me with this.

In addition, what about the commercials, did you take them out or leave them in? If you want to cut the commercials out, how do you go about doing that?
Thank you

[lithoguy]

It really is not that difficult, just a little time consuming if you have a lot of them to do. First, you need to have a VHS player and a DVD recorder. Connect the two together using the RCA three pronged cables that came with both machines. The output of the VCR goes into the input of the DVD recorder and the output of the DVD recorder goes to back of the TV. Everyting is color coded so this is pretty easy to do. For best results, make sure your heads in the VCR are clean before starting and clean them every 10 tapes or so. Now, here is where some others will do it differently than me. A lot of people will just do a straight copy to a DVD+R or DVD-R and that is it. I start recording to a DVD+RW (this is what my machine prefers) in one hour mode. If you are looking for quality, stay in one hour mode. DVD's are relatively cheap nowadays as I buy them for $0.40 a piece in bulk. In one hour mode, you will get two episodes per DVD+RW. The next step is to copy this DVD+RW to your computer. The reason for this is to delete the commercials. Additionally, with this now on my computer, I had a few episodes where the VCR started a second or two into the opening introduction to the show. Now, I can copy an introduction that is complete from another show and paste it on the episode that has an incomplete opening. This can be accomplished on your computer along with deleting commercials using a program called TMPGEnc DVD Author. There are about half a dozen other programs out there, but this one is my personal choice. TMPGEnc DVD Author allows you to preview the video in a film strip manner and select the areas that you want to cut out and then piece it back together. Deleting the commercials for a show that is 30 minutes in length only takes about 2 minutes to do so this is pretty quick. Once you have altered enough shows to fill a DVD, you can then burn your final copy using any DVD burning software. I use NERO as it came with my computer and it is very easy to use. I have been able to burn 6 episodes of California Dreams to each disc and still keep it in a high variable bit rate (VBR). There is no noticable degradation from VHS tape to DVD and since California Dreams is not about to come out on DVD in the immediate future, this is the only way to get it on DVD right now. I would strongly suggest for anyone that has a favorite show that they have recorded to VHS tapes to convert them over to DVD as soon as possible. Keeping them in a box or in your basement or even in a shelving unit causes them to start deteriorating. A DVD will last long beyond our lifetime with proper use and storage. Additionally, the picture does not lose quality as time goes on whereas the VHS tape does. Let me know if you need any further help on this project.

Rich

[Chain Gang Member]

I had the weirdest dream last night where California Dreams was on DVD.Weird huh?