| Many of us have boxes of tapes that were | | | | Some popular companies include Pinnacle, |
| recorded onto either VHS or 8mm. If stored | | | | Adobe, Ulead and Sony.Another method to |
| properly tapes will last a long time. | | | | transfer you home videos to DVD is to use a |
| However there are some considerations that | | | | stand alone DVD recorder. A DVD recorder |
| make converting your home videos to DVD a | | | | looks very similar to the DVD player in your |
| worthwhile process.--It is easier to share a | | | | home entertainment system. DVD recorders sell |
| DVD with friends and family. They make a | | | | for about $200 and up. Some manufacturers |
| great gift. | | | | offer DVD/VHS combo units which make |
| | | | transferring movies a piece of cake. Look for |
| --You can create chapters to jump to your | | | | a DVD recorder with a built in hard drive. |
| favorite scenes. | | | | These allow you to edit the movies once they |
| | | | are recorded to the hard drives.Another nice |
| --You can easily add background music or | | | | feature of units with a hard drive is that |
| edit out boring scenes. | | | | they have similar features to a TIVO device. |
| | | | You can record and store your favorite shows |
| --Many times the you can increase the | | | | and even allow you to pause live TV like a |
| quality from the original source movieThere | | | | TIVO. Depending on the size of the hard |
| are many different methods to convert you | | | | drive and the quality settings you can easily |
| movies to DVD. One method is to use your PC | | | | store 40 hours or more on the hard drive.By |
| and the other is to use a stand alone DVD | | | | carefully choosing the model you should end |
| recorder. The PC offers complete control over | | | | up with final product that looks better than |
| editing the footage and creating professional | | | | the original. That's because certain DVD |
| looking menus for the DVD. The DVD recorder | | | | Recorders by JVC and Toshiba, or any models |
| is the best solution for simplicity, speed | | | | that have an LSI chipset, have filters to |
| and in many cases better quality.In order to | | | | reduce grain and chroma noise.When recording |
| transfer movies with your PC you will need a | | | | you will want to record in the highest |
| fairly powerful PC with lots of hard drive | | | | quality settings possible. This means you |
| space. Raw video footage can chew up to 13 | | | | will be able to fit about 1 hours worth of |
| Gigs per hour of video footage. You can | | | | video onto a DVD. Since most VHS and 8MM |
| transfer the movies to your PC with a | | | | tapes are two hours you will need to split |
| dedicated transfer card or an external device | | | | one tape into two DVD's. You can fit more |
| to convert the analog signal to DV so it can | | | | than 1 hours worth of footage on a DVD if the |
| be transferred through a firewire port onto | | | | footage is something you don't care too much |
| your PC.Once the raw video footage is on your | | | | about. However if you are converting |
| PC you can use video editing software to edit | | | | treasured movies go for the best quality you |
| the footage and create DVDs. Video editing | | | | can. |
| software can retail from $50-$200 dollars. | | | | |