Converting VHS tapes to DVD is a highly valuable service in the age of digital media. For example, DVD quality doesn't degrade with use or time. Modern home theater equipment with VHS players is becoming harder to find and DVD's are simply smaller and more convenient to store. While replacing old VHS studio movies with DVD's is an easy process, you can't simply run to the store to buy a new DVD of your old home movies.

VHS to DVD services

A multitude of online services exist. For a fee, you mail in your old VHS media and they will convert it to DVD and mail them back to you. Some even host the movies online as well, so you can directly download them to your computer. Some of these sites include http://www.vhs-to-dvd.com/ and http://www.stashspace.com Many stores also offer the service. National chains such as Walgreens possess the capability of converting and don't require you to mail anything in. There are likely a multitude of locally owned electronics stores and media stores that will also provide this service. Most of these services can only do two hours of video at a time. If you have home movies that are longer or on multiple VHS tapes that you want combined onto a single DVD, the difficulty of the transfer goes up, as does the cost. Most single tape to DVD services cost around 10 to 12 dollars, plus shipping costs.

DIY VHS to DVD

While using an online service or going to a physical store can be convenient and cost effective for a small collection of VHS tapes, if you have a large collection it might be cheaper to actually buy the equipment and do it yourself at home. Most modern DVD and VHS combo players have an option to "dub" VHS to DVD. Simply place the VHS in the player, put a blank DVD-R into the DVD slot and hit dub. As the VHS plays, it will copy to the DVD. If you plan on transferring a large number of VHS tapes to DVD, or are creating multiple DVD copies, doing it at home with your own equipment would be significantly cheaper. A DVD and VHS combo to record DVD can be bought at any major electronics such as Best Buy or even Target or WalMart. They cost anywhere from 50 dollars to 500, but a high quality one can be purchased for under 200 dollars.

Source:

Online VHS to DVD resource

Resource:

Buy DVD/VHS combos