| The
process used to copy VHS to DVD is quite easy and simple if
you know how to. There are providers for these types of conversions
and they are professionals who do this for you. All that you
need to do is to make a list of titles for each DVD and send
the tapes with the list to the provider. The provider converts
the tapes following the list, putting them on different DVDs
and returns them to the owner. The time most providers take
for the purpose are two days plus the shipping time if any.
The process of copying VHS is quite simple.
The first step is to capture the on a large hard disk in MPEG-2
format. The video on the tapes are compressed and taken to
the MPEG-2 format. After this, an automated process builds
up the menus and provides titling for the stored files. The
files are burned on the DVD using some tools like ‘Nero
Smart’ or such DVD burners. In this way, data, earlier
stored on your ordinary video tapes, are now converted into
digital data having a much longer life span.
Most providers convert approximately two hours
of video contents into a digital form and then burn the same
on a standard DVD. Chapter markers, for specific segments
of the DVD, are also created through this process, by electronically
scanning the video tapes. Since DVDs can not be manipulated,
the data may also be stored on a hard disk allowing the viewer
to edit and manage the data.
Conversion of DVD to tape might be a challenging
and difficult task technically. Ordinarily a system of capturing
the video tape contents in MPEG version at first and then
converting the same into digital format is followed. Such
converted DVDs can be easily played on a standard player or
deck.
To keep the safe copies of the content, a
second copy is done on a computer hard disc, giving you the
safety of the copy that you make. For preserving the favourite
movies or programs, the most popular standard in the past
was the VHS video tapes. But DVD has pushed them back from
the scene. While video tapes wear out with time and may be
disfigured in the process, such contingencies in case of a
DVD are much less. Add to this the qualitative superiority
of DVD to VHS video tapes and conversion becomes a necessity.
It is easier said than done. Tape conversions, whether it
is data, video or audio requires extreme quality control.
The quality of the copy does not only depend
upon how you do the conversion, but the software and the hardware,
that you use, are the two very important aspects that has
major contribution to the quality that you produce. You love
your music tapes and you like those favourite video tapes
that you have, and you would like to convert it on a DVD for
safe keeping. It is a great way to preserve.
The best way to achieve this conversion is
through analogue to digital video converter, so that you can
get this in your computer for eventual transformation into
a DVD. If you do not own a digital video Camcorder, this is
the best way to achieve the desired conversion. A camcorder
allows you to save your edited material from your video tape
in a high quality digital format, which becomes your master
copy. Some of these camcorders will cost you slightly more
than a converter.
If you possess a lot of old Hi8 or 8mm tapes,
you may get hold of such a camcorder which has a "analog
pass through" feature, which will allow you to view the
tapes. This would mean that the analog tapes would not have
to be converted first into digital video, and in any case
you have the option of converting your tape too.
A word about Data Tapes
Way back in the 1970’s, you might have
seen those large tape units, hooked up with the main frame
huge computers. With the emergence of VDUs in the 1980’s
the scenario changed altogether and open reel tapes became
almost a distant past. Today, we don’t see any such
units with the computers that we know Open reel data tapes
have now become dying specie.
But the data stored in it will not be dying
and would be required for multifarious purposes in many cases
unless the data also have outgrown its use. Thus there was
a great deal of necessity to convert 9-track tapes into some
modern media having much higher capacity. The tape conversion
problem is not unique to 9-track tapes only, but such problems
also persists in case of conversion of a 3480 model into a
3590 or a DC600 to Super DLT. Such tape conversion is required
since it continues to be the premier computer storage medium.
The storage capacity of the tapes has been
growing constantly with passage of time. An open reel tape
that has been recorded at 1600 bpi can store data amounting
to 35 MB whereas a DDS-4 DAT can store more than 1000MB of
data. Still better are the LTO and Super DLT those can store
5 DATs. The capability of the tapes is growing day by day.
Information stored on a tape drive or a cartridge are much
more than other media and they are required to be preserved
as they tend to worn out with the passage of time.
In certain cases a straight and outright conversion
is possible while maintaining the amount of data that was
stored on the original tape that is being converted. It is
also possible to stack the tapes by putting multiple tapes
on a single LTO and it would be a good precautionary measure
to have the LTO duplicated before the tapes are destroyed.
By such step you overcome the risk of losing data due to a
faulty LTO.
Side by side with the tapes, the standard
of the computers have also gone through a series of evolutionary
processes. Linux and Windows operating systems have become
the favourite standards of the day. Hence the issue of tape
conversion is now, for example, a case of converting IBM 3480
tapes to Super DLT under the Linux Operating systems. Catering
to the needs of the user a number of service providers have
arrived on the scene providing a tape conversion service.
Even though it has now become possible to
electronically transfer data over the internet, the most convenient
storage media for large amount data, say around 100 GB or
more, is the magnetic tape. There are various types of tape
drives like the DAT, DLT, IBM, and LTO. To change data on
tape from one to another it requires a drive that is compatible
and can read the particular type of tape. For example, one
can convert a set of ICL open reel tapes to ICL 3480.
Format conversion is required when the operating
system used by two computers differ from each other. Storing
of files on tapes may vary widely with the operating systems
since each tape writing method is different and each one is
not compatible to another system. An appropriate example would
be reading an NT tape on a Linux platform.
What
is Videotape ? | Audio
& Video Tape Preservation |
Video
Tape Conversion to NTSC or PAL or SECAM | Save
a Videocassette |
How
to Get a Digital Video Recorder | How
to Buy a VCR | How
to Videotape Sports Action |
Transfer
Audio From a Videotape to a Computer | Transfer
Audio From a Videotape to a Cassette |
Transfer
Video Onto the Computer | How
to Program a VCR | Video
Tape Formats |
Video
Tape Time Comparisons | Tape
& VCR Tips | Camcorder
& Recording Techniques |
