With the astonishing speed of technology development, the way we record, play and share footage has been changed a lot. From VCR to smart phone, from DVD player to tablets, from hard drives to cloud storage, dealing with video recordings has never been this easy ever before. But, there is one thing that's been left out, one that probably holds the greatest memories of a generation but has already dumped by time, called VHS.

Memories are precious, the giant, heavy VHS cassette can be left in the corner and eat dust forever, but the footage in it is not supposed to. Find your VHS tapes and get ready because today in this VHS to DVD tutorial, we are going to talk about ways to convert VHS to DVD that you can apply today.

 

Method 1: Convert VHS to DVD with a DVD recorder

This one is the easy one on this VHS to DVD tutorial. The general idea of this method is simple, Record what's in the cassette to a DVD disc with the help of a DVD recorder. Let's first see what you need to do this.

 

What you need

A DVD Recorder ->

A DVD recorder is a device that looks like a DVD player, but with a writing function that can write content from external source onto a DVD disc. If you have ever read any other VHS to DVD tutorial, it should not be strange to you. In this case, we write VHS cassette footage onto a DVD disc.

VHS to DVD tutorial: DVD recorder

A VHS player and your VHS cassette ->

Find them in whatever corner you left them years ago, and dust off.

VHS to DVD tutorial: VHS cassette

An RCA or S-Video cable ->

This is the cable that connects your DVD recorder and your VHS player. Also be sure that your DVD recorder and VHS player are compatible with this kind cable, which they usually do.

VHS to DVD tutorial: video cable

 

How you do it

Step 1: Prepare everything mentioned above, and this VHS to DVD tutorial at hand.

Step 2: Connect your VHS player to your DVD recorder.

VHS to DVD tutorial: connect recorder

Step 3: Insert your VHS video tape to the player and a blank DVD to the DVD recorder.

VHS to DVD tutorial: insert tape

Step 4: Hit the Record button on your DVD recorder.

VHS to DVD tutorial: start recording

Step 5: Press Play on your VHS player as soon as you pressed Record on your DVD recorder.

VHS to DVD tutorial: start playing

Step 6: Now just wait in patience. You need to press Stop button on the DVD recorder when it comes to the end of VHS tape.

VHS to DVD tutorial: stop

Method 2: Convert VHS to DVD via PC and software

Although the method mentioned above looks quite simple, fact is, it's not easy to buy a DVD recorder these days. They are old and outdated. Plus, buying such a bug guy for a one time job is not reasonable by all means. But keep reading this VHS to DVD tutorial, because with the next method, you don't need to buy a DVD recorder to convert VHS to DVD, all you need to buy is a small analog converter device, and you can do this with the help of your PC and some software.

 

What you need

An analog converter device ->

It looks like a little box with a bunch of colorful cables and ports. Many other VHS to DVD tutorial might mention this one because it's really important in converting VHS to DVD, and It can be acquired online.

VHS to DVD tutorial: analog converter

A PC with a DVD drive ->

Windows and Mac can both do the job theoretically, depends on what kind of software you use. Today we use a Windows device.

VHS to DVD tutorial: PC

A DVD burning software ->

This is the tricky part. The whole converting speed and output quality directly depend on how you choose a DVD burning software. So it's important to choose a nice and decent DVD burning software. The one we use is Leawo DVD Creator.

dvd-creator

DVD Creator

☉ Convert all video files like MP4, AVI, MKV to DVD format fast.

☉ Create DVD-5, DVD-9 disc, folder and/or ISO image without quality loss.

☉ 1-click operation to create photo slideshows and burn to DVD easily.

☉ 1-click ISO image burner to burn ISO image file to DVD disc.

☉ Multiple built-in menu templates and edit disc menu with personal preferrences.

☉ Easy edit video effects, support 2D to 3D conversion.

Leawo DVD Creator is a professional DVD burning software that can burn almost all kinds of digital video to a DVD disc with the original quality reserved. It also supports DVD menu customization so that the DVD you burn with this software can be highly customized.

 

How you do it

Step 1: Prepare everything, put this VHS to DVD tutorial at hand, and Connect everything. Usually the converter has a USB portal on one side and red, white and yellow RCA cable on the other side. Connect the cables according the colors and connect PC through the USB port.

VHS to DVD tutorial: connect converter

Step 2: When you follow the instructions and install the correct driver for the analog converter device, you should be able to play the VHS footage on your computer, and this is when the Screen recorder come into play. Capture the screen while your VHS footage plays on your computer and storage it as a MPEG file (best MP4).

VHS to DVD tutorial: record screen

Step 3: insérer un disque DVD dans le lecteur.

VHS to DVD tutorial: disc

Step 4: Open Leawo DVD Creator and import the MP4 video you have just captured. You can just click Add Video button at the main interface or you can drag the video directly to the software.

VHS to DVD tutorial: import

Step 5: Click the big green icon Burn to call out DVD burning panel.

VHS to DVD tutorial: burn

Step 6: Enter the DVD burning setting panel, and confirm the Burn to(disc, folders or ISO), Disc Label, and Save to route. And click the Burn button below to start video to DVD conversion process.

VHS to DVD tutorial: start

Conclusion: Which one is better for me?

So now that we have discussed the two options in this VHS to DVD tutorial, you might be wondering which the better one is. Well, as you can see, the first one with the DVD Recorder is obviously easier to operate, but you have to pay for a DVD recorder that you might only use for once. So if you already have a DVD recorder in your hand, the first method is defiantly your way. Otherwise, it's better to follow the second one because everything you need in this method can be reused for other purpose.