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Converting VHS Tapes to DVD

Berkeley Parents Network > Reviews > The Arts, Books, Entertainment, & Media > Converting VHS Tapes to DVD



April 2006

Our home movies - mostly from the 50's (YIKES) - were transferred many years ago to VHS. We now would like to transfer them all from the VHS to DVD (I don't think there is any audio in these - silent era, you know). Is there a person or business in Berkeley that will do a good job with this? THANKS!


The East Bay Media Center on Addison in Berkeley could do the transfer for you. Melanie
Digital Pickle in sf transferred some High 8's to DVD for me and did a great job at a reasonable price and in a short amount of time. They have a website - google 'em. NightNurse
March 2005

Any recommendations for transferring videos to DVD? Only one recommendation in the archive, and that was from 2002. Wondering if there is more info now. Thanks! Ellen


A friend of mine owns a service that converts videos to DVD's. Here is his information: Conversion of videotapes to DVDs starting at $29 at AVC Audio Visual Consultants. They have a storefront studio at 3738 Grand Ave in Oakland and are open M-F, 9 to 5:30. They do the work in house, use top quality discs and check each disc to verify that they are recorded properly. They take VHS tapes and camcorder tapes. They won't copy copyrighted material unless you own the copyright. They also make additional copies of DVDs for about $5.00 to $15.00 depending on quantity.
Stu Sweetow
Audio Visual Consultants
Video Production, Editing, DVDs
3738 Grand Ave
Oakland, CA  94610
510-839-2020
www.avconsultants.com
Pam
We had quite a lot of this we wanted to do, and found the copy shop prices awfully expensive. Two weeks ago, we discussed this with our wonderful Macintosh consultant, Bruce McLaughlin, and then bought a DataVideo DAC 100 for about $160.

Bruce and I tried it out last week and it worked like a charm. Play VHS videos into the DAC, and they end up digital on the hard drive for downloading to a DVD or iMovie, etc. Even works with Windows. Bruce is, as we speak, mulling over whether to offer this service to clients, either with the DAC I bought or he buys his own.

So this is a matter in transition -- but in the co-housing frame of mind, it really seems silly to me for a bunch of people each to own a device, whether lawnmower or washing machine or DAC-100 that they use only a few hours a week.

(Bruce: http://bruce.mclaughlin.net) John


If you have a lot of videos and you are slightly technically inclined, you could buy a standalone DVD recorder and do it yourself. Costco and Sears have them for as little as $150, although units with a built-in VCR will be significantly more costly. David
Heritage Audio/Visual in Albany can do this for you. Please see: www.HeritageAV.com for details. Patrick
September 2003

Does anyone have a recommendation for a video company in Berkeley or in Walnut Creek that will transfer video (VCR) to DVD? I have a few tapes of my son that we seem to keep playing over and over for relatives. I have other videos that are seriously worn out, so to preserve my son's childhood, I need to transfer them to DVD. What is the cost of doing something like this? Thank you for all responses.


The process to transfer from vhs to dvd is not simple as the old technology of recording to vhs. DVD technolgy is still new. I have a video production company in Berkeley and the cost to transfer from vhs to dvd is expensive. If your footage was on the new camera formats (mini dv) you could then (if you own an apple computer) put the footage on the computer and compress to a quicktime movie that could then be burned to a dvd. There is so much more to the process than just this that it would take a full page to explain the details and complications of burning your own dvd. You can contact me if you would like a price,or information on the process of going to dvd format. morgan
This technology is changing very fast and getting easier every day. I have been in the process of creating DVDs from our 8 mm camera, VHS and mini DVD. Instead of using a computer I purchased a DVD recorder (latest starting prices at $450). Mine is a Panasonic which is about as easy as using a VHS recorder. Sony also has one out that looks fairly easy to use (around $800). I have made copies of weddings, births and parties videos for family members. I got DVD labeling software to give it a more professional look. There are limited books on the topic but I read ''Create Your own DVDs''. It is geared more twoards doing it all on a PC but it gives some basic background. There is also a recording DVDs for Dummies book about to be released. It might be more cost effective to do it yourself if you have a lot of footage and you don't mind spending the time. To record the raw footage is not terribly time consuming once you figure it out. The editing takes a lot more time! jlin
Access Video on Gilman in Berkeley does a good job of film transfer. My advice (unless you have deep pockets) would be to have them transfer the film onto a consumer format digital videotape rather than DVD. Then find someone with a Macintosh and iDVD (or the PC equivalent) who can burn a DVD for you. The video production houses tend to charge an arm and a leg for DVD mastering -- which, IMHO, is overkill for many consumer needs. Patrick
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this page was last updated: Aug 14, 2006


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