Convert VHS to DVD (page 2)

Destinations

There are many digital options to transfer to. Each has its positives and negatives, but there is a generally-agreed-upon course of action. Remember, for archiving purposes, your priorities should always be quality, longevity and accessibility, in that order. Let's look as some options.

Transferring to a hard drive is about as efficient as it gets when you need to use your footage down the line; however, it's also a risky archival medium. Hard drives are prone to both mechanical and physical damage, as well as electromagnetic faults and degradation. It's also easy to delete, alter and/or lose files by mistake. Hard drive storage is also technically annoying, as, to archive content correctly, you'd need at least two specialized arrays of drives holding duplicate material, stored as far apart as possible. For these reasons, they are not recommended as a primary archival destination.

Options like XDCAM, DVCPRO, D-1 and D-5 can allow for transfers with virtually no discernible information loss, but can be cost-prohibitive. Also, their use is not widespread, so outside of the broadcast elite and those who own cameras using one of the formats, they become difficult to gain access to.

Optical media such as DVD might seem like a viable and widespread alternative, but it is very prone to physical damage, and the compression involved can become ugly. P2 and other Flash-memory solutions are prone to misplacement and currently have capacities that can be limiting for archiving. It's also never a good idea to store anything long-term using a method that spans a segmented medium.

This leaves us back with good old tape media, which, despite all the new storage technologies, is still considered the best medium for archiving. Backing up your media hard drives to Digital Linear Tape (DLT) is a great option, but its use is time-consuming and often more expensive than most people are willing to pay for. Additionally, access to the stored data is highly inconvenient.

For these reasons, DVCAM and Mini DV are recommended by most as the best storage option for inexpensive analog-to-digital conversion and archiving. Both the medium and hardware are cheap and easily obtained, and they have a widespread user base, ensuring support long after the next "best" option comes along. Finally, many stations and networks accept DV format as broadcast quality. If you have only Mini DV, go with that, but I would encourage DVCAM. It's a more solid design, has a slightly better recording methodology and greater-capacity stock.

Obviously you'll need to tailor this information to your own needs. If you already have DVCPRO or XDCAM systems, they should play a part in your conversions. Likewise, if you own a Digital Betacam deck, use that for Betacam SP and similar sources. There's no reason to put your VHS on such a large and expensive medium, tho…