Audio Video

Do you have a bunch of VHS tapes that you’ve been slowly replacing with DVDs over the past few years? Or perhaps you’ve simply decided not to spend the money to replace them but just try to keep that VHS player humming along?

One cost-effective alternative is to get a VHS to DVD converter and do it yourself.

If you have more than 10 or so VHS tapes, it will pay for itself.

While you may have seen some of these or other similar products on gadget blogs, we’ve decided to put together a list of top choices for you. Here are 4 such products:

#4. Plextor ConvertX Digital Video Converter – Plextor’s ConvertX box converts your VHS tapes into DixV or MPEG-4 on your computer, after which you can burn it to DVD. You don’t have to burn it to DVD if you don’t want to. The ConvertX box plugs into your computer and also comes with software. Its built-in compression software allows you to store 2 hours of video on a CD, or 10 hours on a DVD. Costs about $55.

3. CopyThis! Digital Video Enhancer – The CopyThis converter can enhance the quality of your VHS tapes during conversion. The enhancement features include noise reduction to improve picture quality as well as turningthe movies into black and white! Unfortunately, this product is no longer made, but you may be able to find one on eBay.

2. Honestech’s VHS to DVD 3.0 Deluxe – This is also a converter box and it is able to convert practically any analog source into a myriad of digital formats. The included software is quite simple to use and has 2 modes: advanced and beginner. In beginner mode, a few mouse clicks will get you started converting VHS tape to a DVD.

There are advanced features like video editing. VHS to DVD is a good value for the money and easy to get started with. VHS to DVD costs approx $50. You can read a full review of VHS to DVD 3.0 Deluxe here.

1. Panasonic DMR-EZxxx DVD & VHS Recorders – Panasonic is one of the vendors that decided to simply bridge both formats by having a device that plays (and records)both! As it has slots for both, it also allows to record from one format to the other. As opposed to the other 3 units, this does not have a software component, and it does playback as well, including for example, JPG files from an SD card. It can even upscale to 1080p. We’ve decided to rank this number one for its slew of features, but unfortunately it does have a price tag to match (about $170).

You can find the Plextor, Honestech and Panasonic products easily on your gadget shopping hunts.

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