How to Store Old Home Movies on DVDs

For decades, home movies have been one of the most often used and enjoyable ways for people to relive life's milestones. Many homes have shelves lined with old VHS and 8mm tapes of weddings, birthdays, and graduations, but few people realize how close these treasured memories are to being lost forever.

Even with the most ideal storage conditions-which most of us don't have-VHS tapes can deteriorate to the point of being unwatchable in as little as 15 years. The VCR is quickly becoming obsolete, bringing the watchability of a VHS tape to a moot point. The tapes are bulky, and the old camcorders used to make the original movies have long since been replaced by handheld digital video cameras. The single shining ray of hope in all this has been the coming of the DVD, which has made preserving little Billy's grade school play fairly simple and inexpensive.

There are two ways to go about preserving your home movies on DVD. The first is to hire a professional. While this method can begin to dig into your bank account, if your home movies are showing signs of wear, you don't have a dozen or so gigabytes free on your hard drive, or if you're having trouble finding the time to sift through hours of footage, a professional is probably the best way to go. They'll make as many copies of your home movie as you want, and will take care of the little things like a snazzy navigation menu and editing out the twenty minutes of grass growing you accidentally filmed.

If the idea of turning over creative control makes you twitchy or if you've secretly been harboring dreams of Hollywood, then this could be the project you've been waiting for. With your personal computer, there are at least three options for converting your home movies to a digital format. In all likelihood, you've had what you needed for years and didn't even know it.

Option #1: Transfer home movies from your VCR or camcorder to your computer with a video card

Some video cards have input jacks for both audio and video. To see if your computer has a video card, follow the cord from the back of your monitor to your computer. If you see red, white, and yellow plugs hooked into the same card, then all you need is an RCA A/V cable. If your video card also has the round S-Video jack (with the little hole inside), use this with an S-Video cable instead; you'll be able to see the difference in quality. Both cables are available at most electronics stores.

Option #2: Use a video capture card instead of a video card

If your video card doesn't have audio and video input jacks, check to see if you have an available PCI slot (where your video card, sound card, or Ethernet card is). If so, you can get a video capture card instead of replacing your video card. If you don't have an available PCI slot, there are some video capture cards that plug into a USB slot. This option is a lot easier to install since you don't have to open the back of your computer, and it's usually a little cheaper as well.

Option #3: Use a DVD recorder to transfer and write your home movies to DVD

This is the most economical solution for someone who doesn't already have a DVD burner in their computer. DVD recorders are separate devices that connect to your computer via a USB port. It has built in video capture capabilities for transferring your home movies from VHS or 8mm tapes to your computer, and because it's a DVD burner, it can also burn discs of music, photos, and other data.

Whichever method you choose to get your movies onto your computer, the fun part is actually editing the footage and adding cool special effects, music, narration, and transitions.