How to Transfer Your Christmas Home Movies from VHS to DVD

Last year, my husband and I decided to convert his parent's old Christmas home movies onto DVD. They love showing friends and family their old home movies, and having them on DVD gives them an excuse to show them all over again. Don't let your old Christmas home movies collect dust in the attic because you're too embarrassed to drag out the VCR. Transfer all of your old VHS Christmas home movies to DVD, and you can send copies by e-mail, capture stills to send to your relatives and much more. There are several ways to transfer your old home movies, here's a list of the most common.

Combination DVD/VHS Machine Transfer

If you already own a combination DVD/VHS player, then transferring your old Christmas home movies to DVD may be a quick and simple process. Check the machine to see if the DVD player has a record function. If there is one, then you can simply pop in a blank DVD into the machine and record the VHS tapes onto the DVD.

Computer

If you don't have a combination DVD/VHS machine, then transferring your old Christmas home movies to DVD may take a few more steps, but don't give up just yet. If you have a computer, you can use an analog-to-digital converter to convert your VHS data into a format that your computer is able to recognize.

There are several types of converters out there, so be sure to shop carefully for one that will meet your needs. But, before you head out to the electronics store, be sure that your computer is capable of burning DVDs so that you can obtain a hard copy of the data once it's converted. However, if your computer doesn't have a DVD burner you can always store the data on a zip drive and then transfer it to a computer that is equipped to burn DVDs.

External DVD Burner

If you have a lot of Christmas home movies on VHS that you want to convert to DVD, then you might want to consider investing in an external DVD burner. This device hooks right up to your VCR. A quality machine will run you around $100-$150.

Pay Someone Else to Do It

If you don't have the time or the patience for the above methods, then you can simply call a VHS to DVD conversion service to transfer your old Christmas home movies for you. The service will run you around $20 per VHS tape. I recommend looking in the yellow pages for a business near you to avoid shipping costs which can easily double the fee if you have a lot of VHS tapes to convert. However, if there are none in your area, you can check online for business like www.medialocks.com, or www.apmstudio.com.