Remember VHS? Well, it’s dead. This isn’t some kind of tech blog punditry like “blogging is dead” or “the music industry is dead” (For the record, you will never, ever read BS like that on this blog). I mean VHS is gone, no more, is chilling with the dinosaurs and dodo birds kind of dead.
With that in mind, a reader contacted me wondering how he could convert his old VHS tapes to DVD or at least a digital format. I’ve done a little research and discovered that it isn’t as easy as I hoped it would be.
If you are a “do it yourself” at all costs kind of person, here’s a link to a place that will help you get started.
What I recommend is using a service such as iMemories. You simply ship your tapes, slides, photos, etc. to iMemories, and they send you back everything plus digital versions of your stuff. Simple.
The only catch is that they cannot duplicate copyrighted material, so don’t bother sending them your VHS copy of Back to the Future. If you want digital copies of copyrighted stuff, you either have to convert it yourself, or attain it some other way (purchase or download).
I’ve never done any of this, and quite frankly have no reason to, so I’m not going to become an expert on this subject… well… ever. So if you anyone has a better idea than the ones I’ve found, please let me know.
Melt in piece VHS. You weren’t a good format, but you were the right format for the right time.
The Geek Whisperer 
A TV tuner card and a bit of capture software works wonders for this. They even make USB external boxes that can be picked up for about 60 bucks and take the A/V inputs from your VCR.
Most of the time the capture software is included with the tuner or box.
Be wary though, all of these that I have used are encoding in “real time” so a 2 hour movie will take 2 hours to digitalize.
Thank you.
Ok easier method to do this – buy a VHS/DVD Dual Recorder and do it yourself. Many of the DVD/VHS Players that can record onto DVDs support the ability to record directly from the VHS to the DVD with the touch of a button. Just put the VHS in and (assuming there are no security features preventing this) with a blank DVD in the DVD side hit the button and WAHLA – we have a DVD copy. All done. Now any questions?