VHS Video to DVD Transfer Service

High quality copies from VHS to DVD & MP4

Manchester Video is an established family business with years of experience in transferring VHS video to DVD and other digital video files such as MP4 on USB for SmartTVs. We  have a passion for delivering great quality, service and value. Our video transfer service covers most home video formats including VHS video tape.

Our full price list and order form is also available to download by clicking the graphic below.

In detail – VHS Video to DVD and MP4 conversion service

Some VHS home video cassettes can be well over thirty years old. The quality of the pictures and sound on these tapes does vary significantly depending on how good the original recording was, the quality of the tape itself and also the conditions in which the tape has been stored. It’s our job to make sure that we recover the best quality pictures and sound from your home video tapes when we copy them onto DVD Video disc or make an digital MP4 file for SmartTV, tablet or computer playback.

The video players we use are top grade Super VHS machines (S-VHS) made by JVC and Panasonic. All our S-VHS players are connected via high quality 4-pin S-Video connections and feature digital time base correction (TBC) which eliminate errors that may be present in analogue recordings.

For most VHS video to DVD transfers we use dedicated disc recorders with high quality hardware analogue to digital encoders. These machines allow real-time recording either to an internal hard drive or directly onto disc. The standard recording duration for an industry standard DVD-R Video disc is 2 hours. It is possible to store more than 2 hours on a DVD-R Video disc at a reduced quality.

Our video to MP4 service is similar to the VHS video to DVD service but we use computers with specialist video capture inputs instead of disc recorders.

Full details & pricing please see our VHS Videos to Digital order page

About VHS

VHS (Video Home System) is an obsolete home video recording format. It was developed by JVC with the first machines being launched onto the Japanese market in 1976. VHS was designated an open standard meaning that any company could make VHS video recorders of their own. Following a format battle with the Sony’s rival Betamax system VHS became the most popular home video recording format in the world.

Prior to DVD and hard drive recorders (PVRs) becoming available most people with a television had a VHS machine to record programmes and watch pre-recorded films. Some video cameras recorded directly onto VHS tapes. Full size VHS camcorders were popular in industry, education and with enthusiasts. However, the large size of the tapes meant that cameras were generally too big and heavy for the majority of home users. When smaller formats such as VHS-C and Video 8 came along many people would copy (and sometimes edit) their home videos from the relatively expensive camcorder tapes onto a full size VHS tape for convenience. Thus freeing up the camcorder tapes to be re-used.

VHS video to DVD conversion service

VHS tapes were available up to 5 hours in duration (or 10 hours on long play mode). Here in the UK the 180 minute VHS tape was the most common length providing 3 hours recording in standard play (SP) mode.

VHS HQ and Super VHS

JVC continued to develop and improve the picture quality of the VHS format with the introduction of VHS HQ delivering slightly better pictures and Super VHS (S-VHS) which was actually quite good. One of the main benefits of S-VHS was that the picture quality was good enough to allow linear tape-to-tape editing. Reasonable quality copies of S-VHS edit masters could then be made onto regular VHS tapes at a relatively low cost compared to the professional and broadcast video formats of the day.

Digital versions of VHS were also developed (D-VHS and the professional D9/Digital-S). These were sold in the UK but never reached mainstream. A high definition analogue version called W-VHS was sold in Japan.

Do you have video footage on S-VHS? We can copy S-VHS videos to DVD for you.

One thought on “VHS Video to DVD Transfer Service

  1. Gary greenwood

    Ahh, these bring back such memories. Good to know that some firms still duplicate these onto DVD. 🙂

    Reply

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