TECHNOLOGY TIPS: Change those old VHS tapes into DVD

For those of you who still have VHS tapes (or for that matter, even Beta), before the picture fades away on the tape, consider converting them to DVD. There are several ways to do this:

1. GET SOMEONE TO DO IT FOR YOU
There are many places that will take your tape and convert it to DVD. They usually provide services such as cleaning up the picture and/or sound. The downside to this option is price - it can be very expensive. You may want to leave this option for those critical tapes or the tapes that could be in fragile condition.

2. GET AN ALL-IN-ONE BOX
There are several VHS-DVD Recorder devices on the market. They come in two basic flavors: cheap and simple, and geek squad. The simple type is limited in the bells and whistles, such as cleaning up the picture and/or sound. You put in the tape, put in a blank DVD, push the button - poof, out comes the converted VHS video on DVD. The more expensive boxes have the bells and whistles with lots of options, but it helps to bone up on conversions to get the most out of what you pay for.

3. USE SEPARATE COMPONENTS
This also runs the gamut from simple to geek. Simple has you set up the VHS tape player, run the output to a DVD recorder, hit record, punch play, and off you go. The DVD recorder can be a stand alone DVD player-recorder, or can be your computer. Most computers will require a separate analog-digital converter box. Again, this can be simple with few options, or complicated with lots of options.

If you want to go the geek route, do your homework. Spend some time on the internet to understand things like how DVD recording works, video compression, copy protection, etc. You may find that all need is the simple push-the-button set up. What ever method you choose, it is still better than finding your precious tape of the emergency response of the decade is nothing more than static on the screen.