VHS conversion services today are changing, for many years we have converted VHS tapes for transfer to dvd but less laptops are being sold with DVD players and more of our tv is being streamed.
At Saturn Films 1969 we are now producing MP4 files with all of our dvd conversions. We are offering the customer the option of having MP4 files, produced at 720p and 1080p saved to a usb stick or having their project on dvd – and of course they can have both. We are archiving the conversions at 1080p so if customers come back needing a different format we should be able to provide it.
The question though is does this give a better picture?? At the end of the day the original material cannot be improved upon that much (read our links below) yes we can do a little bit but that VHS picture, the rough equivilent of 335 x 576 pixels, is just being reproduced as a file to play on latter day ‘smart’ televisions. I would argue though that saving at the best resolution provides some future protection as these files themselves are likely to be converted into something that is not yet on the market.
We use Matrox hardware and software for all of our video capture including VHS, Hi-8, digital-8 and Betamax, and we edit on Apple computers using Final Cut. The result is an edited movie with titles and the option of saving in various video formats. What we do not do is a stright copy from player to disc. Although our service is not the cheapest I believe we offer value for money with an excellent conversion package and with backup support.
Further reading:
https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/photo-video/how-convert-vhs-dvd-digital-3417308/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/jan/25/comment.comment