Converting Videotape Into Video Files

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PCStats have a new beginners guide out! that looks at converting your BETA and VHS tapes into video files you can email around the world, and publish on the web in all their digital splendor!

As you may have noticed, the VCR is a dying technology. DVD players are now equivalent in price, and their disks have practically crowded VHS tapes right off the shelves of your neighborhood video store. Give it another three years and you may be hard pressed to find a new release on tape. So what happens when your VCR finally breaks?

You'll replace it with a DVD player, if you haven't already. That's all well and good, but what about your library of home videos that you've accumulated? Sure the tapes will last for a good 10-20 years before the magnetically recorded data starts to disintegrate, but who says that there will be anything out there that can play them in twenty years??

In this PCstats Guide, we'll provide some simple guidelines to converting your old videotapes into video clips that you can store on your computer, or send around to friends and family. Once you have converted your old videotapes into the new digital format, you have several options open to choose from. You can store your flicks on the hard drive indefinitely, or place them on a recordable CD-R/RW for storage.

Converting Videotape Into Video Files