VSO Software Forum

I'm wondering how much GB a thirty minute and an hour VHS tape takes up? Would an external drive help out with that?
I have some home videos that are taking up space, doing some research on storage to store them digitally after converting them from VHS to DVD.

To answer the first part of your question, it depends on how you're recording the VHS tape to DVD. Around 20 years ago, Panasonic released the first DVD Video Recorder. It and subsequent manufacturers and models had different video quality settings you could use. VHS quality meant you could record 2 hours total to a DVD-5. DVD quality meant an hour. There were also 4 hour and 6 hour modes. However, as you went down the line and allowed more time on a DVD, the video quality got worse.


Earlier this year, I just finished converting my VHS library to DVD with a Panasonic DVD Video Recorder from around 2002. I used the VHS 2 hour quality whenever possible. 2 hours of total recording time was about 4 GB. But, by the same token, 1 hour will also be 4 GB. So, if you're using DVD quality, 1 hour would be about 2 GB and 30 minutes 1 GB. However, it would probably vary depending on what you're using to capture the VHS feed. As I said, I can only go by what the Panasonic did in my case.


There was also a flexible recording time which meant you could get in between times for the different settings and get better quality. Like, say, if you had a 2 hour and 10 minute movie, you could get near VHS quality with the flexible recording time versus uses the 4 hour one which was not VHS quality.


As for the second part of your question, an external hard drive never hurts, although it's not necessary for something like this. However, given the file sizes involved in doing this, an SSD could get filled up pretty fast since they are usually smaller capacities.

Scott103 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 29, 2021 12:35 pm I'm wondering how much GB a thirty minute and an hour VHS tape takes up? Would an external drive help out with that?
I have some home videos that are taking up space, doing some research on storage to store them digitally after converting them from VHS to DVD.

I have just bought a very cheap Composite to HDMI upscaler and a HDMI to USB capture device.
Connected to eachother they make an excellent device to capture from VHS to MP4 or TS using OBS Studio which you can download as freeware.