Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I have at least 22 VCR tapes of sprint car races that I recorded between the years of 1998 and 2001. All of these races were originally broadcast on either the old American Sports Cavalcade show or ESPN's Tuesday Night (or was it Thursday Night?) Thunder program. Some of these tapes contain only 1 racing show and some of them two. All of them were recorded at the LP speed, the majority with the television commercials already edited out of them. There are a
lot of World of Outlaw races, the entire Slick 50 series, the Knoxville Nationals, and some USAC races.

I would like to convert these from VHS to DVD but frankly cannot afford to have this many of them professionally done.

I have done some investigating of programs like Roxio, but the online reviews of most of these conversion programs don't seem to be all that great, plus I'm not sure I'd be computer savvy enough to use them.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to best go about converting these tapes?

Rather than clogging up this board with this question, if you have any suggestions/advice perhaps you could contact me directly through Hosehead's e-mail service.

Thank you in advance for any guidance you might be able to give me in this regard.

If you looking to just make an exact copy you can buy a vhs/dvd deck. They are very inexpensive now-a-days

https://www.google.com/#q=vhs+dvd+deck&hl=en&prmd=imvns&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=7E0cT-COH8qSiQLk2rDLCA&sqi=2&ved=0CHYQrQQ&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=e242d85bbd2b0ed5&biw=1024&bih=595

Jeff Kristensen

It would be a good idea to 'exercise' your tapes first before copying them after sitting for so long. Fast forward all the way thru and then rewind to shake off any oxide particles that may have deteriorated. That will hopefully prevent excess playback head clogging. You may want to have a head cleaner tape ready as well.

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com

Bundy, I am doing the very same thing as we speak and have questions to the powers to be (Greg Stephens at Motorsports Video), Jeff (the above mentioned Raceway Video) and a couple of others and they have been helpful. I have close to 400 or more different sprint, midget, late model and modified races on over 200 tapes from as far back as 1979 and am doing the same thing as you.

On the link that Jeff posted, I have the Samsung (second one posted) that I got from Wal-Mart and it works very well, not an issue. Just make sure you buy the right DVD as there is DVD-R and DVD+R.

I had thought about converting one race onto one DVD but you can set it up to put at least five onto one DVD. This would work great on your Canyon and old Manzanita winter shows as you could even put three on each DVD, get you one of those DVD box cases that have slots for more than one DVD (have to ask Jeff where to get them) then you can have your collection of winter races in a box set.

The other big positive deal by not only saving what you have (as Greg with Motorsports Video told me those tapes go bad over time) but it also gives you a chance to rewatch some of those videos while you are converting. There are races I had no idea that I had taped.

I could go on and on and on as I am in the process of doing what you are doing now. But to answer your original quesiton, the Samsung is what I am using.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

and "ditto" on the head cleaner. Didnt think about fast forwarding as I am having that problem as I go along.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

Thank you very much for the advice, gentlemen.

I use the Wal Mart Magnavox, DVD+RW discs

For personal use I record at 2 hr

if the resolution is very good, and the tape is long, i use 4hr or 6 hr settings.

I wouldn’t recommend putting to many races on 1 DVD. Once you put more than
an hour of video on a DVD it starts to compress the video. If you put 3 or 4
hours on a disk it will be at about 50% quality. You are using a VHS tape as
the source which is only 200 lines of resolution; you cannot afford to lose
quality. If your VHS tapes were recorded on EP (6hour mode) the footage
certainly can’t afford to be downgraded further.

I have the best luck using -R as they are most compatible with older DVD
players. I find the brand "verbatim" to be the least likely to fail.

Jeff Kristensen

Jeff, I will privately email you on that one. Very interesting infomartion, glad I am not too far ahead in my converting journey.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

If your looking for a great way to get videos off your old VHS tapes or other recording media and have them available online, then try Zoovio.com. They are a service that will take your old tapes and upload them digitally to an account for you. From there, you can stream your videos from anywhere and on anything, from computers to smartphones to internet enabled TVs. You can also buy a Roku, which is a set top media player and are around $50, add the Zoovio channel, and have access to your videos on any TV. I have seen videos made from old 8mm film and it looks great, so VHS tapes would be no problem. Again, it Zoovio.com.

No helpful advice here but I was wondering if any of you have the Bristol WoO races recorded. I've been looking specifically for the year Jeremy Campbell raced (and flipped over the infield wall) - I think 2001? Thanks!

Katie Campbell

Katie,

I have the WoO races from Bristol in both 2000 and 2001 on VCR tape. Now whether I can find a VCR that will still work to see which one it is on might be a whole other thing.

I'll see what I can round up tomorrow.

Thanks so much!