The VHS to DVD Converter from Hammacher Schlemmer

I’m all about keeping it old school, and I have a huge collection of film cameras to prove it. But, some things are better left in the past, a good example of which is VHS tapes. I had forgotten how much I despised VHS until I was “gifted” our collection of VHS tapes that our family used for recording TV and home movies throughout the 80s and most of the 90s.

But, let me tell you, VHS is awful. The quality of the tape degrades as it ages, it’s a pain to fast forward and rewind, doesn’t have menus to help you navigate, and back in the day it wasn’t easy to edit down into the good stuff. This means I was “gifted” with hundreds of hours of pure awfulness and about 30 minutes of perfection {which more than made up for the awfulness I was subjected to while going through the old tapes}. 

However {and this is a big however}, each of those moments of perfection were spread out over 30+ tapes and took up a huge space in our office where no one could ever enjoy them. The solution? The VHS to DVD Converter from Hammacher Schlemmer that allows you to take all those precious home movies on VHS into custom DVDs that can be easily played, edited, and enjoyed.

In addition to easily transferring VHS recordings to DVDs, this little console does double duty as it’s also a video player for those who have a library of both DVD and VHS home videos. For DVDs it has 1080p upscaling through an HDMI output, but it also has a front DV input that allows you to connect a camcorder directly to the device to transfer content directly to a DVD {includes a coaxial input as well as component and composite inputs}. 

In a matter of hours, I was able to take this many tapes out of the VHS collection and convert them to just a few DVDs. Once they were all on DVD, I was able to edit them on my computer and remove the hours {and hours and hours} of recorded MTV and grade school basketball games and extract my sister’s first baby steps, my 4 year old self carving pumpkins, and my brother’s middle school Spanish commercial.

If you’re thinking about converting your home movies to DVD, now is definitely the time to do it. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you will watch those VHS tapes again… someday. Besides all the negatives of the VHS technology I mentioned previously that make them cumbersome to use, the tapes themselves take up so much more space than DVDs and weigh a ton.

With the average home weeding out their VHS and VCRs completely, it’s becoming less and less easy to watch all the old movies and it really was high time for me to go through our collection and purge. If I do run into a special tape or more family videos are unearthed in the process of going through boxes, I can simply pop them into the VHS converter and view them like a normal VCR with its built-in 4-head Hi-Fi VCR and decide if they are worth recording digitally

If you are looking for a present that is more than a holiday gift to be stored away on a shelf somewhere, look no further than Hammacher Schlemmer. Converting our old family movies into a usable format is the best present we could all ever get – the gift of priceless memories.  

The VHS to DVD converter is compatible with most DVD formats {excludes Blu-ray or PAL-formatted media}, allows MP3, JPEG, and WMA playback, and includes a universal remote control. The Toshiba DVR620 DVD Recorder and VCR combo unit measures 4" H x 17" W x 10 1/2" D and is available from Hammacher Schlemmer for $299, which is roughly 1/4 of the price it would cost to get this VHS copied by a professional.

Here's just some of the many fucntions and capabilities of the VHS to DVD converter:

HDMI Output with 1080p HD Video Upconversion – This unit utilizes a high-bandwidth video processor that's capable of upconverting standard DVDs to 720p/1080i and 1080p HD through the HDMI output. HDMI supports standard, enhanced, or high-definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on a single cable.
Recordable DVD Discs – Record your favorite shows onto DVD-R (Video Mode), DVD-RW (VR and Video Mode), DVD+R (Video Mode), DVD+RW (VR Mode) discs. It records in the following modes: XP/1 hr, SP/2 hr, LP/4 hr, EP/6 hr, and SLP/8 hr.
Built-In Dolby Digital Decoder – With a built-in Dolby Digital decoder, it reproduces surround sound fidelity and sonic realism from your favorite movie soundtracks. It's capable of advanced 24-bit processing and an outstanding sampling frequency of 192KHz.
Progressive Scan Technology – This is a progressive scan DVD player, capable of scanning an entire video frame at once; scan-lines commonly associated with interlaced video are drastically reduced. The result is a spectacularly clear image with no motion artifacts (stair-stepping), and details so sharp they seem as if they're etched onto the screen.
Front-Panel DV (IEEE) Input – With front DV (IEEE) and analog A/V (RCA) inputs, you can plug your camcorder or other devices directly into recorder without having to pull it out of your entertainment center and messing with the rear inputs.
Component Video Output – The DVR620 achieves greater color accuracy and high resolution playback capability when connected via the component video output to your projector, plasma and/or LCD/CRT televisions.
Multi-Format Capability – It offers a full-range of playback capabilities for enjoying movies, music and images. It can play back DVD-Video, DVD-R/W, DVD+R/W, CD-DA, CD-R/RW, VCD, SVCD, MP3, WMA, and JPEG.
DivX Home Theater Certified – DivX is video compression software which enables high quality video to be compressed into very small files then downloaded onto CD-R or CD-RW and played back with very little loss of quality.
One Touch Recording – One Touch Recording makes recording your favorite show simple. Connect this unit to your cable or satellite box and you are set to record with the push of one button. Please note: an external tuner source is required to record television programming.
Auto Finalize with Undo – It offers Auto Finalize with Undo, which simplifies the recording task by automatically finalizing the recording for DVD disc compatibility with standard players.
Editing Features – This unit offers Playlist, Rename Title, Replace Title Thumbnail, Chapter Creation and Bi-Directional Dubbing editing features.
Multi-Language System – This unit offers the ability to select language preferences; it supports English, Spanish, and French languages.
Full-Feature Remote Control – This unit includes a full-feature remote control capable of executing specific commands such as slow motion, fast scan, instant skip, and on-screen display. It's also able to execute every command from any angle up to ±30°.

If you are looking for the perfect gift for the impossible to buy for, the collector, or the gadget fanatic, look no further than Hammacher Schlemmmer for all your needs. The have some of the most unique products I have seen anywhere and they could easily be a one-stop-shop for everyone on your list.

Just check out the Hammacher Schlemmer holiday gift guide as a great starting point and then browse the catalog from there. I guarantee you that you will find something amazing for just about everyone on your list.

And, there's still a few more days left for standard shipping from Hammacher Schlemmer! Shop now to avoid paying expedited shipping fees, or you can wait until the last minute like I do and just spring for the extra shipping costs.