Transferring VHS to DVD « Videomaker Community Forums

nobody
Member

I have 40 VHS home videotapes of family memories, some almost 20 years old. The last 30 of these VHS tapes were recorded chronologically. The first 10 tapes are a hodgepodge of home videos in no particular order. I would like to have these 40 videotapes transferred to DVD, all in chronological order. I'd like the capability of going back and creating, from these DVDs, new, separate DVDs of each of my children's birthdays and sporting events, as well as a DVD of selected scenes from Christmases past. I'd want to be able to make copies of the DVDs to give to family members (and have the DVDs play in their DVD players). What's the best (and least expensive) way to do this myself? One commercial outlet wants almost $25.00 per videotape, and that's just to transfer to DVD. What type of video editing software should I use? I'd want to keep it as simple as possible, maybe a couple of titles, nothing fancy. Which format do I use, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD+R? I noticed Hewlett Packard is advertising a $300.00 videotape to DVD converter (DC 3000) and it's received mixed reviews from those who've purchased it. I don't have a video capture device or a DVD burner, but do have a computer that meets the system requirements for the HP DC 3000. I currently have Windows Movie Maker installed. Any help/info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Posted 8 years ago #
mrvideo
Member

Assuming you want to transfer to DVD to preserve aging VHS tape you might want to step back a minute and reconsider. DVD is a delivery format, not an editing format and future work on the "content" will be complicated. You'd either have to rip files from these DVDs and convert them to AVI or capture the DVD playback to tape again down the road. Having gone through the process of editing old VHS vacation clips on a PC I'd suggest you consider buying/borrowing a digital camcorder, miniDV or D-8, and copying from VCR to camcorder, using simple RCA/S-video cables. There's no computer involved, you are converting from analogue to digital on the fly and when you ARE ready to edit on computer you can preview and select only what you want to import and work on. If you originally taped two hours per casette, you have more than 1000 GB of content on 40 tapes. It's likely that you'll want to preserve well under 50% of what you shot so previewing and batch capturing selected scenes is the way to go, when you get there. Meanwhile your material is preserved on new tape, in digital format. If you don't think you'll get around to editing for a few years, use miniDV rather than D-8, unless you buy the camcorder. They might be hard to find when you're ready.

David Hurdon

Posted 8 years ago #
jimbodeanny
Member

here's an alternative to using a camcorder to getting your analog video (VHS) to DV (onto your computer):

--Get a standalone analog to DV converter

There are many converters out there that will do this. I personally recommend checking out Canopus' line of products. They carry an large line of products that specialize in this, each having their own unique features. I myself use the Canopus ADVC-100. It works GREAT. It captures/exports both analog and DV video. All it is, is simply a small box that attaches via a firewire port on your computer. On the back there are all the outputs you need (s-video, composite, IEEE, etc) and on the front are the inputs (s-video, composite, IEEE, etc). You can even connect to DV devices at once and/or use the device to connect to an external monitor while editing (I myself do this). Since the ADVC-100 connects via firewire, your computer reconizes it as if it were a camcorder/recorder. With that, you don't need to install any drivers and all NLEs support it. When capturing analog, you simple connect your analog source (VCR, cam, etc) and capture it using your NLE to capture. The converter transfers the analog video to DV so when you capture video, you are capturing it in the same format as if you had a camcorder connected via firewire. This means ANY NLE can capture your analog video and there's not need to worry about quality (as it is HQ DV video). I have ALWAYS had wonderful experiences using Canopus' products and I highly recommend going to http://www.canopus.com and looking at their products. They offer a very affordable alternative to using a camcorder. I bought my ADVC-100 new for about $240.

Once you have your footage in DV on your computer, you have many options. You can edit your footage, clean it up, etc etc. Or if you want to just transfer it to DVD, you can encode it to MPEG 2 and burn it onto a DVD. I suggest using DVD-R for doing this as I've found to have MUCH less compatibility problems over the years than with the "+" format.

If you have any questions, you can email me

Good luck

-Jim

Posted 8 years ago #
Robert
Member

Why is it when you rent a dvd movie you cand play it on any machine but when you record your own dvd home movies it will not play on just any unit. i have used dvd ram and dvd-r and they wont work on anything but the recorder that i made them with please help R Mertens

Posted 8 years ago #
mrvideo
Member

Rental disks are made completely differently, from a mold filled with molten "plastic" which inherits the physical characteristics of the original glass master. That said, your DVD-R disks should be ok with the majority of DVD decks out there, although some will always have problems reading them. But your case is extreme and points to problems somewhere. If you could describe the process you use and the software involved it would help with the diagnosis. When in doubt put more detail in, not less.

David Hurdon

Posted 8 years ago #
nobody
Member

The simplest thing to do would be to buy a dedicated DVD recorder. I just purchased a Pioneer dvr-220S from Walmart--yes Walmart. It is suprisingly good for the $297 dollar price tag. It works as a VCR and will copy straight to DVD-R or DVD-RW. I have been saving programs to DVD-RWs and then place them in my pioneer A06 burner with Ulead Moviefactory 3 to edit out the commercials. Works flawlessly. Fantastic quality and ease of use for the price. Substantially easier then using a dedicated capture card or dv analog-dv conversion (which I use to do). I realize that this thread is older but I thought I would update it with an answer to other people interested in doing the same.

Posted 7 years ago #
nobody
Member

That's great and all, but if you want to do complicated editing, burning to a DVD first IS NOT the way to go. You'd have to re-encode several more times, losing quality each time. Also, stand alone recorders, don't have NEARLY as many quality options/control as a decent piece of dedicated encoding software (and/or card). Just thought I'd bring those issues up

-Jim

Posted 7 years ago #
nobody
Member

hate to keep dragging this forum on but

http://www.apmstudio.com/default.asp?refid=google

might want to try looking into that

Posted 7 years ago #
nobody
Member

Hi
I read your inquiry and it is exactly what I'm facing right now. Since your question was posted in Feb., I'm wondering if you've had any luck? Have you purchased a DVD-R?
Thanks
Kiki

Posted 7 years ago #
nobody
Member

For just preserving, buy a dedicated DVD recorder like the JVC DRM10SL. It is not a combo VHS/DVD unit. I would steer away from those, as if one part goes bad, the whole thing idea of one piece conversion is shot. If you want to edit pieces out and put together a DVD with Fancy titling and extra stuff, you will need to dump the info into the pc software using the ideas presented above (digital video like mini-DV). An all inclusive solution would be to use the stand alone dvd burner to make a direct copy of the VHS tape and then later pull the pieces off of the VHS tape that you want onto digital format to make your special DVD. That way, you have it both ways.

Posted 7 years ago #
Anonymous

or you can visit and try VHS to DVD and transfer your home video tapes to dvd. You can get a pretty good conversion at a reasonable price from a lot of places. But what are most of these companies lacking? Care and attention to detail! Other ways you get totally amateurish product done with domestic equipment.
link: http://www.vhs-to-dvd.com/

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

I think we should lock old topics like this, but before we do that let me post a reply to this old message -

As much as I don't like Pinnacle's Studio 10 package, it might be just the ticket for taking those old VHS tapes, adding titles and a bit of editing, then burning to DVD.

In one single package for under $100 you get the software to capture, edit and burn AND the PCI card (or external box) to hook up your old VCR with analog RCA cables or S-Video. The software is pretty easy to learn and packs a lot of power.

Posted 5 years ago #