converting old videos

ostrichnomore_2

Hi

My parents have a bunch of home videos of family that we want to get on to DVD instead.

Have looked at some firms that do this but not keen on what they offer, too expensive, and just a straightforward transfer of whole videos.

I'd like to find a way to do this myself (I have made/edited digital videos for work but yonks ago and can't remember a thing about it other than I used to put it straight on PC, edit it a bit, and save it! I think they were MPEGs)

A lot of what is on the videos is not worth saving, would just like to keep the most interesting bits. so need to be able to edit them right down to lots of small clips. Then would like to be able to put together DVDs for different family members with different clips on according to what they are most interested in.

there's hours of these tapes....

I have laptop but no idea how to get them on there from the videos - is there something I can buy, or if I get a firm to do it for me, can I ask them not to put on DVDs as such, but to create files for me to then edit/fiddle around with. (presumably if I just go for their video to DVD option there'll be no way to edit). what sort of files should I ask them to create? What cheap or free editing software would you recommend? I've seen some services locally that will transfer to DVD for about £10 per hour tape, and then charge an extra £6 or so to provide an editable wmv. version. Adds up to too much, but if it's the only way...is that the right type of file? What would I edit it with?

Thank you,

SailorSam

This is worth reading to see how it's done.

http://www.which.co.uk/technology/tv-and-dvd/guides/transfer-vhs-video-to-dvd/

ostrichnomore_2

Would something like this do the job? Parents still have VHS player.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ClimaxDigital-VCAP302-Converter-Maker-easy-recording/dp/B003PSI73G/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Also this is going to sound v. stupid. Can the resulting files only be played on a PC, or can they be played through a DVD player connected to TV?

JJ_Egan

Yes the Climax will do the job .
Lack of actual instructions is the only negative .

cookie365

Those USB converter things tend to either work effortlessly, or don't work at all

Remember you need a VCR that outputs to RCA composite or S-Video

The software will usually let you author standard DVDs so you can play them on your TV.

googler

If you have a VHS player for them, then go to eBay and get something like a Panasonic DMR-E55 DVD recorder, which will allow you to record and edit clips on a DVD-RAM, along with another DVD recorder, and copy the edited bits from the E55 to the other.

kronenbourg

googler wrote: »

If you have a VHS player for them, then go to eBay and get something like a Panasonic DMR-E55 DVD recorder, which will allow you to record and edit clips on a DVD-RAM, along with another DVD recorder, and copy the edited bits from the E55 to the other.

i done that i bought a cheap dvd/vhs player and copied over my old vhs tapes and then chucked them
good now i can go to carboots and pick up vhs for like 10/20p a tape

almillar

You may find it easier for this mass copying, to use a DVD/VCR unit. I did some this way just because my father in law had one (Samsung), but it was very handy - no messing about with 2 devices hitting record and play in sync for example, or switching between screens. Once you've gone from VHS to DVD, you can play it in a DVD player, but just as importantly, you've digitised it. You can then rip the DVD and have video files, and once you have those you can even put them on YouTube etc. Bound to be cheap second hand these days.

droopsnoot

I'm gradually doing the same, recording from VHS on to my hard disk recorder which has basic editing facilities. I can easily get them on to the PC from there via a DVD-RW disc, if I need to. Usually it's just so I've kept a copy, not because I want startling titles and menus and so on.

If the OP doesn't want the hassle of sitting through hours and hours of the actual tape-to-DVD process, you could get a company to do it (it's £4.99/hour around here) then use something like DVD-Decrypter (this is quite old now, maybe there are newer versions of a similar thing) to split the resulting disc out into formats that you can then convert into AVIs and the like, edit, then master a proper DVD.

almillar

Good stuff from droopsnoot there too - and one final thing - do NOT rely on DVDs to store any precious memories. They'll last longer than VHS, but not forever (especially R/RW ones). Make your DVDs, then back them up, even just as an .ISO disk image, on your hard drive.

A.Penny.Saved

If you don't mind crap quality then DIY it. You can never get close to decent professional equipment because it will have time base correction circuitry which can make a big difference in the final video quality.

VHS tape stretches which affects the sync of the video and the overall picture quality including the colour. VHS is analogue video whereas DVD is digital.

You want the least amount of conversion so I would not recommend AVI, you want Mpeg2 and the video re-synced as best as possible.

You could get a decent 2nd hand VHS recorder which has time base correction built in, the higher end VHS recorders had that feature particularly some S-VHS video recorders. Then use it to transfer the video to a PC in Mpeg2 format suitable for compiling a DVD. However this won't match a decent professional setup.

Some early video cards had video input capabilities but the quality was fairly poor.

You cannot really beat decent equipment for analogue video restoration IMO. Using low quality equipment will lead to poor quality results or a hell of a lot of work attempting to correct things. If you start with a decent source then there will be less work involved and a better quality final result.