Converting VHS-C to DVD.......help please.

[smokey982]

I may end up having to let a pro do this. But I'm curious how difficult it would be to convert some old VHS-C and also some mini-DVI's to DVD. The only computer I have is an iMac (last years model). Does anyone know if the Mac is capable of doing this or would I have to purchase some other equipment? I don't know anything about video editing. And I really don't care about editing the tapes. I would like to make complete copies. Any suggestions?

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[Ganthet]

It's not terribly difficult, but you will need something between the VHS-C and your mac. You need an analog/digital converter - something that will convert the analog signal coming out of the camcorder to a digital signal the mac can accept. Click here to see an example of such a device . I'm not a mac expert, but if they still have iMovie that will accept the signal from the converter via a firewire port.

The Mini-DV tapes are already digital and your DV camera should have a firewire ouput (it might be labeled ieee 1394, the technical name of firewire). It is just a matter of connecting the camera to the mac and transferring via iMovie. From there iMovie should have everything you need to create and burn the DVD. You do not need a particularly powerful PC to do this. However, the DV video will take up about 13GB per hour of footage so make sure you have some spare hard drive space.

Now the big question: Is it worth it? If you only have a few tapes to convert and no desire to take up home video editing as a hobby I suggest just paying someone to do the VHSC-to-DVD conversion as it is really cheaper than buying the conversion hardware. I think there is a company that works through Wal-Mart now that does it, though I can't speak to their quality.

 

[smokey982]

Well I played around with iMovie (and google) long enough to figure out the basics and I was able to convert one of my mini-dv's to iMovie and then onto DVD. Yeahhhhh!! It was definitely time consuming and I still don't know everything there is to know about it. I feel like there's a lot of extra things I could add to my DVD. Like the way the opening segment begins when I insert the DVD into a player, and also adding some music and chapters. I have a 58 minute movie and its all one chapter.

As for the VHS-C tapes, I may just need to take them to a pro. The only problem with that, one of those tapes has the birth of my daughter. And although my wife told me not to video her naked body. I was overwhelmed with the excitement and videoed EVERYTHING. Now she doesn't want that tape in the hands of a stranger (or anyone for that matter) to see while its being converted. I would actually like to have 2 copies of that tape made. One unedited and the other with the nudity edited out for everyone else's viewing pleasure.

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[Ganthet]

Yikes! I can see your issue. I would also not let anyone else touch those VHS-C tapes.

Here's something else I just thought of - many DV cameras have a pass-through function where it can take an analog signal and convert it to digital without the need of the device I mentioned above. Check your camera's manual and see if your camera has it. It was a pretty standard feature on DV cameras.

As for the the other things you mentioned you're actually talking about 2 things: editing and authoring. Each needs something a little different.

Editing would be where you take out the parts you don't want or add a type of blur to cover certain *ahem* areas . For that you need an editing program. I've used Adobe Premier, but that is very expensive and really overkill for what you want to do. There are lower cost software packages out there to do basic stuff. Again, my lack of Mac experience limits my ability to make suggestions, but I thought iMovie would let you make some basic cuts and transitions.

Authoring is taking your edited footage and creating a DVD from it. That includes adding chapter stops, menus and opening footage. I think Apple has an iDVD program that you can use. I don't know if it is free or not.

 

[navychop]

There were sold, by GO & others, VCRs that copy the tape directly from tape to burn a DVD in the same box. And there are/were "cassettes" that let you insert a VHS-C tape into that made it act as a VHS tape. This would be easiest, if you can find the equipment.

BTW you can get iDVD as part of iLife at Amazon. But be very sure it will run on your hardware.

 

[Ilya]

Funny that you asked! I was going through my home video tapes the other day: VHS, Hi8, MiniDV, a lot of tapes and a lot of memories worth preserving. I've been exploring my possibilities. My goal is not to do any authoring yet, but to digitize all these videos at the best possible quality, so I could preserve them for a long time. Fortunately I have a NAS file server at home with enough terabytes and with RAID5 redundancy, so the storage should not be an issue.

Here is my plan:

1. I will start with MiniDV tapes and will transfer them at the highest possible quality (without any compression) via FireWire. That should be easy, as I do have a MiniDV camcorder in a good working condition. (Warning! Use FireWire, not USB! I've discovered my Sony camcorder downgrades the picture quality significantly when sending video via USB!)

2. Hi8. That's a tough one! My old Hi8 camcorder is in very bad shape. I just hope I can make it work. If so, then I plan to connect its video output to the video input of the MiniDV camcorder (I have never tried that, but I know it's possible) and will use it as a pass-through analog-to-digital converter. Now, if my camcorder doesn't work, then I may have to buy a used one (or borrow it from a friend). The best choice, as I understand, would be a Digital-8 camcorder, that can both play and digitize Hi8 recordings.

3. Finally - VHS. I do have a working Toshiba VHS/DVD writer, so my first thought was to use it for that purpose. However, after burning several DVD's I am not impressed with its DVD authoring abilities and I am not sure that its built in MPEG2 encoder is as good as what computers can do these days in software. So, what I am thinking of is again sending the VHS analog output signal to the MiniDV camcorder and digitizing it that way. Since storage is not a problem, I plan to store all videos uncompressed and worry about MPEG2 encoding and DVD authoring at a later time.

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[Ilya]

And there are/were "cassettes" that let you insert a VHS-C tape into that made it act as a VHS tape. This would be easiest, if you can find the equipment.

Yes, if you still have a VCR, then the VHS-C adapter is what you need in order to be able to play those tapes without a camcorder. I believe you can still buy those.

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[smokey982]

Well I made my 2nd DVD from my DV-I tape using iDVD. It's beginning to get a little easier understanding this thing. The only thing I can't decide. When creating the movie I have the option of 16:9 or 4:3. I would obviously like it to be 16:9 for playback purposes. But will I be losing anything (quality) by doing this. I assume the camcorder records in 4:3 since its not HD? So I assume it "stretches" the picture?

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[dfergie]

Probably will .

 

[TNGTony]

If the source is 4x3 the only way to make it 16x9 is to 1) stretch the image 2)Cut off the top and bottom of the 4x3 pix in a vertical pan and scan.

Unless you are allergic to black bars on the sides of the pic, keep the 4x3 aspect ratio.

 

[Voyager6]

Here is a possible help for the VHS to DVD transfer. http://www.meritline.com/mygica-igrabber-usb-2-video-capture-mac---p-38254.aspx

 

[Ilya]

I assume the camcorder records in 4:3 since its not HD?

It depends on the camcorder. My Sony camcorder is SD, but it does have a widescreen (16x9) mode, so I shoot everything in 16x9.
In general, it is best not to change the aspect ratio of your original video: you can always, crop/stretch in the TV set itself, if you later decide you prefer it that way.

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[navychop]

You might look to see if there's a Sony SLV-D300P you could borrow or buy cheap.