Don't Throw Out Those Videotapes - Converting VHS Tapes to CDs, DVDs Involves More Crash Than Burn

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Wednesday, July 30, 2003 | WALTER S. MOSSBERG

[TroutStalker]

Millions of people have committed their family memories to videotape -- either the small tapes used in camcorders or larger ones used in VCRs. But videotapes can start losing color and disintegrating after a few years. So there's huge interest in transferring these coveted memories to DVDs or CDs, which have a longer life span and are easier to navigate.

[kylz]

So do you use the pre-installed software that comes on the VAIO? I am a new VAIO owner. I was lured by all the claims of easy DVD making from analog but frankly I am very confused as I am not a high level computer user. Please give me any tips you can!

[Paul C. Jesup]

Forget all that, if you want to capture analog video via cat 6 (tv) cable or RCA cables/S-video, get a ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder video card (8500DV or higher) for your computer. Also download a copy of Virtualdub 1.4.13 (best program I know of for capturing video) and download/buy-online a decent video codex like Divx 5.1 (it cost money but is worth it in my opinion) or Xvid (this one is free).

[Elliott Jackalope]

That's what I use. Dazzle Hollywood DV bridge, Power Mac G4 (actually, I use my iMac for VHS video, and save the Power Mac for digital video), iMovie and iDVD. Works a treat. Piece of cake. I've got a whole collection of old movies converted over from VHS to DVD now.

[Solson]

yep...I use the software installed. Hook your analog up unsing the rca jacks at the front of the computer. Then bring up the DVD software. You will want to record from that RCA input. Hit the play on the analog player (VCR etc) Record using the DVD player.

You may have to record yourstuff to the hard drive first before moving it onto the DVD.

First and foremost, open the software and step through it. The learning was fairly easy ONCE I bought the right media type. The older Vaio I have only accepted DVD-R. Now the newer ones accept others. Check your manual for the proper type of media.

[Petronski]

As I type this, my desktop (1700+ Athlon, 256 meg, 80 gig 7200 rpn drive) is churning away on another piece of video. I just started doing this about two months ago, and am very geeky, but have had great results. I can recommend some products you can search the internet to find:

TMPGEnc Plus (with TMPGEnc DVD Author): a $100 piece of software that is more versatile and more stable than any of the big name products I have tried. It can even burn MPEG-2 VCD-quality to DVD, permitting about six hours of video on one disk.

Virtual VCR: a freeware program that I use to capture video in AVI (compressed about 3:1 with lossless HUFFY compression).

MPEG-VCR V3.14: a German program (about $50) that is very good at clipping the beginning and end of MPG video files.

ATI All-in-Wonder video card: I got mine on eBay for $30 bucks. It is the main capture device.

On the minus side, I have found all-in-one packages like those reviewed here (Nero, Studio 8, etc.) to be very finnicky about file format and such. They try to do all the work for you, and in the process make many assumptions about what you want done...some of those assumptions being wrong, of course.

Instead, it is better to learn a few basic techniques and take charge of the process.

[Prince Charles]

Yep. I've upgraded to Final Cut Pro for my NLE environment, and the results are stunning. Also installed a processor upgrade to boost overall system performance.

Do be sure to get your hands on the new iLife suite -- iDVD 4 now includes the codec from Studio Pro 2, which is as good as it gets and will let you put 2 hours of video on a DVD.

[Jack of all Trades]

You may have already received this reply, but I'm not going to read every one looking for a duplicate. Try the ATI Radeon line of video cards. I have an 8500 DV in a 2.0 Ghz P4, and video conversion is a snap for me. It will work with both analog and digital video, plus I have a TV tuner, Programmable "VCR", something like "Tivo", and and RF system remote. Right now it's sitting at home waiting to record "Jay Jay the Jet Plane" from 2 to 2:30. Granted it lacks some speed for 3D gaming compared to cards of similar vintage, but for me it's a good trade off. It's sort of a Swiss army knife, but it's stable in my system.

I actually had more trouble finding software that would work with my Pioneer A05 DVD burner. I use Roxio DVD builder. Whenever I run into problems it always boils down to getting the video capture settings right.

I'm no PC expert, but when advanced video features are a priority, I think that the quality of the motherboard, chipset and associated video drivers can't be discounted. The guy who built my system tried to steer me towards all Intel, and away from bleeding edge tech, which at the time was 800 Mhz bus speeds. I wound up getting an Asus P4S333 which has an SiS chipset. For me this system has been rock solid stable. Of course the 512 MB of RAM and 120 GB of RAID 0 HD don't hurt either.

[W1_hooyah]

I think the columnist has some side action going with assistant Katie; ergo the mention in the article!

[Xenalyte]

Video portability ping!

[InterceptPoint]

I convert old analog tapes to DVD all the time. Once you get a system working it is really not very hard. It's just time consuming. Here is my hardware and software recommendation:

A/D Converter (analog video in and digital out via Firewire): Canopus ADVC-100 which is an external box about 1"x5"x6".

Capture: ScenalyzerLive. About $40 over the Internet. Flawless capture of analog or digital video. Works great with the ADVC-100

Video editing: Sony Vegas 4.0. Put your clips together and export them as an MPEG-2 file with audio.

DVD creation and burning: Sony DVD Architect. It will take the Sony Vegas MPEG-2 and print it to your DVD. Works great. Works every time.

[Jack of all Trades]

I think the columnist has some side action going with assistant Katie; ergo the mention in the article!

..and perhaps the fascination with computer video capture, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

[boxerblues]

I got a Vaio for Christmas and still have not hooked everything up yet. I have a lot of VCR tapes I would like to convert over to DVD. How much of a pain is it to do this?

[12B]

I need help!

My analog tapes from 7-8 years ago have gone all wobbly with age and (possibly) moisture damage. Anyone know of a service which can help restore them?

Thanks,

12B

[FourtySeven]

Home use ...

[Petronski]

Read your manuals, don't be afraid of trial-and-error, and keep in mind it takes some time just to capture the video, before ever editing it or authoring a DVD. But it is fun.

[Petronski]

I can only think of one step short of paying beaucoup bucks for professional help: have you tried playing the tapes in more than one VCR? Sometimes an older tape that plays okay in one machine will be unwatchable in another.

[steve-b]

corrupted the Windows operating system on one of the test computers

Geez, don't feed that video tape into the system. It's not mine. I don't know how it got here. One of the guys must have lost it when he came in to feed the cat, or something....

[DanTheAdmin]

I work in a mixed environment of Windows, UNIX and Macs. Most of our severs are Dell and I can attest to their quality, so much so that I bought Dell laptops for my daughters to use at college. Macs are indeed great machines, but there are others out there as well. IMHO.

[Prince Charles]

What kind of distortion do the tapes display? Can they play at all?

[steve-b]

Another advantage of the stand-alone DVD/HD recorder is that you can record a lot of material (a few dozen hours, depending on the quality you want).

The catch is that they tend to reconvert to analog and back to digital when dumping the HD recordings to DVD, because Hollywood insists that American citizens should be treated as criminals.