I have come into possession of a number of British videos – Withnail and I, Billy Connolly, Abagail’s Party and various other real gems, but I don’t have a VCR. Is it possible to get these transferred to VCD or DVD format that will play on a non-computer player, and if so, where?
Read about it here. dvdrhelp.com/capture
I just recently purchased the Canopus ADVC-100. It does it all. MAC and PC compatible. About $270 US. Not sure if you can find it in Taiwan though. Here are some ppl’s reviews on it.
dvdrhelp.com/capturecards.ph … rch=Search
Works like a charm.
Konglong
Go up to the computer market area near Chunghsiao and Hsinsheng S. Rd. in Taipei. I don’t have the address but I can try to describe to you where to walk to get to the specific store I had mine done at (get ready, this is going to be weird!)
Let’s say you arrive on the MRT. Get off the MRT and take the exit that puts you out onto Chunghsiao E. Rd. to the east of Hsinsheng S. Road, on the north side of Chunghsiao. When you get out of the MRT entrance, you’ll see a wall (think it’s a school). Turn right (that is, walk back toward Hsinsheng) and you’ll come to a smallish alley on the left that leads into the market area. On the right as you walk up this alley is a large building, I think it’s the Chunghsin Textiles building or something like that. Anyway, walk into this alley (usually it’s just parking and cars coming out from having parked there). When you get to the next “intersection” (kind of like a T shape) you’ll see a small alley (really narrow and kind of dark) going into the market area. Go in there, you’ll walk through shops on both sides and finally come out on a larger cross-street. Turn right and take the next alley on your left. You’ll pass several stores selling CDs and offering transfer; go to the last one on the left, that’s where I had my stuff done. The earlier stores will quote you like NT$500 per hour – that’s ridiculous. The key thing to tell them (and you’re NOT hearing this from me) is that you’re not in a hurry, they can stick the tapes on their machine whenever it suits them and take up to a month. The price should magically drop when you propose this if you have any negotiating skills whatsoever. I got like 12 hours of tapes transferred and I think it was like NT$1000 or so. Can’t remember exactly but this was a couple of months back, no more. This was for transfer to VCD, not DVD (DVD costs more, apparently). They also offer a service to remove mold from older VCR tapes and then transfer them (some of mine were really old and could not be saved, but generally they did a good job with reclaiming some that I would have thought were long gone.)
HTH
This is great! How about the other way around–transferring videos from 8mm tapes to vhs? I’d like to be able to send videos home.
A little bit on the side of transferring from VHS to VCD/DVD:
Do anyone know the answer on the problem with NTSC vs PAL, and the different DVD zones?
I mean, if you have VHS tapes in NTSC (Taiwan/USA) format and transfer to VCR; can you then paly back these VCRs on a PAL (Europe) system? -And when/if you transfer VHS to DVD, will the DVD be zone-free?
I hope someone out there can clarify this before I jump onto the project.
There’s 2 separate stages there, digitising the original video, and burning that on a VCR/DVD, you can burn it with whatever region you like.
Regions are separate from PAL/NTSC format. eg, Japan and Europe are both zone 2, but the dvd’s won’t neccessarily work, Europe is PAL and Japan is NTSC. So you might want to convert it from PAL to NTSC while you’re at it or burn it as NTSC
Thanks a lot.
I see that I mixed up a little bit between VCR and VCD in my post above, meaning that I wanted to transfer from VCR (tape) to VCD (disc), but I think you answered my original meaning.
So, if I understand correctly, when I want to transfer my holiday video of the kids (NTSC-format tape), to VCD, and send to the grandparents in Europe, I need to:
- Digitze the content of the video tape (save it to HDD).
- Burn the digitized video from the HDD to the VCD in PAL (Europe)format.
Right?
Thanks again!
[quote=“X3M”]
- Digitze the content of the video tape (save it to HDD).
- Burn the digitzed video from the HDD to the VCD in PAL (Europe)format.
Right?
Thanks again![/quote]
sounds about right, or digitize it in PAL.
also be aware that not all mpg’s are the same, or VCD compatible, you’ll need something like tmpgenc (or vcdeasy ?) and make sure it’s making a PAL VCD mpeg. We’re not quite there yet, it has to be burnt in a special VCD format (A VCD player needs more than an mpg file), Nero can burn VCD’s. Hopefully you can stick that in a VCD/DVD player and enjoy
Nero??? What is Nero??
-Some kind of VCD burning software?
When we are at it. Any suggestions for editing the video before burning it to the VCD? -You know how it is with these home-videos, 99% is garbage…
There is another thread all about this - somebody didn’t search the archives before starting a new thread 
How do I know?
Because I asked the same question
Ummm, thanks Terry … I think! I’m going to try your directions. :shock: I’m pretty sure I know more or less where the place is.
Anyway, thanks for letting me know that it can be done. Price sounds reasonable, and I guess I won’t have to tell them any of that PAL/NTSC mumbo-jumbo – I can just hand over the tapes and say “Gimme these in a format I can play.” Let the store figure out the techie stuff.
Thanks again!
Well, if you got the video-cassetes from UK, they are probably PAL. My experience is that very few in Taiwan are aware of the PAL/NTSC mumbo-jumbo, so if you plan to watch them on your TV, you might point them in right direction by mentioning the mumbo-jumbo question.
Just in case.
Converting PAL to NTSC can be messy as NTSC is lower resolution. I too would mention to the guys in the shops that you have PAL tapes.
I have a video tape from South Africa (PAL), and my VCR only plays NTSC tapes. At least, my VCR only chews NTSC tapes.
So, I would like to get this thing dumped onto a VCD, or at least have it in some sort of digital format that I can watch preferably on my computer (no DVD drive).
Sandman, did you have any luck with following Ironlady’s directions, and getting it all done? I see this was almost two years ago that the issue was raised, are there any other places, options etc. available now?
I have seen ads for transferring videos to VCD/DVD at foto shops. As well there is a small shop on the lane of the Shida night market (the lane that runs parallel to Shida Rd) that advertises such.
Excellent. Cheers for that.
Are these guys still in business (the original post was 2003)?
I have a PAL tape of South African wrestling I need to get trasnfered to NTSC (VHS would be fine - I can burn my own DVDs)…
Anybody know?
[quote=“ironlady”]Go up to the computer market area near Zhongxiao and Xinsheng S. Rd. in Taipei. I don’t have the address but I can try to describe to you where to walk to get to the specific store I had mine done at (get ready, this is going to be weird!)
Let’s say you arrive on the MRT. Get off the MRT and take the exit that puts you out onto Zhongxiao E. Rd. to the east of Xinsheng S. Road, on the north side of Zhongxiao. When you get out of the MRT entrance, you’ll see a wall (think it’s a school). Turn right (that is, walk back toward Xinsheng) and you’ll come to a smallish alley on the left that leads into the market area. On the right as you walk up this alley is a large building, I think it’s the Chunghsin Textiles building or something like that. Anyway, walk into this alley (usually it’s just parking and cars coming out from having parked there). When you get to the next “intersection” (kind of like a T shape) you’ll see a small alley (really narrow and kind of dark) going into the market area. Go in there, you’ll walk through shops on both sides and finally come out on a larger cross-street. Turn right and take the next alley on your left. You’ll pass several stores selling CDs and offering transfer; go to the last one on the left, that’s where I had my stuff done. The earlier stores will quote you like NT$500 per hour – that’s ridiculous. The key thing to tell them (and you’re NOT hearing this from me) is that you’re not in a hurry, they can stick the tapes on their machine whenever it suits them and take up to a month. The price should magically drop when you propose this if you have any negotiating skills whatsoever. I got like 12 hours of tapes transferred and I think it was like NT$1000 or so. Can’t remember exactly but this was a couple of months back, no more. This was for transfer to VCD, not DVD (DVD costs more, apparently). They also offer a service to remove mold from older VCR tapes and then transfer them (some of mine were really old and could not be saved, but generally they did a good job with reclaiming some that I would have thought were long gone.)
HTH[/quote]
As I just got myself a new PC (Acer TravelMate 8104), that can handle the conversion-job, but what sortware to choose for the job…
First, I want to just backup the VHS, Hi8. and DV tapes on a media that will last longer (CD or DVD). Later, I will maybe start picking and editing specified stories.
Anyway, I was starting the process tonight, but found that I did not get the firewire cable, so no start. I also found that I already have 3 programs on my PC, and one with my Sony DV camera, all of them wanting to do the job.
Pixela, Imagemixer (came with my Sony DCR-TRV27)
NTI CD & DVD Maker Gold (came with the PC)
Windows Movie Maker
Cyberlink Power DVD
IT seems, I need some SW to download the video from the camera to the PC, and then some other or same to burn to the CD/DVD.
-Which will do the job for each process?
-Do I need to download additional SW to get the job done?
-Is MP2 the same as MPEG2? …or should I choose AVI-DV?
Still confused, and rather prey on your experience than surfing Google for hours.
Thanks a lot.
DV works ok, but for VHS I have one of those Leadtek TV2000 tuner cards and it is a complete piece of shit. Hard to set up, hard to use, and then the voice goes out of sync. Need a fairly powerful PC for starters. For VHS I suggest paying those guys to transfer it. There is a rag tag pile of software for VHS capture and most of the manufacturers abandoned it a year ago, none of it actually works. It sounds like a cool idea and lots of fun but in reality it is not and most people moved on a year ago. For TV shows just look for someone else to rip them and post them on p2p. They probably get them digitally on their Tivo over the satellite.
For the DV however, check out videohelp.com/ you will find lots of help there.
My plan is to start with the DVs, and practice on those until I get the hang of the basics. After that, I will try to transfer the old Hi8 tapes through the DV camera, using that as a analog-digital converter (Hi8 camera -> DV camera -> PC).