all this talk is excellent. I am convinced that you all know what you are talking about but no one else does
The origional question was how do we change old vhs tapes into DVD.
Now we have graphics cards, Divx and varios Mpeg formats and can squash these down into nice small files etc…
BUT !! when we have all finished, can i take these files and burn them on a CD or DVD and put them on old DVD player in my living room and watch a film ??
I mean, Can I give my wife a DVD or CD of her favorite VHS tape without having to give her exact instuctions how to play it or does she have to sit with her nose pressed against my computer monitor to watch her films
Let me draw a conclusion: get it done at a shop. Walking around I have seen a few shops which advertise such transfers, one I recall is at the Shida (night) market.
I’ve got some tips for you from how I archived my Hi 8 tapes.
I hooked up my Hi 8 camera to my computer by going through my friend’s digital (DV) camera. Just go out from your Hi 8 from the RCA cables or S-VHS (better) and into the DV camera. Then plug into the computer from the DV camera (I assume you have Firewire/IEEE 1398).
Buy a direct-to-disc DVD software (e.g. Ulead’s DVD MovieFactory. There are some other software that do this, but it’s the one I know). What direct-to-disc lets you do is record your video straight to your DVD burner, totally bypassing the hard drive. You’ll come out with good MPEG picture quality as well.
It can also automatically generate DVD menus and chapter points while it does this. Very simple and a big time saver for the whole process.
And yes, the DVDs will play in your set-top DVD player. Although I am a big fan of MPEG 4 and DIVx those codecs cannot be used to play on set-top DVD players. The DVD specification as of now only supports MPEG2.
As mentioned before, that would not be very wise, it’s only a waste.
As Radio Eriwan would say: That depends…
If it is really an old player, then you need to convert the video files into MPEG-1 (VCD) or MPEG-2 (SVCD/DVD). You will also need to prepare the directory structure and a few files necessary for the player to manage your disc. There is software that does the job (I heard of Nero being able to do that, but there is also freeware.), but I personally never used it, because it just doesn’t fit my needs.
However, you could try to get yourself a newer DVD player that already supports MPEG-4. That way you can get a lot more video on a DVD-R.
Sounds like you need a new monitor… It can be done, but: A VCD will only keep about one hour of video. A DVD may offer a bit more time, but again you just waste a lot of capacity. Those standards were made in a time before everyone started to compress or convert videos into MPEG-4… If you really want to stick to them, you have to live with their restrictions.
Where can I get my Digital Video Tapes burned to CDs or DVDs?
We bought a digital video camera about 9 or 10 years ago, used it for a year or so, and took a lot of videos and stills of our first child with it. So now we have these old digital video tapes that are in a format that is no longer commonly used. If we don’t transfer them, I’m afraid they will be lost forever.
The Digital Video Cassettes look about the size of mini-casette tapes.
I’ve checked at a few places like Jazz Photo on Bade Road, but I still haven’t found anyone who can transfer them to CDs/DVDs.
Do you have a computer?
What interface do you have on the Camcorder? IEEE1394/FireWire/iLink (they’re all the same) or USB?
Does your computer have one of those ports?
If so, then get yourself some video editing software (even Windows movie maker would do) and the right type of cable and you can transfer the tapes over to the video editing software one by one, edit out the bits you don’t want and burn them onto DVD yourself.
It’s really quite quick and easy.
I used to see a lot of photo shops (like for printing out 4x6" photos) advertise this kind of service. I never inquired about it, but I imagine if you ask a few of them, they could either help you or point you in the right direction. I haven’t looked recently, but I would imagine that plenty of shops would still do this. I have a wedding video on VHS tape that I’d like to get converted sometime too.
I need to convert a bunch of VHS tapes to CD/DVD. I live in Taichung and today I asked a Konica Photo store if they would do it…they said it would cost $400 per DVD which seems a bit steep and they would need to send them to Taipei.
Is there anywhere it can be done locally in Taichung? Is there any kind of interface from a VHS player - I can get hold of one - to a laptop and some software that could do the conversion.
I seem to have found an inexpensive solution…I found a KWorld DVD maker USB 2.0 capture device for about 1100NT. I have not tried it yet but it looks like what I am looking for. Simply connect the A/V (composite video and audio) output from the VCR to it and connect the USB to the laptop and it should do the conversion.
I have a few old VHS tapes from UK which has the PAL format…I have tried a couple of photo stores for conversion to DVD with no luck - they tried but couldn’t convert.
I know I can buy a video capture card to input into my PC for conversion to digital, but the problem is finding a player that would play PAL tapes.
The system in Taiwan is NTSC and it is hard enough finding an old VCR machine, nevermind finding one that would play PAL tapes!
Have you looked for a dual system VCR? There were some models on the market, particularly in Hong Kong. I did see second hand ones… once a long long time ago.
Thanks…but the tapes are personal e.g. weddings etc. I have already located a multi-system player on Ruten.com which should be here next week. I am hoping together with a USB analogue to digital converter and my laptop I should be able to crack it. Here’s hoping.
It can be done, but: A VCD will only keep about one hour of video. A DVD may offer a bit more time, but again you just waste a lot of capacity. Those standards were made in a time before everyone started to compress or convert videos into MPEG-4… If you really want to stick to them, you have to live with their restrictions.