Copying home VHS movies to DVD when record mode varies
Hi everyone. Please help me save the movies of my daughter before it is
too late!
I would like to convert about 15 home VHS tapes to DVD before they get any
older than the 15 years they are now. I've read and read and searched but
am still confused. There is also a question I have not seen asked.
If I went the easiest way by buying a VHS\DVD combo and doing a direct
copy, what software would I need to edit the DVD later if I wanted to? It
would be nice to hack out the dull parts and add a menu with direct links
to the beginning. A few scenes might benefit by being reordered, too. Any
good freeware or inexpensive software? I read that Vegas makes good
editing software. Could the low end version do this? I don't know what
files\formats end up being on a movie DVD.
The question I've never seen asked is this...
When you record to VHS, you can usually set the quality so that a full
tape plays 2, 4 or 6 hours. I usually choose the 6 hour setting. (Please
don't yell at me!) If a direct tape to DVD copy was made on one of these
combo machines, how does it handle the fact that the tape might play 2, 4
or 6 hours? How much can fit on one DVD?
Finally, if I bought one of those analog to digital converters that plug
in to the USB port, (there's a Circuit City near me), how much difference
does the hardware make? Is one really that much better or worse than
another? And can freeware like virtualdub do the simple editing I
explained without needing all sorts of plug ins and other tools or would a
package like Vegas be much easier to use?
Thanks for some simple answers. I've never seen a topic that is so
difficult to understand.
My daughter and I would really appreciate the help!
Re: Copying home VHS movies to DVD when record mode varies
Joy wrote:
> The question I've never seen asked is this...
> When you record to VHS, you can usually set the quality so that a full
> tape plays 2, 4 or 6 hours. I usually choose the 6 hour setting. (Please
> don't yell at me!) If a direct tape to DVD copy was made on one of these
> combo machines, how does it handle the fact that the tape might play 2, 4
> or 6 hours? How much can fit on one DVD?
>
I'll answer this bit to the best of my knowledge Joy. Don't do it!
Yeah, I know you'll have been told the same about VHS but to fit more
on a DVD means a picture of very low quality. I may be wrong about
this but let's say a VHS tape recording on 6 hours instead of 3 slows
itself down to half speed to make the tape long enough. A DVD
compresses the data instead. If these are precious recordings you
should certainly not reduce the quality any more than you have done by
recording 6 hours on a tape. People will agree or disagree about how
long should be put on a DVD-R but best quality will give you an almost
exact copy, that's just one hour of recording. Push it to two hours
without a great loss but anything beyond that is not a good idea.
Have you considered just editing the recordings as you copy them
across?
Re: Copying home VHS movies to DVD when record mode varies
On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:00:15 -0400, Paul Heslop
<paul.heslop@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Joy wrote:
>
>> The question I've never seen asked is this...
>> When you record to VHS, you can usually set the quality so that a full
>> tape plays 2, 4 or 6 hours. I usually choose the 6 hour setting. (Please
>> don't yell at me!) If a direct tape to DVD copy was made on one of
>> these
>> combo machines, how does it handle the fact that the tape might play 2,
>> 4
>> or 6 hours? How much can fit on one DVD?
>>
> I'll answer this bit to the best of my knowledge Joy. Don't do it!
> Yeah, I know you'll have been told the same about VHS but to fit more
> on a DVD means a picture of very low quality. I may be wrong about
> this but let's say a VHS tape recording on 6 hours instead of 3 slows
> itself down to half speed to make the tape long enough. A DVD
> compresses the data instead. If these are precious recordings you
> should certainly not reduce the quality any more than you have done by
> recording 6 hours on a tape. People will agree or disagree about how
> long should be put on a DVD-R but best quality will give you an almost
> exact copy, that's just one hour of recording. Push it to two hours
> without a great loss but anything beyond that is not a good idea.
>
> Have you considered just editing the recordings as you copy them
> across?
Hi Paul and thanks for trying to help me.
Umm, Don't do what? I didn't say I was going to do anything. It sounds
like you assumed I was planning to cram 6 hours of video (one full VHS
tape) onto one DVD. I agree compressing anything at this point (and they
ARE precious recordings) would be bad.
But my question was how these machines handle a tape to DVD copy. I don't
have one (yet) and never used one. My question was about what would happen
if I put in a tape and a blank DVD and pressed COPY (or Play and Record).
Do these machines copy until the DVD is full and stop? Would I have to
then cue the tape to the point when the copy stopped and restart the
process with another blank DVD? THAT was my question on this topic.
And I'm also not sure what you mean by editing the recordings as I copy
them across. Can editing be done on these machines? At best, I would think
you could pause the recording and move the tape to different positions,
but that would be a major editing pain since I'd have to kind of know in
advance what I wanted to take out and leave in and in what order.
Please correct me if I misunderstood and feel free to add or correct to
what I've said. I never thought about saving the tapes until lately and
now I just want to get on my way of having it done.
Re: Copying home VHS movies to DVD when record mode varies
Joy wrote:
>
> On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:00:15 -0400, Paul Heslop
> <paul.heslop@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > Joy wrote:
> >
> >> The question I've never seen asked is this...
> >> When you record to VHS, you can usually set the quality so that a full
> >> tape plays 2, 4 or 6 hours. I usually choose the 6 hour setting. (Please
> >> don't yell at me!) If a direct tape to DVD copy was made on one of
> >> these
> >> combo machines, how does it handle the fact that the tape might play 2,
> >> 4
> >> or 6 hours? How much can fit on one DVD?
> >>
> > I'll answer this bit to the best of my knowledge Joy. Don't do it!
> > Yeah, I know you'll have been told the same about VHS but to fit more
> > on a DVD means a picture of very low quality. I may be wrong about
> > this but let's say a VHS tape recording on 6 hours instead of 3 slows
> > itself down to half speed to make the tape long enough. A DVD
> > compresses the data instead. If these are precious recordings you
> > should certainly not reduce the quality any more than you have done by
> > recording 6 hours on a tape. People will agree or disagree about how
> > long should be put on a DVD-R but best quality will give you an almost
> > exact copy, that's just one hour of recording. Push it to two hours
> > without a great loss but anything beyond that is not a good idea.
> >
> > Have you considered just editing the recordings as you copy them
> > across?
>
> Hi Paul and thanks for trying to help me.
> Umm, Don't do what? I didn't say I was going to do anything. It sounds
> like you assumed I was planning to cram 6 hours of video (one full VHS
> tape) onto one DVD. I agree compressing anything at this point (and they
> ARE precious recordings) would be bad.
> But my question was how these machines handle a tape to DVD copy. I don't
> have one (yet) and never used one. My question was about what would happen
> if I put in a tape and a blank DVD and pressed COPY (or Play and Record).
> Do these machines copy until the DVD is full and stop? Would I have to
> then cue the tape to the point when the copy stopped and restart the
> process with another blank DVD? THAT was my question on this topic.
>
Sorry Joy, sleep old me. No, I think in most cases you would have to
tell the machine to copy to a certain length. If your dvd is set to
high quality then it will only copy that much to it, as far as I
recall. I copied three family home movie tapes of three hours and one
movie and each time had to set the dvd length to the tape length. I
can't say i was impressed with the quality, which is why i was
concerned that you might try doing six hours to one disc. I don't
recall being given the option to carry on the copying process when one
recording stopped but then I don't think I ever set it to over-run
like that. We need someone who has tried the process don't we? :O)
> And I'm also not sure what you mean by editing the recordings as I copy
> them across. Can editing be done on these machines? At best, I would think
> you could pause the recording and move the tape to different positions,
> but that would be a major editing pain since I'd have to kind of know in
> advance what I wanted to take out and leave in and in what order.
>
Yep, that's pretty much what I meant, pausing etc, and yes, it is a
pain in the but. On the other hand when i tried editing on my computer
I found that just as much a pain with the programs I tried, more
confusing if anything. I know this is a long shot but what about a
recorder with a hard drive in it? more expensive but the options for
editing on hard drives are usually pretty good, allowing sections to
be removed etc. Of course if you feel like going that way you would
have to ask about editing options. Panasonic machines do a heck of a
lot and they also allow high speed dubbing from hard drive to disc, so
there's no loss on that operation.
> Please correct me if I misunderstood and feel free to add or correct to
> what I've said. I never thought about saving the tapes until lately and
> now I just want to get on my way of having it done.
>
> Thanks
> Joy
Yeah, I know what you mean, and even when I transferred ours across to
disc I have kept the tapes just in case :O) I wasn't too impressed
with the vhs/dvd recorders I tried for numerous reasons and both were
returned quickly.
Re: Copying home VHS movies to DVD when record mode varies
Instead of buying a VHS/DVD combo unit you should buy a recorder with a hard drive. You can copy an entire tape to the hard drive, edit the video on the hard drive, then copy what you want to DVDs. The video editing would be limited, but with a Panasonic you can remove unwanted sections and divide the video into chapters. You can then copy the chapters to a CD in the order you want.
Joy wrote:
>
> Hi everyone. Please help me save the movies of my daughter before it is
> too late!
>
> I would like to convert about 15 home VHS tapes to DVD before they get any
> older than the 15 years they are now. I've read and read and searched but
> am still confused. There is also a question I have not seen asked.
>
> If I went the easiest way by buying a VHS\DVD combo and doing a direct
> copy, what software would I need to edit the DVD later if I wanted to? It
> would be nice to hack out the dull parts and add a menu with direct links
> to the beginning. A few scenes might benefit by being reordered, too. Any
> good freeware or inexpensive software? I read that Vegas makes good
> editing software. Could the low end version do this? I don't know what
> files\formats end up being on a movie DVD.
>
> The question I've never seen asked is this...
> When you record to VHS, you can usually set the quality so that a full
> tape plays 2, 4 or 6 hours. I usually choose the 6 hour setting. (Please
> don't yell at me!) If a direct tape to DVD copy was made on one of these
> combo machines, how does it handle the fact that the tape might play 2, 4
> or 6 hours? How much can fit on one DVD?
>
> Finally, if I bought one of those analog to digital converters that plug
> in to the USB port, (there's a Circuit City near me), how much difference
> does the hardware make? Is one really that much better or worse than
> another? And can freeware like virtualdub do the simple editing I
> explained without needing all sorts of plug ins and other tools or would a
> package like Vegas be much easier to use?
>
> Thanks for some simple answers. I've never seen a topic that is so
> difficult to understand.
>
> My daughter and I would really appreciate the help!
>
> Joy
Re: Copying home VHS movies to DVD when record mode varies
Mike Walsh wrote:
>
> Instead of buying a VHS/DVD combo unit you should buy a recorder with a hard drive. You can copy an entire tape to the hard drive, edit the video on the hard drive, then copy what you want to DVDs. The video editing would be limited, but with a Panasonic you can remove unwanted sections and divide the video into chapters. You can then copy the chapters to a CD in the order you want.
you can also create a playlist of recordings which is very handy for
rearranging short clips etc.
Re: Copying home VHS movies to DVD when record mode varies
"Joy" <Mycroft_B@yahoo.com> wrote in message
newsp.t0y5n11xug52hc@user-47b243c432.myhome.westell.com...
> Hi everyone. Please help me save the movies of my daughter before it is
> too late!
>
> I would like to convert about 15 home VHS tapes to DVD before they get any
> older than the 15 years they are now. I've read and read and searched but
> am still confused. There is also a question I have not seen asked.
>
> If I went the easiest way by buying a VHS\DVD combo and doing a direct
> copy, what software would I need to edit the DVD later if I wanted to? It
> would be nice to hack out the dull parts and add a menu with direct links
> to the beginning. A few scenes might benefit by being reordered, too. Any
> good freeware or inexpensive software? I read that Vegas makes good
> editing software. Could the low end version do this? I don't know what
> files\formats end up being on a movie DVD.
>
I would suggest two separate units - a vhs player, and a stand alone dvd
recorder.
Good quality ( not the most expensive ) cables will help
Generally, the '3 hour' setting on the dvd recorder will give a picture
quality equal to broadcast tv, which is about 500 lines resolution. Top
quality vhs is about 320x240 resolution, so you should see no loss of
picture quality using the '3 hour' seting.
My machine will insert chapter marks every 10 minutes, which makes finding a
location on the dvd much easier.
This becomes you raw material. You can copy the files to the hard drive,
then use any good editing program to add titles, fade effects, etc, and edit
out sections you don't want. You can also make several versions, the 'whole'
tape or a 'sanitized' version to give to other family members.
If you plan things and have the hard drive space, you can splice segments
from many tapes into one finished product, and of course the sequence of the
clips is totally controllable.
After completing all this, you need to 'author' the dvd, which sets the
final resolution and bit rates. This is a critical step, so make sure you
get it right by testing on dvd-rw. Good editing programs allow you to set
the final parameters.
> The question I've never seen asked is this...
> When you record to VHS, you can usually set the quality so that a full
> tape plays 2, 4 or 6 hours. I usually choose the 6 hour setting. (Please
> don't yell at me!) If a direct tape to DVD copy was made on one of these
> combo machines, how does it handle the fact that the tape might play 2, 4
> or 6 hours? How much can fit on one DVD?
Use the '3 hour' setting for the best compromise, or '1 hour' for best
picture quality.
Best quality may not look any better, but may give a better final result.
Use dvd-rw as a way to transfer to computer, if you want to save a few
dollars. But, you can use the dvd's as you 'archive' copy of the videos.
Remember that burned dvd's have a limited time before they erase themselves,
and dvd-rw has an even shorter life.
Do not judge picture quality based on what you see on your monitor. This
signal is 'de-interlaced' and is often of poorer quality than you would see
on a good quality tv set.
As with any project of this magnitude, it will take some experimenting
before you get it right. Try the different resolutions - if you are not
restricted by hard drive space and cost of dvd's, go with the higher
resolution.
Doing it right can take a lot of time - you might allow 1 hour elapsed time
per minute of final copy.
>
> Finally, if I bought one of those analog to digital converters that plug
> in to the USB port, (there's a Circuit City near me), how much difference
> does the hardware make? Is one really that much better or worse than
> another? And can freeware like virtualdub do the simple editing I
> explained without needing all sorts of plug ins and other tools or would a
> package like Vegas be much easier to use?
Generally, USB capture hardware does not work well unless you get the
expensive ones that have hardware coders built in. Software coding depends
so much on the 'mood' of the computer that the results are often
unpredictable. USB speeds are not always up to the task of transferring the
uncompressed data.
PCI (internal) capture cards tend to work better if you are considering less
expensive equipment.
I have PowerProducer, which came free with the dvd burner, and another
version of it which came bundled on the laptop. I bought Roxio Media Center
for another application. I was given Pinnacle Studio, along with their av/dv
capture card. It has mixed reviews, but offers more options that the other
two.
There are at least a dozen freeware or shareware editors available, I can't
remember them all right now.
When you go to edit, you will find some unusual files on your written dvd.
The video is actually split into a number of 1gb files, with an index file
to keep the player organized. These files can be copied to a workspace on
your hard drive, and are ready for editing. I think you have to rename the
..vob files to .mpg to make windows recognize them.
Try to avoid using and hard drive formatted in fat32. There is a file size
limit of about 4gb, and some incarnations of fat32 will not copy a file that
is larger than 2gb.
>
> Thanks for some simple answers. I've never seen a topic that is so
> difficult to understand.
>
> My daughter and I would really appreciate the help!
>
> Joy
Re: Copying home VHS movies to DVD when record mode varies
I have for years used a WinFAST PCI TV tuner card in my PC
and a separate VCR. I can also input from an antenna to
the WinFAST card. The card comes with some pretty good
recording software, and I use NeroVision to create the
DVD files, and Nero to burn them.
With this setup I can copy a VHS tape directly to the PC,
then import it into NVE, create menus and all, and burn a
DVD image. I can also time-shift to record off the air to
the PC.
Quality looks fine to us, but we be olde, really olde.
Copying home VHS movies to DVD when record mode varies 
p.t0y5n11xug52hc@user-47b243c432.myhome.westell.com...
Linear Mode
