VHS to DVD transfers-Ping Richard--MacDV Digest #2710

[Ted Langdell]

Richard,

When you say "large #" it sounds like you might have 25-100 or more.

I'd suggest you consider getting a standalone DVD recorder with hard 
drive, rather than try to transfer things into and out of your 
computer.

I say this with the experience of owning and using both, particularly 
from a time factor.

I think you'd spend less time overall, have better results and less 
frustration using a DVD recorder with built in hard drive than trying 
to do things on your Mac. Especially the amount of time consumed in 
rendering the MPEG2 files on the computer.

After setting the unit, and connecting a monitor or TV set, you hook up 
your VHS deck to one of the sets of inputs using RCA's for audio and 
either RCA composite video or S-Video connector, select the input using 
the channel selector, and you're ready to transfer.

Hit play on the VHS and Record on the DVD recorder and the program is 
transferred to the hard drive.

When finished, you can give the file a name using an alpha-numeric 
screen and the remote control's up/down/left/right and enter keys to 
move the cursor around.

You can lop off excess stuff you don't want from the beginning or end, 
and do other rudimentary editing using visual, on-screen tools.  I 
assume you want to drop out commercial breaks and other "non-program" 
segments.

If you have to split the program into segments to get the results you 
want, you can create a playlist when you transfer to DVD that will 
transfer the segments in the order you've selected at a 1X speed.

The recorder I use has options for quality that affect how much 
material (in hours) that you can put on a DVD.  I most often use the XP 
(1 hr) or SP (2 hr) modes and have fine results coming from DV tape or 
VHS.

The DVD is recorded using the quality level you select at the time of 
transfer to the DVD, so if you transferred a bunch of stuff to the hard 
drive at XP, but want to put two hours on a DVD at SP, the box will do 
the adjustment as it burns the DVD.

The recorder has a built in time base corrector and some other quality 
improvement options that may help as you transfer tapes into the 
Recorder.

I't pretty much a "hit record, and walk away" process either on 
transferring into the box from tape, or after you've done your 
alterations and are transferring to DVD.

I have had maybe one or two "coasters" in maybe a hundred or so DVD's 
I've burned on the unit I own.

The prices of new ones are coming down, and you can probably keep an 
eye out for one that's a customer return or open box and save 40% to 
50% of the list price.

I was able to get a Panasonic unit with 40GB hard drive for under $500 
at a Best Buy I happened to pop into.  The unit was apparently a 
customer return, but came with all the items it originally had except 
the manual, which I downloaded from Panasonic's website.

This was the former top of the line model, which included a Firewire 
port for transferring things digitally.  I don't generally use the port 
because there doesn't appear to be error correction in the recorder to 
remove the digital version of "dropouts" on the tape—pixel blocks that 
appear at random times and places for a frame or two.  That happens 
even directly from my Macs, even on things that were never on tape to 
begin with.

That's not a problem for me, since I haven't really seen any difference 
in the on-screen quality using the analog inputs instead of Firewire 
when transferring digital projects.

So, shop around a bit and see what you can pick up on.

$500-$600 for a DVD recorder with hard drive seems a better deal than 
an analog to Firewire converter at half the price, or a pass-through 
capable camcorder at half the price or more, especially when you 
consider that you're getting the entire process handled in one box that 
will do what you want to do with less hassle and less time spent per 
finished DVD.

Ted Langdell
Ted Langdell Creative Broadcast Services
Marysville, CA


On 5/19/2004 3:53 PM, "Richard Meyeroff" <rem at meyeroff-c-c.com> wrote:

> Gentlemen & gentlewomen
>
> I have large # of vhs tape recorded off the tv.  In order to save
> space i would like to transfer them to a hard drive and after
> deleting the things i don't want or need transferring them to DVD.
>
> What equipment do i need and how much hard disk storage do i need
> figuring  i have about 300 tapes.
>
> I figure I can import them into iMovie or just burn them using iDVD.
>
> I have a Mac dual 1gig with 1gig of ram and 160gig of hard drive.
>
> I have golive dual VHS recorder.