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Author Topic: Converting VHS to DVD Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-09-2009 11:42 PM                        quote: Joe Redifer Am I the only one who has ever edited with linear-based equipment? Nope. Been there, done that--3/4", Beta, and Digi-Beta. I occasionally still do this in order to make compilation tapes for film festivals. I've also edited 16mm film. Oddly, I've never used a computer-based nonlinear system. Yeah, I'm weird like that. Brad--how do you make edits to a file format that uses interframe compression without having to recompress the result? Can you only make edits on every Nth frame boundary or something?  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 07-10-2009 02:03 AM                        500 hours? What the hell did you tape? No matter how you do it, it is gonna be tedious. Scott, it can make cuts at keyframes. MPEG works in groups of pictures (GOP) so you'll never be able to be anywhere even remotely close to frame accurate using DVD Shrink, but you might be able to get within 4 or 7 frames. And Brad, no I have never used DVD Shrink as I have never had a need to "shrink" a DVD.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-10-2009 02:54 AM                     You can select "no compression". It makes a great DVD ripper. The nice thing is that you can strip away all of the damned captions and foreign languages, but keep the 5.1 track and full quality video.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-10-2009 10:14 AM                     But see...I don't have a DVD recorder except the one in the puter. Is there no good way to hook up a VHS or other video source to the iMac, put the tape on the puter and then output a DVD? Or should I say...is there no easy/low-cost way of doing this? Steve  |  IP: Logged Greg Anderson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 766 From: Ogden Valley, Utah Registered: Nov 1999 posted 07-10-2009 11:14 AM                        You can buy a little converter box to go from composite video or from S-Video into Firewire. There are lots of them. Some digital camcorders can do it, so you may already have the solution. Feed your old VHS output through the box, into the computer and presto! You're ready to capture. (Of course, I've had access to Final Cut Pro for several years now so I'm not too familiar with the low-cost or no-cost software like iMovie and I don't know how well it captures video this way. But, since it's about the simplest thing you can do in Final Cut Pro, I can't imagine other cheaper software wouldn't do it too.)  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 07-10-2009 11:35 AM                     And if you didn't have a VCR at all, there are ones out there with a USB and/or firewire connector.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-10-2009 11:47 AM                     Steve, first you have to have an iVHS deck.  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 07-10-2009 12:07 PM                        The solution with the DVD Recorder and DVD Shrink sounds appealing, and I might give that a shot myself for the copying that I'm doing. Right now, I've just been recording entire tapes, commercials and all, to a DVD Recorder set to 2-hour mode. When I want convert from VHS and edit the video, I use my friend's Canopus converter box. It's the -100 version, but I think there is a lower-priced one out now. Capturing from the Canopus into Sony Vegas Studio is very easy, and I find Vegas Studio to be very easy to use for editing, and the included DVD Architect Studio software to work very well as well. It is a time-sink, though, so be prepared to spend quite a bit of time. The elegance of doing the editing is that you have ultimate control, but the flip side is that you will spend a lot of time fine-tuning things to suit your taste.  |  IP: Logged Christian Appelt Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 505 From: Frankfurt, Germany Registered: Dec 2001 posted 07-10-2009 12:48 PM                     Vegas has a lot of features and is nice to handle, but IIRC it does not allow you to import VOBs directly. Not a problem if you use a decent video card to capture the VHS signal. Brad already described DVDShrink's functions, just wanted to add that you cannot set In/Out-Points more accurate than +/- 1 second. In my opinion, that should be fine for removing commercial breaks, and it saves you the additional step of fine cutting. DVDShrink will process video streams without change (quality slider set to 100%), to any custom rate or to fit a specific medium (4.7GB DVD). Here is a guide to most settings: DVDShrink Guide It's freeware, so you can simply try it to see whether it's convenient for your type of editing work.  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Weigel Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1062 From: Edmond, OK, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 07-10-2009 02:28 PM                     I transfered about 150 VHS using a Leadtek PVR2000 TV tuner/capture PCI card. It has hardware encoding so it doesn't use much processor power and you can set it to record in DVD quality or higher. I then used Nero 7 Ultra Edition to take the video and edit it down and make chapters and sub-menus along with background graphics and audio. Most of the VHS had to be split on to 2 dual layer discs since they were recorded on longest play setting (SLP?) and most were 6 or 8 hr tapes. On a side note, I would encourage you to keep the the source file intact, and as time permits, clip the commercials and upload them to sites like Retrojunk for us nastalgia buffs.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 07-10-2009 03:11 PM                        quote: Greg Anderson You can buy a little converter box to go from composite video or from S-Video into Firewire. There are lots of them. Some digital camcorders can do it, so you may already have the solution. Feed your old VHS output through the box, into the computer and presto! You're ready to capture. But it captures as MiniDV format (14GB per hour) and then THAT must be compressed into MPEG2. The audio must be compressed into a 2 channel Dolby Digital stream. Then it must be authored, MUXED and burned. Steve is right, there really is no easy, painless way to do it. Copying a 2 hour tape to a DVD recorder would probably take up to another 2 hours just to copy onto the computer hard drive, sort through removing the commercials and then reburning. Mike is looking at close to a 1000 hour process with DVD Shrink. Not sure why he doesn't want to do it in real time pressing PAUSE. Maybe he doesn't want to watch what he has on video tape which begs the question: Why do you want it on DVD? The question is: Is it really worth it? I get monetary offers all the time to convert a bunch of old tapes to DVD for people, but I always decline. Too much of a pain. Sometimes I will do one short thing, like the THX WOW LaserDisc, but never more than something like that.  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 07-10-2009 04:28 PM                        I will assure you from when I did this...It's NOT worth it to spend the time editing the commercials (even by the "Pause" button). Just get a simple combo recorder with a one-touch dub option and let the discs rip in the background. I bought the cheapest one out there (a Walmart Magnavox) and did most discs in 2-hour mode. I was actually pleasantly surprised with the results. (Now try recording a program from a broadcast with the same player, and it looks horrible. But dubbing...okay.) If you want to edit a program, you can always do it later from the files on the ripped disc. Two or three should make you never want to attempt it again. Besides...Old commercials are awesome.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-10-2009 07:10 PM                        quote: Joe Redifer 500 hours? What the hell did you tape? It's probably not that much. I do have maybe a few dozen tapes or so that I'd like to convert, but they're not all full and I don't necessarily want to save everything on each tape either. It's all stuff you can't get on DVD now and probably never will be able to, but which I might enjoy watching when I'm too old to do anything else. I think I'm in nostalgia mode because since my dad passed away I've been going thru the old family photo archives and digitizing a bunch of photos for my sisters, mom and brother.  |  IP: Logged Jarret Chessell Master Film Handler Posts: 288 From: London, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jan 2009 posted 07-11-2009 01:07 PM                     Back when I still owned a VHS player I had it plugged into my computer with an ATI all-in-wonder. I'm sure you can still get them. You could plug it into your cable tv, use it as a PVR and record your old tapes. It comes with loads of codecs, so you could easily pick your compression and record without too much trouble. You could take your end result and dump it into a video editor and be done fairly easily. It might be easiest and better to buy DVD's of the few movies you really care about, or just enjoy watching them on a VCR.  |  IP: Logged Victor Liorentas Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: london ontario canada Registered: May 2009 posted 07-11-2009 04:15 PM                     I am trying to come up with the best quality way to archive my s-vhs camcorder tapes!?  |  IP: Logged

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