Video Tape to DVD

[Wheel-Nut]

I know this has been talked about here but the search only brings up Spicoli's camera buying experience.

I have 6 years worth of Hi-8 tapes I would like to transfer to my computer and burn to DVD. No fancy editiing, just tired of knocking around all those tapes.

What do I need? Extremely clueless here.

[cameraman]

Do you still have the camera you used to make the tapes?

Does the camera have a digital out port? USB or Firewire?

What kind of computer/dvd burner do you have?

[Wheel-Nut]

Yes, still own the camera.

I think so but have to check.

Dell Dimension, Windows XP,

[SteveH]

I've got a Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U that I am planning to use for such a process. The MPEG converter is included on the device so its not PC dependent. Have not used it though. Still shuffling through dozens of poorly indexed tapes. :yuck:

[Insomniac]

You're probably best off buying a consumer DVD Recorder that you can hook your camcorder up to. With a PC you'd basically end up recording the video (I'm assuming you don't have Digital8) with some time of video capture card and then would have to master the DVD. If you use a DVD Recorder, it will record the video right off the camcorder for you.

[Insomniac]

Also, you could also probably find a place locally that would do it for a fee, or a company on the Internet.

[nrc]

I got one of these a few months ago for just this purpose.

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Studio+Family/Studio+MovieBox.htm

S-video or composite in - USB2 out. Application for video capture, editing and DVD burning provided.

I just got around to doing my first conversion on it, which was actually from an old DVR recording. There was a definite loss of quality from the conversion and compression. A dedicated capture card would be better if you're looking for the best quality, but looks to be adequate for our needs.

Keep in mind that raw video capture requires tremendous amounts of free disk space. I think to capture and encode an hour of video required about 35 gigs of space. 512M of memory was adequate to get this first burn done but I'll be adding some more memory to ease the pain.

[cameraman]

If you have a digital Hi8 camera it isn't hard to transfer to dvd if you have a relatively fast PC with quite a bit of ram & ample HD space.

If your computer isn't up to the task or if the tapes are the older analog Hi8 format just send the job out to a video transfer company and save yourself many hours of grief. Especially if you are looking at a box full of tapes. if you are looking at a couple dozen tapes or more doing it yourself will suck.

[Insomniac]

If your computer isn't up to the task or if the tapes are the older analog Hi8 format just send the job out to a video transfer company and save yourself many hours of grief. Especially if you are looking at a box full of tapes. if you are looking at a couple dozen tapes or more doing it yourself will suck.

Heh, I would've guessed the opposite. Once you got the hardware and had it all figured out, it would be smooth sailing (and less costly to do yourself). And if it's a few tapes, save yourself the trouble and send them out. :)

[cameraman]

Think about how long it takes to transfer one tape on anything but a purpose built video editting pc. Multiply that by a few dozen or more. How valuable is your time?

[Wheel-Nut]

Computer has 80 gig hard drive 1 gig of ram. Maybe I really don't want to do this.

[cameraman]

It can be easy. My Canon miniDV camera plugs into my Macintosh and it can automagically dump the video straight to a DVD. Great for backup of raw footage and a total no brainer.

But if your camera isn't digital then you have to convert it using a box of your choice and then you have to author the DVD. It isn't hard but it is a slow process, and the box isn't free.

If you have no interest in editting movies I would not spend any money on equipment to move video files from place to place.

You can get stand alone DVD recorder like this one (http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=914701&cm_ven=RKG&cm_cat=adwords&cm_pla=Data+Storage&cm_ite=vrd-mc1) or just take them to a local video transfer shop. There are places around here charge about $10 a tape.

[Insomniac]

Think about how long it takes to transfer one tape on anything but a purpose built video editting pc. Multiply that by a few dozen or more. How valuable is your time?

Computers work well on their own. ;) I assumed most of the time would be getting the first couple done. Shouldn't need to babysit the whole process.

[cameraman]

Computers work well on their own. ;) I assumed most of the time would be getting the first couple done. Shouldn't need to babysit the whole process. Sounds like you have never done it.

[nrc]

The PC capture gadget we got has a "Instant DVD burner" option that would be roughly equivalent to hooking up to a consumer DVD recorder as far as effort. I don't know how practical it is. Our Windows box wouldn't successfully render the disk and burn the DVD in a single step. Based on their support pages that appears to be a common problem that would likely makin "Instant DVD" a non-option on many systems.

The benefit to a dedicated burner is simplicity and (possibly) better quality. The downside is expense.

The benefit a of a PC-based system is flexibility and cost. The downside is complexity. Of course, with a PC-based system you can go as expensive as you want, as well.

[ChampcarShark]

Here are my .002

I have a Win XP 1 gig ram 60 gig DH. I bought a video capture device, firewire and video editing capabilities, spent about $200.00.

I own about 30 VHS and 8mm tapes that wanted to transfer to DVD. The learning curve was very difficult and the time needed to transfer just one tape into a DVD was not what I was expecting.

I ended up spending another $200.00 for a commercial DVD recorder that is doing the job effortless. An added bonus is that you can use it like the old VHS vcrs to record off the air programming.

From my experience, buy a DVR machine and skip the computer. (unless you want to do video editing, and for that my friends recommend an Apple Computer)

Now if I can only get off the couch and away from the computer to continue transfering those tapes, and get rid of them instead of storing them in the garage... mmmmm?

[Insomniac]

Sounds like you have never done it.

I have not from old tapes. I have captured video and then encoded it and burned it. Didn't need to be there the whole time. A few mins between each step.

[nrc]

There's a cheap refurb DVD Recorder / VCR on Woot! right now that will do this.

http://www.woot.com/