vhs to dvd with editing

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hi,
i am trying to figure out what i need to buy to transfer my (vhs-c) tapes to dvd. My husband uses macs, but we have a pc also. He wants to edit the vhs-c tapes (which can be made into regular vhs with the ADAPTER), and put them to dvd.

any recommendations...

thanks
 
You'll need two things:
1) A method to capture the video/audio (hardware)
2) Software to edit/change and write to dvd.

Before you begin though, realize many home dvd players will NOT play burned media. They eject burnable media and wont play them as normal dvd's. If you have a dvd recorder or home theatre pc with a dvd drive, these should play them just fine.

Another caveat is protected VHS tapes may have macrovision code on them to prevent copying. If these are home videos, this isn't a problem. If they are recorded TV shows (some send protected macrovision) or store-bought videos, it could be a problem.

Now for what you need.. to address #1; hardware capture.
The cheapest route is a VIVO capable or AIW-style capture card. These have video-inputs and you can use freebie software like AMCap or Movie Maker built into Windows XP as the software to capture. Most VIVO cards or AIW cards have support for S-video or composite (RCA cable) input and you just record to your hard disk the video. You can capture audio at the same time by using an adapter on the line-in/mic-in on your soundcard, or AIW cards have their own audio input jacks already. Either way, no real difference.

This will allow you to capture your vhs recordings to a file on your PC.

Step #2 is the software to edit/author your captures and record to CD. Again, Movie Maker included with windows has some easy methods to do this. You may wish to experiment with this right now by assembling any video files you have now and burning a dvd. Otherwise, there are tons of 3rd party programs that offer more flexibility (such as Power Director Pro, etc.etc.).

Hope this helps!
 
video to dvd

thanks for the response. We are recording home videos. Let me just see if i have this right.

I need to buy the card you are recommending, and install into computer, then plug a basic vcr to that card, once loaded onto pc/mac I use the software to burn to dvd.

As for the issue --(do not play on all dvd's) do you recommend a paticular dvd-rw/dvd-r. Otherwise i was thinking at least i can watch them on our computer. I just do not want to loose the home video they date back to my high school years

the card i buy will it work with a mac, my husband as a g4 or g5 laptop
or should i stick to the pc
 
Another possibility is to buy a DVD/VCR combo recorder unit. I bought one from Liteon that allows you to record from VHS tape to DVD or the other way around if you want. I transfer VHS home movies to a DVD RW (+ or -), then later use my PC to copy to a DVD R (+ or -). I haven't edited any movies yet but I use the DVD RW in case I'm not satisfied with how it turned out (like too long of a lead in or the like). Of course, you can record directly to DVD R if you want.

It's inconsistent but some will play on a home DVD player and some won't. They all work in the PC.
 
If you plan on doing any editing to the captured video, and if you have a digital camcorder (or can borrow one), the process will be much easier. You would connect your VCR into you camcorder via the video input to the camcorder (usually a yellow jack, I think), then connect the camcorder to you PC via firewire. If your camcorder/pc have these features, you'll be able to capture the analog tapes to DV-AVI format, which is much easier to work with in video editing software. My VIVO captures the video as mpeg, which is very very difficult to work with in video editing programs.

That being said, before I had access to a camcorder, I used windows movie maker (WMM) to capture from my VIVO card. WMM will let you export you video as DV-AVI, making is usable in other software, but this process is time consuming.

On the other hand, if you don't want to do any editing (such as transitions, cropping scenes, or adding effects), the mpeg format is acceptable. This format will translate well to DVD.

For editing software, I am currently using Premiere Elements, which is package with Photoshop Elements for about $90.

John
 
JohnK nailed it. If you have a digital camcorder, you probably do NOT need a capture board/device (unless it is a very cheap unit).

If not, then Sharkfood's recommendations are good.
 
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