[geeks] I haven't gotten into this yet but I need some advice

[Andrew Weiss]

The existing video is in VHS format.  It is an old Panasonic camera that 
took full-size tapes.

There may be some 8mm tapes to do later, but I think she's mainly 
talking about all the standard VHS tapes.

Andrew

On Friday, April 12, 2002, at 01:11 PM, Ethan wrote:

>> My mother wants to take all her tapes of my childhood and my brother's
>> and put them on a preserved format.  She was originally thinking of
>> DVD-R, but she has too old of a Mac to make this cost effective at the
>> moment (9600/233)
>> She'd like to know the easiest and cheapest way of preserving these
>> dying videos on either the Mac or the PC.
>> She was looking at the CD Video Recorder on www.terapintech.com, but I
>> was wondering what disadvantages or advantages this held since I am not
>> a video person.
>> Bill?... anyone else doing this?
>
> The Terapin unit is a Video CD recorder. Probably not good enough.
>
> The Mac is probably the best bet at the moment. It depends on how
> familiar with computers she is. The DVD-R drives are becoming 
> increasingly
> inexpensive. I think I last saw one @ CompUSA for $300-$350. It should
> come with some sort of authoring program (maybe Sonic DVDit LE?). But 
> the
> other issue is getting the video onto the computer. Are the home videos
> hi8 or 8mm? If so you should be able to use a Sony camcorder that is
> Digital8 to play them back via Firewire and capture with a firewire 
> card.
>
> If not, your going to want a capture card that can do analog @ 720x480, 
> or
> a converter to convert analog to firewire (or some firewire capable
> camcorders can convert). I think a single modern IDE disk should keep 
> up.
> I use two Maxtor 40gb 5400 rpm disks on a fasttrak 66 for my setup, and
> they normally keep up.
>
> Then there is the issue of what software to "edit" videos. Even though 
> she
> might not be editing, normally the capture is done in one of the editing
> utilities. Any firewire card with Premiere 6.0 packed in is going to be
> expensive, but some may have the ULead utilities with it. I've never 
> used
> the Ulead stuff.
>
> I own a Matrox RT2000 setup. It is okay, but crashes alot. You could get
> one from eBay for around $550 (the cards and stuff) and it comes with
> Sonic DVDit LE for authoring DVDs, it can do analog capture in high 
> enough
> quality to move it to DVD. It does Firewire capture as well. It was
> replaced by the RT2500... But it only works with Premiere, and it might 
> be
> too aggrivating for someone new to cutting up videos for DVD.
>
> There is also the Canopus DVStorm, and the Pinnacle DV1000 or something 
> on
> the PC side.
>
> I'd guess that DVD-R drives will be a dime a dozen within 1 year.
> (The IDE ones). And it is my understanding that DVD-R media will play 
> back
> in almost all set top DVD units, even those that aren't CD-R compatible.
>
>> Regards,
>> Andrew
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