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Home Video - VHS to DVD… Help! :)

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blueExcess

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 16, 2010
20
0
Earth
So I've been converting my grandpa's old home videos from VHS to DVD. I used a Toshiba converter with no problems and was happy with the results. But now I basically have VHS style DVDs - no chapters or anything that is so great about having DVDs. I converted all the disks to MKV format and put them on an external HDD (Seagate 1TB Backup Plus - it's supposed to work with mac and PC with no reformatting).

You know how most people film home videos - just a bunch of random crap all on one tape. I'd love to put chapters in and make them all pretty, but I can't seem to find a program to do it! I tried with iDVD, but I don't think it will let me do the chapters, I tried iMovie, but it just wants to convert everything and will take HOURS (I've got a mid-2010 MBP, 8GB RAM, os x 10.8.2, 2.53GHz i5) to do one video.

So anyone out there know of a good program to use? The less converting, the better, because I know I'm going to have to convert them AGAIN to burn them to disks. I obviously want to conserve as much quality as possible. And lastly, this may be a stretch, but some of the tapes have quality issues, and is there any way to fix that digitally?

Thanks for your help!

- blueExcess
 
blueExcess said:
So I've been converting my grandpa's old home videos from VHS to DVD. I used a Toshiba converter with no problems and was happy with the results. But now I basically have VHS style DVDs - no chapters or anything that is so great about having DVDs. I converted all the disks to MKV format and put them on an external HDD (Seagate 1TB Backup Plus - it's supposed to work with mac and PC with no reformatting).

You know how most people film home videos - just a bunch of random crap all on one tape. I'd love to put chapters in and make them all pretty, but I can't seem to find a program to do it! I tried with iDVD, but I don't think it will let me do the chapters, I tried iMovie, but it just wants to convert everything and will take HOURS (I've got a mid-2010 MBP, 8GB RAM, os x 10.8.2, 2.53GHz i5) to do one video.

So anyone out there know of a good program to use? The less converting, the better, because I know I'm going to have to convert them AGAIN to burn them to disks. I obviously want to conserve as much quality as possible. And lastly, this may be a stretch, but some of the tapes have quality issues, and is there any way to fix that digitally?

Thanks for your help!

- blueExcess
Click to expand...

First... I would not convert them to DVD. I would convert them to digital files... and then if you want DVDs.. make some DVDs.

DVDs are about to go extinct over the next x years (where x is anyones best guess). You do not want to move from one extinct technology to another.

When I converted my VHS and 8mm camcorder tapes... I wrote each "episode" as a new file. As you said... they are completely unrelated events in most cases.

Personally... I have not burned mine to DVD. I've heard good things about Toast as a DVD authoring program. Instead... I've made MGEG-4 versions of my camcorder videos and we watch them on the Apple TV.

/Jim
 
flynz4 said:
First... I would not convert them to DVD. I would convert them to digital files... and then if you want DVDs.. make some DVDs.
Click to expand...

^^THIS. Make each video clip into a separate file (I like the mkv container), label and organize them.

THEN you can author DVDs and such out of the clips. But frankly, as time goes on, DVDs will become obsolete. A folder of video files doesn't become obsolete.
 
lannister80 said:
^^THIS. Make each video clip into a separate file (I like the mkv container), label and organize them.

THEN you can author DVDs and such out of the clips. But frankly, as time goes on, DVDs will become obsolete. A folder of video files doesn't become obsolete.
Click to expand...

Just make sure you store 2 copies at different geographical locations. If you use external HDs, spin them up once every 6 months or so.

EDIT: You can also think about putting them on Vimeo for additional safekeeping.
 
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