Recently, my fiancee's parents asked me if I could archive their VHS home videos onto DVD. I told them I'd look into it, and I was initially put off by Elgato because of the high price tag. Then I found EasyCap DC-60 analog-to-USB capture device for far cheaper. The software it came with is for Windows, but I found a program called EasyCap Viewer that lets me record the VHS tapes onto my hard drive.
The problem is that the first tape, which was about three hours long, turned out to be a 58 GB file. The first step is obviously trying to get that down to a much more manageable size. What would be the best way to do this? Should I convert it with Handbrake, export it with QuickTime or import it into iMovie and then use Share to iDVD? I was hoping to be able to archive as many movies as possible on a single DVD, so whatever could get me the lowest file size while still being decent quality would be good (I'm recording from VHS, so it's not like I'm expecting Blu-ray or even DVD levels of quality here).
The problem is that the first tape, which was about three hours long, turned out to be a 58 GB file. The first step is obviously trying to get that down to a much more manageable size. What would be the best way to do this? Should I convert it with Handbrake, export it with QuickTime or import it into iMovie and then use Share to iDVD? I was hoping to be able to archive as many movies as possible on a single DVD, so whatever could get me the lowest file size while still being decent quality would be good (I'm recording from VHS, so it's not like I'm expecting Blu-ray or even DVD levels of quality here).
Last edited: