--=>VHS to DVD <=--

[eclipse525]

I need help. I have this VHS tape that is not available on DVD, so I would like to attempt to transfer it to a DVD format with simple menus.

Can someone help me out and quickly jot down how to do this in steps and what i'll need. I'd like to keep it simple but get the best copy I can. I have the basic apps., iMovie, iDVD and Final Cut Pro(still new at this one. kinda hard.) To be honest, I haven't done much in any of these apps but i'm sure a little help will go a long way. If you know of a website that has a tutorial for this very procedure, that would be great as well.

Any help would be appreciated. THANKS in advance!

~e

 

[Hoef]

Do you have a DV Camcorder? Most camcorders come with video or component in. Attach the VCR to the camcorder and play the VHS tape. You should be able to capture the stream in FCP.

 

[mrgreen4242]

Also, if this is the only conversion you want to do, you may want to look into having it done professionally. A lot of the 'local' video rental places (ie, non BlockHollyWoodBusterVideo) do VHS to DVD transfers for a minimal fee. Might be cheaper than buying the hardware to do it yourself, if you don't already have it.

Rob

 

[yoda13]

you could also acquire a dv bridge to transfer the video if needs be, I believe they aren't too expensive, but there is only a need for this if you don't have the video camera mentioned above.

 

[eclipse525]

Actually, this might be the first of a few that I do. It's gonna be good practice. My brother has one of those "Dazzle" converter that he bought to transfer his home movies to iMovie. So, I have that aspect covered. It's the whole thing of file formats, Apps and in what order. Does it all convert in one files or is the Audio and Video separate? Does this make any sense? <LOL>

~e

 

[jjmaximum]

MacWorld cover story

There was a rather involved article in MacWorld about one year ago on how to do this. Can't remember the specific issue, but I'm sure you can find it from the cover. You do need a DV camcorder. As I recall, you hook your VCR into the DV and your DV into the FW port on your Mac and transfer it. Hope this helps.

 

[eclipse525]

There was a rather involved article in MacWorld about one year ago on how to do this. Can't remember the specific issue, but I'm sure you can find it from the cover. You do need a DV camcorder. As I recall, you hook your VCR into the DV and your DV into the FW port on your Mac and transfer it. Hope this helps.

Thanks. I'll try to look it up. I actually have this device "Dazzle" by Pinnacle which lets you hook up anything from a camcorder to a VCR to your computer. It's my brothers but I know that it works well. At this point, I'm stuck.

~e

 

[James L]

It is pretty simple actually (note that I do it with a DV cam):

1) Hook up VCR to camcorder with RCA type cable. Make sure you are in outputs on the VCR though, and not in inputs.

2) Hook up camcorder to Mac with firewire cable. Set camera mode to operate in analog to digital convertor mode.

3) Start iMovie or Final Cut.

4) In iMovie, for example, set it to capture mode, and you should see a live stream of what is coming from your VCR. Just push Import. Remember that iMovie has a limit on the size of each clip (I think it is 9 minutes and 29 seconds or something like that). It doesn't really matter as it will just split the stream into however many clips it needs.

5) Once you have the footage imported, just stop importing and disconnect the camera.

6) Edit the footage however you want, set up chapter markers if you want them, and then launch iDVD (note that if you are using iMovie you can import into iDVD from iMovie.

7) Set up your theme, menus, etc in iDVD and click burn!


...that is really about it. You can digitize TV too this way. The process should be the same for you, but substituting your box for the camcorder.

Cheers,

James

 

[James L]

A couple of other notes...

1) Just use iMovie, as you don't need serious editing capabilities to copy footage to dvd (just one layer really).

2) Don't forget that iDVD cannot burn dvds that run longer than 2 hours.

3) Depending on your system, expect a long burn when you are creating your DVD (most of spent encoding). I have seen 1.5 hour DVD's take over 2 hours to burn on a 2.5 Ghz Dual G5 tower, and the same almost 4 hours on a 1.5Ghz G4 Powerbook.


...let me know if I can help any further.

 

[James L]

Crap... one more note:

Have LOTS of hard drive space.... imported footage takes up about 1 GB of space for every 5 minutes of footage. So, for a 1.5 hour long movie, expect the imported footage to take up 15 - 20 GB of hard drive space. You will also need space for the iDVD document, etc.

 

[BornAgainMac]

For my VHS tapes, I just transfered them to Quicktime instead of DVD. I can still hook up a TV and watch it full screen but I don't. The resulting files take very little disk space and the quality is nice.

I finally threw away all my VHS tapes and now I use Tivo as my source. I call it Tivo-to-go for the Mac. I implemented my solution 2 years before Tivo did it for Windows.

 

[eclipse525]

Thanks for all the advice.... some just lent me a "Dazzle" DV-Bridge. So, I'm gonna hook up my VCR to it and give it a go. I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, one more thing...once I get the Movie in iDVD, do I create the chapters with in iDVD or do I have to do something in iMovie or Final Cut before importing it to iDVD so I can do some simple chapters?

Thanks!


~e