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Author Topic: Converting VHS to DVD Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-09-2009 12:38 AM                        I have a lot of old VHS tapes that I want to move to DVD, but I want to edit them on the computer. (Take out commercials and other junk) I guess I want to buy one of those VHS-to-DVD machines to make "raw" disks that I could then load into the computer for editing - the video card on my computer doesn't have external inputs. Anybody got any recommendations on how to proceed, what hardware to get, and what software to use?  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 07-09-2009 02:54 AM                        Editing DVDs is a lot more complex than it would seem. I would recommend just recording raw to the DVD, then pressing PAUSE when a commercial comes up. Fast forward the tape to where the commercial break ends, then UNPAUSE to resume recording. If you want to import everything to the computer, you open up a whole new ball of wax that will drain your time and patience.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-09-2009 08:11 AM                        To do this "right," you really need a time-base corrector, waveform monitor, and vectorscope. VHS is not very stable to begin with, and older tapes that may have been recorded on machines with less-than-perfect alignment are likely to have playback issues. This is probably only worthwhile if the tapes are unique or valuable in some way. If not, one of the combination VHS player/DVD burner units is probably the easiest/cheapest option. If the tapes actually are rare/unique/valuable, you might want to look for a professional video duplication house, which may be able to do the job less expensively than if you bought all of the tools yourself.  |  IP: Logged Paul Gordon Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 580 From: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Registered: Aug 2005 posted 07-09-2009 09:01 AM                        Your best bet if you want to edit the old VHS on your computer is to pass the VHS signal through a small minidv video camera via a firewire cable into the computer. All you need is a firewire card (about $30.00), a 4 pin to 6 pin firewire cable, and a minidv or digital8 video camera. Most, specially the older models have an analog pass through.  |  IP: Logged Christian Appelt Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 505 From: Frankfurt, Germany Registered: Dec 2001 posted 07-09-2009 09:10 AM                     If you still have the VHS machine on which the tapes were recorded, this will solve most tracking and adjustment problems. I usually record from VHS to my DVD recorder (SP, no LP mode if you want to cut/edit later on) using DVD-RW discs that can be reused after the footage has been moved to HD. For raw editing like taking out long commercial breaks, I use DVDShrink (freeware, available from http://dvdshrink.org/), now the blocks are backed up on HD. Any video editing or DVD software that imports VOB files (Nero Vision, TMPGEnc DVD Author) if fine for joining the blocks, doing fades or whatever you like. You also could use a DVD recorder with a DV output to get the VHS signal into your computer, but DV data rate is higher than MPEG-2, so you'd end up with ~200MB/minute. If you buy a DVD recorder, I'd recommend Panasonic. The only machines that never gave any trouble or compatibility problems (over here in PALland, of course).  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-09-2009 12:57 PM                     Seriously? There really is no other relatively simple way to convert VHS to DVD? One would think that they could get a card or dongle to inject the video/audio into a computer for a program like iMovie or iDVD or i something in a Mac and equivalet in a PC to sweeten a bit, perhaps loose any letterbox bars...edit a bit...and then burn back to a DVD. That really does require a bit of heavy learning and expensive programs? I'm surprised. I know I have some things that are on VHS (and possibly laserdisc) that I'd like to move to a different medium. Steve  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 07-09-2009 01:07 PM                     Wow,"DVDShrink" is no longer freeware - you gotta pay for it. I have a DVD recorder to do my VHS/LD transfers to DVD. Nice thing about doing LD transfers is that there is no protection signal on these discs as there are on pre-recorded VHS tapes. But, do a search for a dongle that goes between the player and recorder that takes out this protection signal so you can dupe pre-recorded VHS tapes.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-09-2009 01:47 PM                        A time-base corrector will take care of the Macrovision encoding. The whole Macrovision scheme is pretty lame and doesn't really protect anything, anyway. The problem with something like DVD Shrink is that using it requires recompressing the file. Since MPEG is a lossy compression format, the result is an increase in compression artifacts. Not that this is a major issue with VHS source material (which will look rather miserable on its own), but decompression/recompression should generally be avoided. Also, I strongly recommend using quality blank disks. Most of the blanks that are sold in retail stores are junk. I have had the best luck with Taiyo Yuden DVD-Rs. Some burners will only burn +R or -R disks; in general, the -R disks are more likely to play in a generic player. I have not personally attempted to burn dual-layer disks (not that any of the standalone DVD recorders can do this, as far as I know, though the newer computer burners can).  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 07-09-2009 01:52 PM                        Steve, yep. You can use programs which will take care of the compression for you and the such, but they do a poor job. Recording to DVD, putting it on your computer, editing it and then going back to DVD again is an awful idea due to the compression and re-compression. My response above which everyone seems to have missed is really the easiest way. You don't need a scope like Scott suggests and most DVD recorders probably already have a TBC built in. If you really must do fancy editing other than just cutting out commercials, then Paul's way is preferred. But then you must compress and author the DVD and doing so is no simple task and will take loads of time and hard drive space (MiniDV footage is about 14+ GB per hour). Still, you are compressing it and then recompressing it again. There WILL be quality loss, especially in the color red. Dual Layer discs require a manually set layer break point. Layer 0 must always be bigger than layer 1. I don't think any stand alone players can handle this and when video is concerned it is very complex to incorporate this, so don't bother buying dual-layer blanks unless you know what you are doing. For data storage they are fine and you don't have to worry about layer break points.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-09-2009 02:14 PM                     quote: Monte L Fullmer Wow,"DVDShrink" is no longer freeware - you gotta pay for it. Bullshit. That is some enterprising criminal trying to charge for it. Go to www.dvdshrink.org for it. quote: Scott Norwood The problem with something like DVD Shrink is that using it requires recompressing the file. DVDShrink has an option to not recompress. Capturing direct to a DVD and then ripping that on your PC with DVDShrink to edit out the commercials is definitely the easiest and quickest way to do the job while keeping quality decent. Otherwise you need to go overboard (for VHS) and go Scott's route. Just click "re-author" and then use the little ---> <--- edit icon in the sort-of upper right corner to edit out those commercials.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 07-09-2009 02:48 PM                        As I said, pressing PAUSE on the recorder would be even easier and shitloads faster. Am I the only one who has ever edited with linear-based equipment?  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-09-2009 04:45 PM                     DVD Shrink is pretty damn easy to cut out commercials on Joe. Have you ever tried it? It is much better than trying to sit there and press and release the pause button at the right moment. With DVDShrink editing, you can just start the tape, walk away to take a dump or whatever, then quickly eliminate the commercials on the computer later with zero quality loss.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-09-2009 05:42 PM                        Well - first of all this project of mine is not to make reference quality reproductions of valuable rare films. These are just old TV shows which I recorded in the 70s, 80s and 90s. So I'm not exactly too worried about perfection since they're not all that great to start with. Joe's method would surely be the easiest but I don't want to have to sit there in real time and watch 500 or so hours of video just to cut out the commercials and shit...I was hopeing to put the stuff on the computer, whack out the unneeded bits and burn back to disk. I'm like Steve -- feel like it should be less complicated than it's sounding here. I use CD Architect to make CDs -- Sony has a companion program called DVD Architect Pro, and they have a "consumer" version of that called DVD Architect Studio. I wonder if that would do what I want? I would think most of the settings and other behind the scenes stuff would be handled by such a program.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 07-09-2009 06:43 PM                        Mike, if you don't require professional-quality results, all you probably need is something like Pinnacle Dazzle DVD Recorder or Dazzle Video Creator Plus. Street prices should be under $50 and $90, respectively. They are easy to use, but no matter how you approach this, converting 500 hours of VHS is going to be time-consuming to say the least. If you do decide to try one of those, consider buying it from a place like Best Buy, so you can return it if it doesn't work out for you. And be sure to check for software updates online before you get too far into it.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-09-2009 07:17 PM                     Seriously Mike, just buy a good quality DVD recorder, record at the "fastest speed" and capture your VHS into DVD-RWs. Then to edit out the commercials, put that disc into your computer and edit them out with DVDShrink. I understand exactly what you are trying to achive and I am positive you will be happy with this very simple solution.  |  IP: Logged

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