[Kelly Turner]

If you'd like more details on the conversion process, read Jim Heid's step-by-step article:
From VHS to DVD
It's a little old (it doesn't use the latest version of iMovie) but it will give you a good scope of the project.
A couple of years ago, my husband and I converted a bunch of old VHS tapes to DVDs. Sure, we could have sent them off to someone else (and spent a lot more money), but we found that the editing process was part of the fun. If you're willing to spend the time, the project is totally within the range of most Mac users.

[Benny_Hill]

I personally think that most Apple's mpeg2 encoder like iDVD, quicktime and compressor are very weat when compare to anything to pc's procoder , cinema craft encoder and TMPGEnc, the problem with apple's encoder is that it tend to look noisey, and blocky noise on fast motion.
and I don't think using iapp to convert a VHS to DVD is a good idea, like i mentioned before, apple's encoder is not very good, so when you feed them with analog source, these noisey video will fool apple's encoder, and the end result will look blocky on motion or sometime the sound doesn't syn with lip
the best i will suggest to convert VHS to DVD is using a DVD Video recorder, with this way you can save all the capture time, the render time, and the burn dvd time, because DVD reorder do it all in realtime. and brand like sony, panasonic and pionner will have a pre-noise process before encode, so sometime it will improve the VHS qaulity.
with iDVD it will make your VHS much worse

[lipbalm]

The Pinnacle MovieBox DV is also a good option and costs a bit less than the Canopus model. THe MovieBox DV takes a couple of different analog inputs and outputs to FireWire. It works well with iMovie. We have the Canopus at work and the output is just slightly better.
I've also been experimenting the El Gato EyeTV Hybrid. It seems to work really well for VHS -> DVD with my MacBook Pro despite the lack of a hardware encoder.

[himbo]

Quote:

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I have been editing on FCP since 1985

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Is FCP some kind of industry term of which I'm not aware? Because otherwise, I can only assume that it stands for Final Cut Pro, and I'm at a loss to understand how you can make a statement like this with a straight face. It has been around for a bit less than 20+ years.

[Machound]

Quote:

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I personally think that most Apple's mpeg2 encoder like iDVD, quicktime and compressor are very weat [sic] when compare to anything to pc's procoder , cinema craft encoder and TMPGEnc, the problem with apple's encoder is that it tend to look noisey, and blocky noise on fast motion.

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Unfortunate but true. I do not have first-hand experience with Final Cut Studio, but what you wrote about Compressor's weaknesses confirms what I've read from quite a few video pros. That's not to say FCS is a second rate solution... just that Compressor has issues with lower bitrate source video. iApps are even worse for video artifacts -- and that I say from experience.
I am a Final Cut Express supporter since v. 1.0, now getting ready to jump ship. Apple's been resting on its laurels far too long. Sony Vegas will be my next major software purchase. Quoting a famous author of Mac video editing books in Apple Discussions, Vegas is a "much more capable" editing suite compared to FCE. Again, I'm not bashing Final Cut Studio.
Regarding Canopus ADVC-300, I bought one when it was first released in early 2004. Yes, you can get phenomenal results with a 300... but it takes lots of practice and understanding of video principles. This is hardly a plug-and-play solution. But for video that needs significant color correction, it's still the way to go.
I question Graham Jones' second point about encoding directly into MPEG2. That is a MUCH more compressed format than DV. Any editing more complex than cutting at a GOP marker will require a decode-recode cycle. For that you're better off starting with a less compressed format such as DV-25 or DV-50.
BTW, Graham's iEye Captain is a fine program. Anyone using EyeTV or Miglia TV recorders should definitely check it out. (HOw's that for a shameless plug from a former beta tester?)

[kerby74]

As long as the conversation has turned to editing software.... what are some opinions on the editing with Final Cut Express HD versus iMovie for general non pro users? Apple is offering it for $99 with the purchase of a new computer but I do not know if it is worth the extra money when compared to iMovie for my level of use.
What are the really cool things it CAN do that iMovie CANNOT?

[GrahamAJones]

Hi Machound,
Good to hear from you, and thanks for the iEye Captain plug.
Regarding the point about going straight to MPEG-2, I meant using the cuts-only editing within EyeTV, not bringing that into another editing program, which would of course mean re-compressing the already lossy MPEG2. To clarify what editing in EyeTV means... cuts-only editing with accuracy no closer than 1/2 a second, and without being able to add or mix footage. However, for family videos or other types of home VHS conversions, that is very often all that is needed...
Speaking from LOTS of experience with all types of compressions, I feel that the quality benefit from not re-compressing is well worth it. If all I want to do is place a title at the front of a video, why not place the title in the DVD menu, and keep the video the highest quality possible?
Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who edits for a living... I started out the DV way, using DV to bring analog videos into Final Cut Pro, adding titles, etc. However, I found that no matter what I did, and no matter how I tweaked the settings in Compressor or iDVD, bringing the footage in as DV and then re-compressing to MPEG2/DVD made a really frustrating drop in quality.
If what you want to do involves more than the simplest editing, you must of course use the DV route, as bringing it in to EyeTV will actually compress THREE times-- first to MPEG2, then to DV for editing in iMovie, then back to MPEG2.
And, if a lot of your footage is on miniDV, it is already in the DV codec, and so you might as well stay in that realm. The analog stuff will be compressed twice, but the miniDV stuff will be only re-compressed once.
Hope this isn't too confusing...
- Graham Jones.

[Machound]

Graham, your further comments are right on target. I fully agree that going from VHS to DVD by way of the DV codec can be fraught with artifacts. But if there's signal degradation on the VHS tape, with color or AV synch problems often being present, using a Canopus converter along with a Line Time Base Correction (LTBC) can sometimes recover precious memories that would otherwise be lost. This definitely becomes a consideration as tapes get a few years past their prime. If any video editing project is anticipated now or in the future, people will usually be better off converting to the less compressed DV format (versus MPEG2) right away before the tapes become unplayable.
EDIT: Regarding Canopus' ADVC-300 converter, its LTBC is defective and it cannot be disabled. Sometimes the 300's LTBC helps conversions; sometimes it causes more harm. People who are serious about tape recovery sometimes put an external LTBC in front of their 300 to obtain more reliable results.

[Chris Breen]

And I'll add these two-bits. Graham and I have discussed going to EyeTV for the sake of MPEG-2 and I didn't mention it largely because of the limitations of the EyeTV editing software. Most of the home-video VHS tapes I've run across require a lot of editing -- Back In The Day there wasn't a good way to edit these things and people tended to turn their cameras on and leave them on for long periods of time. Lots needs to be cut out and while EyeTV can chop video into bits, it does so slowly and it doesn't offer transitions and effects. Even simple fades and dissolves can add a much needed polish to home videos.
For capturing a VHS tape whole and performing a couple of cuts, EyeTV is a fine suggestion. But if you want to turn that unending VHS tape into something watchable, a video editor more capable than EyeTV is the way to go.

[alp]

I have a related problem: I would like to edit and then make copies of a DVD of my son's recital and am running into format problems. The DVD was made by a company I found on the web from VHS tape. The files on the DVD are in a folder called VIDEO_TS and have the following suffixes: .BUP, .IFO, and .VOB. I tried to import them into iMovie for some very simple editing, but the import fails with the message that Quicktime can't parse them. The mac DVD player plays them with no trouble.
Does anyone have suggestions as to how I can do this? Do I need a different editing program? Can the files be converted so that iMovie can read them?
Many thanks

[Machound]

EyeTV can be picky about which MPEG2 files it recognizes. I've found no way to play or edit any of my Sony HC3 camcorder's HDV (MPEG2ts) files in EyeTV. Even transcoding through MPEG Streamclip or VLC doesn't make my HDV files playable in EyeTV.

MPEG2 Streamclip, itself, deserves mention as a simple GOP level editor. Unfortunately it requires Apple's rotten $20 MPEG2 Quicktime codec for that task. As a consequence of using Apple's codec, MPEG Streamclip downconverts AC3 (5.1 Dolby) audio to stereo.
Video on computers remains a messy world.

[consumer_x]

Hello
For any reasonable preservation, I do understand why anybody would recommend going straight to MPEG-2 (DVD-r) via a Plextor or el gator product.
Going such a route is akin to archiving vinyl records by encoding directly to mp3.
If you go directly to MPEG you get lotsa compression, you are limited in your editing capabilities, and if you want to re-edit your family movie down the line you will lose even more information (think going from mp3 to CD then back to mp3).
Going to DV25 (aka "DV" and "miniDV") first via an analogue-to-digital box (or even a miniDV camera with "RCA" inputs) will result in greater information retention (i.e., you get a better copy), and a resulting format that is easily editable on any computer these days. After you have it in DV format, do what you want with it (make a DVD, VCD, iPod video), but first save it on miniDV tape or HDD, and treasure it as your new "source". Doing so will allow you, your kids, or whomever to get the best copy they can get, bit-for-bit, for whatever next video format comes out.
What do you need?
analogue to digital convertor or a miniDV camera with "RCA" inputs and firewire out (aka iLink)
miniDV tapes to archive your "source" material - 3 for $10-12
Mac with firewire - you probably already have one
HDD with 60 gig of freespace - you probably already have it
iMovie - any version
iDVD - any version

[consumer_x]

Hello
Alp's problem is exactly why I suggest going to DV first.
If (s)he had the VHS converted to a miniDV tape (and then later to DVD), (s)he would be able to pop the tape into any miniDV camera with firewire, hook it up to your Mac, and import the footage into iMovie. Afterwhich, (s)he could make a DVD, equal to - or better than - the one currently owned.
However, working with what (s)he has got, (s)he needs to rip the DVD (MPEG-2 format), convert the footage to DV format, then (s)he will be able to edit in iMovie, and burn a new DVD. Unfortunately, doing this will result in a poorer copy of the original DVD.
Here is a good tutorial:
http://www.danslagle...icks/6010.shtml
cheers!

[GrahamAJones]

Hi,
I guess the bottom line is that it's all a matter of needs. No two people's situations are the same, and even within a family there may be some things you back up one way and some things you back up another way.
After my parents passed away, I had only three precious VHS tapes of footage of my mom. These went straight to miniDV. Every 5 years I will make a digital-digital copy, as I have seen miniDV tapes degrade to an unplayable state in as little as 7 years.
For my dad, we had 80 hours of relatively high quality Hi8 footage. This went straight to DVD, via an S-Video cable to a pro component DVD recorder. Reasons are below.
While there are compelling reasons to go to miniDV, there are some considerations on reasons you might go to MPEG2 for certain things (perhaps even most):
- Cost. A high quality DVD is 1/20th the cost of a high quality miniDV tape.
- Reliability. A high quality DVD should last at least twice as long as a miniDV tape.
- Redundancy. Everyone in my family got a set of my Dad's DVD's, and it was cheap and fast to do so. If there is a fire at my place, we're covered. I suspect you are not likely to make a duplicate set of miniDV tapes.
- Quality: The quality is high enough at good settings that I have no problem pulling footage from DVDs to edit later. And DV is incredibly lossy... keep in mind that DV is also a very compressed format, and is not that much worse than MPEG2 at high bit rates.
- Time. My family would have been waiting forever if I had a 2-step conversion process, or if I was editing all of my dad's footage. Doing it in one step meant they all had their copies quickly.
- Viewability / ease of use. I NEVER go to miniDV tapes to find footage... the lack of random access, and the way that a camera is designed a lot better to be a camera than a player mean that most just sit on a shelf. My wife and kids wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to find the right tape, let alone how to get the camera hooked up to find stuff. I'm sure you can imagine that DVD's are a totally different story.
So... to re-cap... For the most precious stuff, or anything you think you may edit, I think DV tape is the best way (if you can afford it). If you have the cash, by all means do all of them this way. Just keep in mind you should use high quality DV tapes, and also make a 2nd set that you keep at a different site, and you should label the duplication date and do a digital to digital backup at least every 7 years.
For anything not in the above category... I would get a good quality DVD recorder (the one I use is an SVHS-DVD combo that has a time base corrector built in, which helps degraded VHS tapes) and record to high quality DVD at SP or better settings. Make a duplicate set, and store them off site. I would also duplicate these digitally at least every 7 years.
Just an opinion... but it is an educated one.
- Graham Jones.