Transfer video tape to DVD services... help!

My mom has entrusted me with a vhs tape that she had made from all of her old 8mm videos from the beginning of time. This tape now contains the few minutes of footage that exists anywhere of my dad playing with me before he passed away when I was three years old. This stuff means a lot to me, and what I want is a DVD version of this tape to keep and to share with my family members. And I want it done correctly. I've never had luck using something like Studio to cut a movie of this length (about 2 hours total) so I'd like to have the transfer professionally done. Can anybody recommend a service? There are tons of them out there, and they all claim to be the best for the money, of course. I haven't a clue where to start or what to look for.

Any help would be greatly appreciated by my whole family.

Thanks!

I'll do it!
Are ya getting my emails?

You could try a stand alone unit, cost about $300, takes blank DVDR + and - Just connect a VCR to the DVD recorder and there ya go.

Costco carries 2 or 3 different models.

Patience grasshopper.


I used studio 8 to do the exact same thing, except it was 2 full video tapes. I managed to import and arrange/splice/label/menu the whole mess. I took about 2 months though.

Does yours have sound?

darrell if it was me id do it youre self with a video capture card and a vcr that ya know is in good working order its pretty easy

Darell,
(Raggie you will like this)
I use a Sony digital 8 to get the VHS transfered to my Sony Digital Studio PC.
I then can capture what "chapters" you want as individual avi.'s.
Then..no comments please..I use Roxio to create the DVD layout and encode the whole thing as an ISO image on my external HD.

The only minus is that in Roxio I am limited to 6 animated menus, but the bonus is that I will at your request keep the ISO image file for future copies of your dvd.( as long as the HD holds up)
And the price is right. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
You could also be the Executive Producer for a small fee..... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

i use virtual dub cause its free lol.beam i bet ya like ya sony stuff sony is my faverite company.

we do it here, with a 7000$ vhs machine that does digital cleanup, and a 900$ professional dvd recorder, total cost for 2 hours of clean video 7$ /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif extra copies are cheaper still.

cost more to have editing, chaptering, cleaning up cruddy video, bad sync, broken , and all that other good stuff , continues up till its around $500 , just depends on what you want to do with it.

but we dont work over the mail, especially in the high temps we have now. neither would i allow my tapes to be lost by one of them drug store or department store places.
But almost all of the photo places that processed 35mm film will do VHS to DVD for about 30$

if your in the east bay Ca, bring it over. well fix you up.

ot wehat codec do you guys like?my dvd player plays em all mostly but i like xvid havent tryied the new divx yet i think there at the number after 5 .(i dont like saying that number lol)

i only ever use stock DVD-r Mpeg2 seperated av , just like what you buy in the store, anything else and ya never know what wont play it right. or what is obsoleted next week.

DivX is just a free re-vision of MSes mpeg4 each of them have thier relative ramifications.
some of the easiest to compress take the most cpu to decompress instead. the programs and alogrythyms that take the longest seem to produce the better results.

some that take the longest to compress use the least cpu to decompress, just depends on how you want to digitally destroy it. TMPEG is great stuff

If you decide you want to do it yourself the quickest and easiest way is to buy an inexpensive dvd recorder. Simply plug the cables from your existing vhs player into it and record it. A standard Dvd will hold 2 hours of video at standard Dvd quality. Also, ask some of your friends. You might find someone that has a recorder already. Dvd recorders are becoming more and more prevalent.
Cheapest One that I know of. I had one of these at one time. Very basic but does the job

Only a $100 for a DVD recorder at Bestbuy,
If you just want to copy the whole thing.
Remember the quality is low already.
you can put 4 hours of better then VHS quality video no a DVD.

Guys! Thanks for all the input. Sorry to be late getting back - my CPF cookies were trashed, and I wasn't being notified of responses! All fixed now.

First - Craig... no emails as usual! Give me a call, please! I can just mail your stuff do you, if you'd like. Or try emailing me at: [email protected] - my old email that I still haven't shut off. I responded to the one and only email that made it here from the weekend.

I have Studio8 on this machine, and have used it quite a lot. It just seems to barf on me when I do anything longer than about 20 minutes. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif I do have some friends with set-top DVD recorders... don't know why I didn't think of that! Duh. I'll give that a shot first, and see what the results are like.

But now the more I think about this, the more I'd like to do it right. I want to get those original 8mm tapes and have them transferred directly to DVD. They need a bit of help since they jump and skip. Does Vidpro do this kind of custom work too? I'm just up in Davis, CA, so doing business locally wouldn't be much of a problem! Vidpro[/i] - got any contact info you can share with me? I don't do PM, but if you could email me - [email protected] - I'd love to hear from you.

Darell,
email sent to old addy. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

If you want cheapest, nowadays you can get a USB2 tuner card with input connextors for less than $50.
It might not offer the best quality but it's pretty decent in my experience. Plus the quality on old tapes might not be worth the cost of more expensive hardware...
That's just to get the video from the tapes to your computer tho; the remaining tasks are editing (getting rid of the skipping and possibly optimising the image quality), encoding and burning on a DVD.

[ QUOTE ]
kongfuchicken said:
If you want cheapest, nowadays you can get a USB2 tuner card with input connextors for less than $50.
It might not offer the best quality but it's pretty decent in my experience. Plus the quality on old tapes might not be worth the cost of more expensive hardware...
That's just to get the video from the tapes to your computer tho; the remaining tasks are editing (getting rid of the skipping and possibly optimising the image quality), encoding and burning on a DVD.

[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks Kong. I can actually get it digital by passing it through my DV camcorder. But I have had less than stellar results with that... and the editing/authoring part has been even MORE of a hassle. Craig has kindly offered to give it a shot for me, and then I'm having my mom collect the original tapes to be transferred and edited professionally.

Darell,
When you say original 8mm tapes, do you mean tapes or film? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
My Digital 8 can also playback 8mm tapes. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Edit: Are you implying that mine won't be professional? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/poke2.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif

[ QUOTE ]
Beamhead said:
Darell,
When you say original 8mm tapes, do you mean tapes or film? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
My Digital 8 can also playback 8mm tapes. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
Oops. Film Definitely film. This is footage from 50 years ago... no "tape" then!

[ QUOTE ]
Darell said:

It just seems to barf on me when I do anything longer than about 20 minutes. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

I ran into a similar problem myself. It turned out to be the file system on my hard drive. Fat32 would not allow a file larger than 4 gig. I had to reformat with ntfs, which allows much larger file sizes.

Studio would croak. It would not say what happened. But it ALWAYS died after the same amount of time. I did some online searching and found the answer.

Check your capture file or the "main" file it creates. See if it dies when it gets close to 4 gig.

This is assuming the hdd the file is on is fat32 and not ntfs.

This is going from memory. The problem was over 2 years ago, so I might be a little off. But there was a problem with 4 gig files and studio.

turbodog,
You are correct, my capture software divides them up automaticly and recombines them using fat32.