Roger Kint
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I have some old VHS tapes that I want to preserve. Does anyone know a good place that won't rip you off and that does a high quality (well as high as resonable I guess) transfer?
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Where to convert VHS to DVD? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Roger Kint
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Ken Chan
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With the advent of affordable DVD recorders, we'll probably see more places that do this sort of work. I can't recommend anyone (I make my own), but there are a few things to consider/ask about.
How much do you want to fit on the disc? VHS is low-res to begin with, so you could go with half-DVD resolution. That way, you should be able to get 3 hours at high quality easily.
What about chapter stops? Even if you don't have a menu, it would be nice to have chapters to break up the content and make it easy to skip around. Ideally, you could provide approximate times and descriptions, and during the encoding/authoring stage, they could place the markers. That would require them seeing the video, so be careful
Having just the video alone is the simplest of course, but you could add menus. That's a whole 'nother set of complications.
Will they encode the sound in Dolby Digital? This has the advantage of lowering the bitrate, leaving more for picture quality. If so, do they adjust the Dialog Normalization level? That might require them listening to the audio, so be careful
What disc type are they using? Is it recordable (write once) or rewritable? DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R (should be out soon), or DVD+RW? Do you know for a fact that those discs play on your home players? What brand/quality of blanks do they use?
//Ken
How much do you want to fit on the disc? VHS is low-res to begin with, so you could go with half-DVD resolution. That way, you should be able to get 3 hours at high quality easily.
What about chapter stops? Even if you don't have a menu, it would be nice to have chapters to break up the content and make it easy to skip around. Ideally, you could provide approximate times and descriptions, and during the encoding/authoring stage, they could place the markers. That would require them seeing the video, so be careful
Having just the video alone is the simplest of course, but you could add menus. That's a whole 'nother set of complications.
Will they encode the sound in Dolby Digital? This has the advantage of lowering the bitrate, leaving more for picture quality. If so, do they adjust the Dialog Normalization level? That might require them listening to the audio, so be careful
What disc type are they using? Is it recordable (write once) or rewritable? DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R (should be out soon), or DVD+RW? Do you know for a fact that those discs play on your home players? What brand/quality of blanks do they use?
//Ken
Eric Thrall
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I used Digital Video Creations to preserve some of my old home videos, and they were fantastic to work with. I'd recommend them 100%! In fact, if I remember correctly, someone else here recommended them to me...
Christopher_H
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Another option you can try is through YesVideo. http://www.yesvideo.com/
I think you can have your videos sent to them through your local Walgreens Drug Store. I haven't used them personally, but it may be worth a try.
I think you can have your videos sent to them through your local Walgreens Drug Store. I haven't used them personally, but it may be worth a try.
Jeff Kleist
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Your local wedding photography place can either do it, or tell you where to go
FYI: in case you're looking to back up TV shows or movies, forget about it now, they won't do it
FYI: in case you're looking to back up TV shows or movies, forget about it now, they won't do it
Seth T
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Ken-
If you have the capabilities of doing it yourself, what hardware do you have? Oh, and since this is the software forum, what software do you use? I'm getting married next month, and it would be nice to have it put on DVD. We don't have a videographer, but I'd be willing to take a stab at it myself.
The only concern is that from my understanding, not all recordable DVDs will play in all home DVD players. Is this true? Is there one format that will?
Thanks for the info!
Seth
If you have the capabilities of doing it yourself, what hardware do you have? Oh, and since this is the software forum, what software do you use?
I'm getting married next month, and it would be nice to have it put on DVD. We don't have a videographer, but I'd be willing to take a stab at it myself. The only concern is that from my understanding, not all recordable DVDs will play in all home DVD players. Is this true? Is there one format that will?
Thanks for the info!
Seth
Ken Chan
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I guess it's not too hot in Oregon? I was an usher for a buddy -- he got married in August in Arizona, outdoors! At least it was in the late afternoon, so it was only like 109 (and a dry heat). The tux didn't help, though.
And this is the Home Theater software forum
I use a variety of stuff, both on Mac and PC. I have cobbled this together to meet some particular requirements over the past few years. I capture the video with a capture card on the PC to AVI with VirtualDub. Then use Premiere to do the detailed editing, and the Ligos encoder plugin to render the results as MPEG-2, and output the uncompressed WAV. I encode that to Dolby Digital on the Mac with A.Pack, and author the DVD with DVD Studio Pro, and burn it on the Mac's DVD-R.
The recordable discs aren't guaranteed to play on all players, but DVD-R is pretty good. Apple has a compatibility list, and you might check dvdrhelp.com (same site as vcdhelp.com). DVD+R might be good too, but I'm not sure that's out in volume just quite yet. I guess if you could find someone willing to let you borrow one, you could find out for sure.
//Ken
And this is the Home Theater software forum
I use a variety of stuff, both on Mac and PC. I have cobbled this together to meet some particular requirements over the past few years. I capture the video with a capture card on the PC to AVI with VirtualDub. Then use Premiere to do the detailed editing, and the Ligos encoder plugin to render the results as MPEG-2, and output the uncompressed WAV. I encode that to Dolby Digital on the Mac with A.Pack, and author the DVD with DVD Studio Pro, and burn it on the Mac's DVD-R.
The recordable discs aren't guaranteed to play on all players, but DVD-R is pretty good. Apple has a compatibility list, and you might check dvdrhelp.com (same site as vcdhelp.com). DVD+R might be good too, but I'm not sure that's out in volume just quite yet. I guess if you could find someone willing to let you borrow one, you could find out for sure.
//Ken
Joseph DeMartino
Senior HTF Member
Would you believe Walgreens? I was in a store yesterday, and one of the things being announced during the "commercial breaks" in the piped-in music was a service to transfer old movies and, I believe, VHS tape to DVD. Didn't pay that much attention since I'm not in the market to do this, but you might want to give your local Walgreens a call. (I assume you have a local Walgreens, since around there seems to be either an exsiting store or a new one going up every other block. )
Regards,
Joe
) Regards,
Joe
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