[Joost]

I'm unabashedly a newbie at all this DV lark and would appreciate some advice/input from an expert.

I've long been interested in converting my old VHS collection to VCD or DVD, with an obvious preference for DVD. The new high-end iMac, together with a Dazzle/Formac Studio analogue-digital video converter, would seem to fit the bill as far as hardware goes. It's the software bit that has me stumped -- all the more so since I haven't yet been able to experiment. Roll on those "end-January shipment dates.

Which software would I need to stream a continuous 45-minute NTSC/PAL stream from VHS, via a converter, into my new iMac? I understand DV streams run out at about 220Mb/minute, and I keep reading about 2G file size limits (at least for iMovie). Presumably this rules out a continuous 45-minute stream, at least without having to reassemble the files at the end.

Is this project in any way do-able, bearing in mind that the ultimate goal is to dump the old material onto DVD for use in a consumer DVD player? And in as few software steps as possible while maintaining video/audio quality.

Thanks in advance.

[osiris]

Just a few suggestions:

I've done many captures with a Sony Digital Media Converter - this converts Digital to Analog/vice versa...
I have made continuous captures in excess of 90 minutes - way beyond any file limit because the capture software segments the files in 1.9gb chunks (at least in Premiere - iMovie segments in it's own format)

Assuming you can import your analog signal into your computer and can capture it (via iMovie, FCP, Premiere, whatever) half the battle is over.

After you edit your footage and are ready to make your DVD - assuming you have a DVD burner and iDVD or similar, it's a matter of setting up your menus and which files to play. Again, you need DVD software and a DVD burner (Superdrive) or a DLT Tape Drive.

The only catch is that you can't duplicate this DVD master at a mastering house - iDVD and the recordable DVDs are not intended for this purpose - in other words, if you plan on making thousands of copies (or 50), you'll need to output your project to DLT tape and have a mastering house make a DVD from that.

If you just want to run a few copies off you can do it one at a time with a Superdrive.

Hope this helps a little!

[Joost]

osiris

That's just what I needed -- thanks for your input.

[andymcdeee]

about file limit sizes, I don't seem to have a problem with that. Just captured a 5 GB movie in one chunk using Premiere LE 5.1. Running 9.2