[betoranaldi]

Hey guys, looking around and couldnt find any information on this.

I am looking to get my home vhs videos and put them onto dvd

I have a 867 quicksilver with a superdrive and an AlBook (fw800 15) with a superdrive.

Any help would greatly be apreciated

Thanks
Brian

[scottiB]

First step is to digitize the VHS by using either an analog>DV converter (like this one), or if you have a DV camera, you can use it to digitize the footage (if it has pass-through capabilities, if not you'll have to capture it to your camera first) and import it into iMovie/Final Cut Express or Pro. Here you can apply edits, transitions, etc.

Then you can export to iDVD, creating menus, and so forth. iDVD4 can handle up to two hours of video.

Have some drive space available: 1 hour of DV is about 13GBs.

[hab]

Can one use EyeTV as a pass through device?

If so, you can go from VHS functionality to digital both on old VHS tapes and new recordings from the tube ...

[The Wolf]

Originally posted by hab:
Can one use EyeTV as a pass through device?

Does anyone know the answer???

Has a less expensive alternative to the ADVC55 unit surfaced???

[scottiB]

According to this FAQ, you can use the USB model.

[Chito]

There's a good article on vhs to dv conversions in the June issue of Macworld magazine. It's got me wanting to do the same thing.

[hab]

The Firewire EyeTV 200 will do that as well. Scroll to the bottom of this page

[The Wolf]

ScottiB, thanks for the link! You just totally hooked me up! Took all of 3 minutes to accomplish.

However, I'm a little confused about some info I read [in another thread] re: adjusting the resolution.

Other than setting my EyeTV recording preferences to "high quality" - is there anything else I can do to improve the resolution?

fwiw, my ultimate goal is to print out one frame from a very short video (it's a medical endoscopy).

With that in mind, is there anything I can do either while importing it with EyeTV; or once I open it in QuickTime, to improve the quality of the printed frame?

Thanks again!

[Talk2Angus]

[k_munic]

due to the specs of usb (1.x), the data stream which is possbile, the resolution of video pressed thru this tiny line is very low, lower then the vhs quality.

that's why any firewire based converter (i have an external formac dv box) has a much higher and finer resolution.

ok, don't expect wonders by vhs on a dvd ... but vhs thru usb on a dvd (or as a printout)... pfew! max 300lines resolutions...

[The Wolf]

Originally posted by k_munic:
ok, don't expect wonders by vhs on a dvd ... but vhs thru usb on a dvd (or as a printout)... pfew! max 300lines resolutions...

hrmmm, would firewire make a "significant" improvement?

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by The Wolf:
fwiw, my ultimate goal is to print out one frame from a very short video (it's a medical endoscopy).

have you considered a digital camera and a TV?

[Headshot]

I bought a German made "Formac" converter, and it turned out to be an utter piece of crappola.

As a matter of fact, I returned the piece of crap back to the Mac-store, who's employees had a hard time tellling me anything useful about the proceedure.

I would recommend keeping this material off your computer, and getting a Panasonic DVD recorder. I've had nothing but the best of luck converting my VHS.

Imagine all the Bulls' championships I had to digitize.
You'll save hours on end, trust me. Just the processor time alone makes it an unbelievably time-consuming agony.

Get the one with a hard-drive, and you can start filling it up via the RCA jacks & coax.

Believe me, it was nothing but grief trying to do this on a comp!!!

[Headshot]

BTW,

the quality looks just fine, as absolutely good as the VHS version.

You could probably find a good deal at

www.Crutchfield.com

[k_munic]

Hi headshot, let me guess: you don't like the Formac digitizer ?

It's the only external device to grab video (and audio) in dv quality; the resulting dv files are enormous (12Gigs/h), but you can edit them (with iMovie/FCE) instantly.

A hardware dvd recorder has also very good results - but you cannot edit the resulting mpg2 streams; if you plan to cut off ads etc., you're in trouble - lots of bbdemux, ffmpeg etc is necessairy...-

I use a formac and i'm satisfied with the results - i'm recording shows for my little boy and make quite easy vcd out of it (toast6).

The programming software is not very intutive, not epg etc. but not THAT complicated... choose channel, type in start an dend time - that's it.

I can transfer old video8 movies and vhs cassettes - for me it works like charm, no reason to bring it into the shop or being... excited as you

If you just plan to record tv and burn it on dvd - buy a hardware recorder with integarted hd -these beasts offer some very simple edit software... pioneer offers nice machines for ~ 1000�

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by k_munic:
don't like the Formac digitizer ?

It's the only external device to grab video (and audio) in dv quality;

There are 4 or 5 choices for that. I have one called Dazzle (generally the cheapest), there's one called Canopus, or just about any modern DV camera can double as a passthrough digitizer. Search around here, this is discussed a lot. Formac is generally considered to have the worst tech support, but I can't speak to that personally

[Oneota]

Sony also makes an RCA/S-Video <-> DV converter box whose model number is DVMC-DA2. It's a pretty good device, and lets you go both ways (From analog to DV, and from DV to analog).