Audio tape database + digitally controlled tape deck?

I have a client who wants to digitize his large library of cassette tapes, starting with 250 tapes of stories he has told his children. I have been searching for an OS X software product or freeware that could do the job well, which would include the ability to play the indexed audio file.
The data to be indexed would include: story, tape #, start time (tape index), and all the characters in the stories, so that one could retrieve a list of stories that contain a particular character.
Another useful thing would be a digitally controlled tape deck, but the only one I can find is for the PC only. (there are some rs232 controlled decks, but no real details on how to control them, and no info about what software, and no RS-232 interface on the mac laptop in question.)
If anyone has any ideas, or knows a better forum to post this on, please let me know,
Thanks
Joel

Hey Joel,
Well first lets talk about digitizing. There are many methods, and pieces of equipment to use but you can probably learn some info from the macworld article on digitizing tapes. I assume you saw the same USB deck that I saw- The Plusdeck, and while it currently does not support OSX, hope may be on the way because in their forum they have posted a want ad for a mac developer. In terms of cataloging, personally, I would just use iTunes. You can include Name, Album, Artist, Track Number, Disc Number, Grouping, Composer, BPM, Genre, and it also includes a large comments field in the metatag. I would think you could adapt all these field to your needs. However, many database apps are available for the Macintosh. In the pro world, Filemaker Pro is a pretty accepted standard. However, pricing for it is pretty steep, at $299. Another solution which may be a little more price acceptable is EagleData, which is a freeware database app. To tell you the truth- I really don't think you want to get into RS232, but if you're really interested, we can talk about programming it and the different protocols. Hope this helps...
--Justin S.

Similar Messages

CD Audio and CD Digital controlled by Wave/MP3 sli

Using Platinum Li've! card with digital I/O daughter card. I have connected CD ROM (4 pin) cable to CD In on soundcard and DVD to CD SPDIF in on card (2 pin cable) but both devices are still controlled by the wave/mp3 slider on the surround sound mixer. I have downloaded latest drivers, too. I would like to control these devises by their corresponding mixer sliders (CD digital and CD audio). How can I do this?
Thanks!

JeffFun,
You may need to disable Digital CD extraction for your CDrom for this to work. This is done in device manager on the properties section for the CD. This should allow control of the levels directly.
Jeremy

Any way to use standard VHS deck to convert VHS tape to digital file (iMac)

I use FCE/iMovie. I've had old 8mm films converted to digital files to make family movies - very costly. Is there a way to use a standard VHS deck as a source with my newer iMac to convert old VHS tapes to digital files for editing?

I purhcased the Canopus 55 - it is working well. You can't preview in iMovie, though, which is a challenge and was a comment in reviews on Canopus 55. I did buy the power source with it based on reviews.
However, I am posting a question about iMovie 08 which has quit making thumbnails & writing the video even though the import screen appears to import.

How best to Convert, and edit video tape to digital

I want to convert, and edit VHS and Betamax video tapes to digital. My research indicates that there are a number of ways to achieve this, including:
1. A video recorder with a hard disk and DVR (Which?)
2. The "pass through" feature on a MiniDV camcorder (Discussion Sites)
3. EyeTV 250 Plus (Magazine)
4. Canopus' (ADVC300), which “cleans and stabilises analogue video before conversion so the digital is a higher quality than the original analogue” (Magazine and Discussion Sites)
Some claim that an S-video connection is essential for best results.
Can an expert advise the best solution?

I have a Canopus ADVC-300 that I use when digitizing VHS and Hi8 material.
It works quite well. The included software allows you to adjust the quality of the image as it is being converted.
Connect the tape deck to the ADVC-300 using SVHS cable and an audio RCA cable then firewire between the ADVC-300 and your mac. Turn on everything and launch iMovie to capture the playing video stream.
If you have technical questions regarding iMovie and or iDVD, each has a specific forum here on the Apple Discussions site.
Good luck,
x

Beta Cam tapes to Digital

if i have beta cam tapes...how can i digitize the footage into my FCP?
i have one of those receiver boxes to transfer old vhs tapes to computer...will that do it?
if i have the camera, will that make it easier?

Betacam DECK. Yes...that usually goes without saying. You need a playback device that can play back the tape format you have. The J-30 was mentioned, and with that you can play the betaSP footage and capture it directly into your computer via firewire...no Pyro needed.
You'll have to control the deck manually, and you won't get timecode this way, but you'll have the footage.
Shane

Which is the best way to record full hd on digital betacam tape?

Hello,
I'm capturing and editing full hd size but the final product has to be delivered on a digital betacam tape with Edit to Tape option to record. I have tried doing so with the following 2 ways:
1. Recording from HD timeline on a HD tape. Then capturing back on the machine from the same HD tape as PAL. Then recording on a Digital betacam as final product.
2. Exporting from HD timeline with current settings as a qucktime movie. Importing the same movie on a PAL timeline. Then recording on a digtal betacam.
My timeline setting for HD is : Uncompressed 8 bit 4:2:2 1920x1080 HDTV 1080i 16:9; Pixel Aspect Ratio SQUARE
My timeline setting for PAL is: Uncompressed 8 bit 4:2:2 720x576 PAL CCIR 601/DV Pal 5:4; Pixel Aspect Ratio PAL CCIR 601 (720x576)
The problem is when the episode is broadcasted on tv, the quality of video looks bad and a little jarred. Can anyone suggest any other way to record on a digital betacam?
Thank you.
P.S. I've tried dragging the hd sequence to a PAL timeline.
And also exporting using qicktime conversion to Custom size 720x576 without preserving pixel aspect ratio with Uncompressed 8 bit 4:2:2 compression and then changing the distort setting to -33.33 to fit on a PAL timeline with black bars. These 2 options look better than the ones i've mentioned above but I'm not sure if it is right. Please Advice.

Go into the AJA Control Panel. For secondary output, choose 525i 29.97. Right click on the output option you want (they are on the right) and choose SECONDARY or 525i. Then a little box should appear between the Frame Buffer and the output option that says DOWNCONVERT.
Do you have the Kona 3? what hardware are you using?

How to convert old VHS tapes to digital

I am hoping someone can give me an overview of what kind of equipment/software is necessary to convert VHS tapes into a digital format that could be saved in iMovie. Do I just need the right cables for the VCR or something more complicated? Thanks!

I recommend that you download the free iMovie HD6 for those with iMovie 08 who do not have a prior version of iMovie HD6. You can get it here: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html
And, do this tutorial: http://www.apple.com/support/imovie/tutorial/
It is more capable of creative editing and you have a quite a bit more control over your iMovie with it.
+So, your method worked using just a VCR, a camcorder, and your computer? No special converters?+
Yes, I just used the AV connectors that came with my camcorder to hook the camcorder to the VCR....which was in a combo TV/VCR unit so I could see the footage on my tv, just to make it easier. The AV connector cable has a special prong that fits into the camcorder, and those white/red/yellow prongs at the VCR end. The TV/VCR is a few years old, certainly not anything fancy or new.
I didn't bother with a converter since I just used the camcorder.
My computer and that VCR are not physically close enough to try to import directly, and since I wanted the digital tapes of the original footage, recording first to the miniDV tapes worked for me. Canopus makes a couple of nice converters...they are around $150-250, I think.
Then, to connect to the computer with the camcorder you will need a 4-6 pin Firewire cable.
+I might do it sooner or I might put it off for awhile while I practice messing around with iMovie.+
The benefit of recording from VHS to miniDV tapes is that the tapes are digital, they store easily and the footage will not degrade before you get around to creating your iMovies and DVDs. iMovies can take up lots of drive space, so don't be thinking that you will just import them all and save them for editing later. You would need a huge amount of space for this. Most of my movies are just under 2 hours, and occupy between 25-40 GB each. A couple of my movies were well over 100-140GB!!!! Yes, that is correct. I have a couple of external drives that I use for my movies while I am creating them. I usually have about two or three that I am working on at the same time.
+We want to put them in a digital format that will be easier to store and play and safer from eroding over time, so I guess the end format I'm looking for is DVDs.+
Because DVDs can break/crack/warp/melt/etc, you should consider exporting your finished iMovies back to the camcorder so that you have the miniDV tapes for more permanent storage and as a backup to your DVDs.
That is one of the big reasons that I don't use iMovie 08---it does not permit exporting back to a camcorder.
Although I do not save my created iMovies on my computer after I have made the DVD and exported the edited movie back to tape, I do save all my iDVD projects as disk images. A disk image can be up to 4.7 GB--even my large movies were automatically compressed down when put into iDVD. The limitation in iDVD is the total length of the movie in TIME, not SIZE. I use single-layer DVDs, which can hold up to 2 hours of content. Creating disk images allows you to have an exact copy of your iDVD projects, self-contained so that you can delete the original iMovies and the original iDVD projects. You can use the disk image to burn your disks when you first create them, and any time in the future. It is a good backup for the entire DVD.
Enjoy being creative with your movie projects! Post back with any more questions, and feel free to email me if you want.
Regards,
Beverly

Advice on converting analog Hi8mm tapes to digital

Hi,
I am looking for advice on converting some Hi8mm analog video tapes to digital. They are not my tapes but I would still prefer to obtain a good quality transfer. I may do some editing on a few of them in PRE and would like to maintain the ability to edit them in the future.
At present, I've bought a Roxio easyVHStoDVD USB converter which states it can capture in DV-AVI format but doesn't actually appear able to do so. Results so far at capturing have been finicky at best but I'm still working on it but am wary because the format captured is not DV-AVI.
I've read several people here suggesting using an ADS Pyro A/D Firewire converter. Would that be a better, less troublesome route to go? And what other tips does anyone have in doing an A/D conversion?
Thanks,
Paul

The workflow that you outline is good for archiving the material, but not so good for later editing that material. As Paul_LS states, a DVD-video will use MPEG-2 encoding. Material and quality will be forever lost. These DVD's are good for doing a backup of the material on tape, but the best quality will result from editing the Captured DV-AVI Type II material. Get an external HDD, instead, and copy those files over to it for later editing.
If you need to do much correction to the Captured material, especially color and exposure work, you might want to look into the Canopus 300, which allows one to do more at the Caputre stage with regards to color and density. The 100 will do a great job of straight Capture, but all corrections will need to be done in PE later.
For a similar Project, with 34 VHS tapes (all sorts of film rates, EP, LP and SP, I did a quick archival copy to DVD (I used my Panasonic VHS-DVD deck for this), and then did a Capture to DV-AVI Type II for all tapes, logging each with details and notes on what each scene was and where it was located, via Timecode. This was all done, while the Capture was being made, and these notes were invaluable, when it came time to actually do the edits.
Using the DV-AVI Type II files (stored on about 4 2TB external (FireWire 800) hard discs, I then Imported just what I needed to create 17 finished DVD's from the tapes. During the edit, I archived each Project to another set of external HDD's, because I will need to do extensive editing for a finished set of DVD's for the two subjects, whose lives were recorded on those 34 tapes. Again, I kept notes on these files, so I know exactly where every scene is located. I can still go back to the Captures, but as I have doine the color grading, and density correction on the next phase of files, those would be the ones that I'd want to use.
In this Project, the biggest help was my "shot sheet," that contained all details of every shot. It saved me countless hours of searching, just to locate a particular scene. If you need a "shot sheet," let me know, and I'll share a PDF of the one that worked for me.
Good luck,
Hunt

Archiving Hi8/ Digital 8 tapes

Hello to all,
What's the best way to archive hi8/digital 8 tapes? thru Imovie6 or Imovie8? I do have tons of these tapes. If I saved these at an external drive thru I movie6, can I export them to Final Cut Express? I know it's easy to browse them at Imovie8 but i'm not a big fan of it.
Any advise is greatly appreciated.
Thank you

What is your ultimate goal with this video footage? You can import into iMovie from a digital 8 camcorder, and you can probably get the Hi8 tapes imported also if the digital 8 camcorder can play them.
See this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6256392&#6256392
But, movies take up lots of drive space. An hour of iMovie in DV format will take up 13 GB, before you do any editing. Most of my iMovie 6 movies are close to 2 hours long, and can be anywhere from 20 to 60 GB, depending on how much editing, how many audio and video clips, etc.
You can easily see that about 10 edited iMovies quickly fill up a drive. Considering that you will probably want to do a bit of editing of the raw footage, you will be importing all of it, and will also quickly fill up your drive, before you get 'tons of these' into it. Why not just keep the tapes as they are until you are ready to use them? The tapes are small, easy to store, and as long as you keep the digital camcorder to import them, you will be fine.
I am getting close to finishing putting all our family photo and videos on DVDs, chronologically, 26 years' worth of video! I have last year and this year to complete, then I need to go back and do a couple of DVDs with some really old photos and some slides.
Much of the earlier video footage was on VHS tapes. Those do seem to degrade over time, so I wanted to get those in digital format quickly. I chose to copy each VHS tape to several miniDV tapes using my miniDV camcorder connected to a VCR and TV so I could view it there also. This way I could preserve the VHS videos and not worry about them worsening before I could get to them in my iMovie-making. Also, occasionally I need to import some footage again into a different movie, and it is nice to have those DV tapes ready to go.
I also had some Hi8 analog tapes, and I did the same with them because I don't have a digital 8 camcorder. The Hi8 tapes are still great and had no degradation at all.
Now, to make all my DVDs, I import the DV tape footage, using my miniDV camcorder, into iMovie. I import about an hour's worth depending on the particular events.
Sometimes I can get an entire year's photos and videos in one movie, and sometimes I need to make several movies for a particular year.
Because I don't want to fill my external drive with video footage, nor with finished iMovies, after I burn them to DVDs, I export the finished iMovies back out to DV tapes and save those. I am a bit paranoid about losing my movies, so I have my all of my DVD projects saved as disk images....on two different hard drives. Because I have the ability to burn any of my projects from its disk image, and I have the entire edited iMovie on tape, I can safely delete the original iMovie and iDVD projects, saving a lot of drive space.

Digital Linear Tape (DLT)

I understand that in order for a replicator to produce disks with copy protection, the master must be delivered on digital linear tape (DLT). My video editor for my current project does not have a DLT deck, so I am considering buying such a deck for her to deliver the master and backup the entire project, and then using the deck myself for backing up my computers. I would like to know from anyone with the relevant experience what is involved with installing and using a DLT deck.
Thanks,
John Link

Josh: DLT III or IV as a general purpose back-up strategy is really obsolete. Doesn't make any sense. It's really slow and the capacity is small compared to anything available today.
I wouldn't suggest at all that you use it for back-ups. Just for delivery of DVD masteras.
For all purposes, it's old technology. It just happens to be the old technology used to master DVDs. As such, you can take advantage of the fact that it's ridiculously cheap, given that only DVD authors have any interest in it
All the tips about delivering DDP images on disc are fine for specific projects and all, but I can tell you that the commercial DVD industry still relies on DLT.
Message was edited by: Adolfo Rozenfeld

Looking fora camcorder that also has an s-video or rca jack input to convert my vhs tapes to digital

looking fora camcorder that also has an s-video or rca jack input to convert my vhs tapes to digital.

Hi ltcps,
Thanks for writing us!
None of Canon's current camcorders include S-Videos, RCA or other auxiliary inputs.
Did this answer your question? Please click the Accept as Solution button so that others may find the answer as well.

I just switch from tape to digital. The video has a little bounce when played on tv. I copyied the DVD to a folder

I just switch from tape to digital. The video has a little bounce when played on tv. I copyied the DVD to a folder, and burned it to a dvd.
I can see in bounce at the bottom of the screen.

David
Premiere Elements 11, 12, or 13 on Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 64 bit....
You could go back to the project and, in the Edit area, scale out the bouncing bottom edge. I am assuming that it will be visible there.
Then do another burn to folder, and then take the saved folder's VIDEO_TS to DVD disc with your 3rd party software, presumed ImgBurn.
If you want to scale width and height together, then leave the check mark next to Constrain Proportions in Applied Effects Tab/Applied Effects Palette/Motion Panel expanded. If you want to scale width and height separately, the remove the check mark next to Constrain Proportions in Motion Panel expanded.
Please let us know the results. We might consider the Crop Effect also. (fx Effects/Transform/Crop with edits of it int Applied Effects Tab/Applied Effects Palette/Crop Panel expanded).
Thank you.
ATR

Importing a movie works with Sony digital 8 tape but no other tape will import

I can import movies from Sony Digital 8 tapes, but any other 8mm metal tapes will not import. Any Ideas why and how can I import other tapes. It shows on the playback screen but no data from device.

Try importing your iMovie project into FCP as follows:
In FCP:
1. > File >Open
2. Select the iMovie project you want to open
(the FCP Browser should then show the individual iMovie clips)
3. double-click the iMovie clips to open them in the FCP timeline
4. >File >Save Project As (to save your imported iMovie project as a FCP project)
5. Render the clips: because iMovie uses a different DV encoding method to FCP, so rendering iMovie media in FCP converts them to the FCP-compatible format.

Importing from Hi8 tape on Digital 8 Camera

I'm running into problems importing a tape previously recorded on a Hi8 camera.
imovie establishes communication with the camera, attempts to import and stops after 2 seconds without capturing video.
My hunch is that the problem is due to the fact that the tape wasn't recorded on this camera.
Is their any way to get around this problem without locating the camera it was filmed on?
The tape plays on the Digital8 camera no problem, just won't import to imovie. Both old and new cameras were Sony

I had the same problem when I first started to import video that I taped on a non-digital 8 camera and then tried to transfer the video to iMovie using my Sony digital 8 camera and I found a solution that doesn't make sense but it worked for me.
I hooked up my VCR thru the A/V input on the camera and played the VCR and it transfered to iMovie without problem. I then stopped the VCR and hit play on the camera with the non-digital 8 tape and iMovie for some reason recognized the signal and I was able to capture the whole tape....the more that I did this process the easier it was for iMovie to recognize the signal to the point where I didn't have to run the VCR signal anymore to prime the capture process and now I just load in the non-digital 8 tape into my digital 8 camera and hit play and start capturing.
Make sure also to check that the A/V to DIGITAL OUT button is activated on the camrea too.
good luck.

Converting/capturing old analogue tapes to digital

Can someone please outline the options and best way to convert my old tapes to digital. I have a new digital video camera and no longer use the old 8mm camera so I would like to convert the old video to digital so I can edit it and generally maintain it all in the same format, we never get to watch the old stuff. I asssume I can't use the digital camera unless it has a video-in port. Otherwise there seems to be a wide range of USB analgue to digital video converters on the market that are fairly inexpensive...do they work?
Thanks...any advice would be appreciated.

I am using the EyeTV Hybrid from ElGato. It works great for VHS. It should work for you too if your analog camcorder has either RCA jacks out (red, white, yellow) or coax cable out.
You first capture the video from analog to Mpeg2 using the EyeTV hybrid. Then you export from EyeTV in DV format so that iMovie can edit it.

Audio tape database + digitally controlled tape deck?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for