Tape to DVD

I have a family history VHS tape that was made in the 80's by relatives who have now died. Yesterday I transferred the tape (which was not great quality but contains otherwise irretrievable information) to DVD via my VHS/DVD recorder/player. I successfully made one disk, and when I tried to make a second, the recorder ATE the tape. So now the copies of the family history I wanted to make for other relatives can't be made. UNLESS I can figure out a way to copy the disk. I live in Montana, where there are not a lot of commercial DVD copying services that I am aware of. The original tape was not commercial and not copyrighted, and neither is my DVD. Is there any way to make a copy via iDVD on my Mac?

If i may suggest Toast is a must for a Mac. It worths every penny of it.
(i dont work for Roxio)
Toast can create a "disc image" of your DVD on your HD.
If this procedure succeeds you can conclude your DVD is not damaged.
Only IF this is done , you may then try burning on blanks, reducing wasting blanks. At least you have saved your treasure.
The "disc image" on your HD can be "MOUNTED" by Toast anytime for you to view on your Mac.
Using DVD copier service is expensive. Use your money to buy Toast.
I believe a Mac without a Toast is like a penthouse without a bathroom

Similar Messages

How to convert VCR Tape to DVD on MACbook Pro?

Any insight into how to convert VCR tapes to DVD on Macbook Pro would be much appreciated!

The first question is: how to get video into your Mac?
My answer is: use a DV camcorder as a translator. Most Canons and Sonys do this. Here are some general steps:
1. connect the video and audio outputs of your VCR to the input jacks of the camcorder. (If the video is on an S-video jack instead of the conventional yellow phono jack, it will be a little bit better quality.)
2. Using your camcorder's menu, set it to "AV IN->DV OUT". This will vary according to the model of your DVCAM. One hint: all camcorders have a 3-position camera/off/play(vcr) switch. In this application, most of them use the PLAY position.
3. Connect the DV out of the camcorder to a firewire port on the Mac. This requires the cable that comes with the camera...it's a mini-firewire on one end, and a regular firewire 400 on the other. (If your Mac has only a FW 800 jack, you may need another adapter.)
4. Turn on the DVCAM. Usually, iMovie will automatically open and be ready to record...if not, start it.
5. Hit PLAY on the VHS machine. You should see the video in the iMovie window. When you see what you want to save, press iMovie's button to start recording. You're free to edit the movie in any way you want.
When you have enough for a DVD, save it and use iDVD to burn a disc.
Alternatively, if you want to save a step, you can skip the iMovie step and just open up iDVD and select the feature...I forget the exact name...but it's like "Quick Movie" that will just save it as one stream.

Can I convert my VHS tapes into DVD using iMAC?

How can I convert my VHS tapes into DVD by using iMAC?

From VHS to DVD
http://www.macworld.com/article/1030972/fromvhstodvd.html   <<< click here.
How to Convert a VHS to a DVD for Mac OS X
http://www.ehow.com/how_6515774_convert-dvd-mac-os-x.html   <<< click here.
Roxio unveils VHS to DVD converter for Mac
http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/05/26/roxio.vhs.to.dvd/   <<< click here.
How to Convert VHS to DVD on Mac OS X
http://www.daniusoft.com/tutorial/burn-vhs-to-dvd-on-mac.html   << click here.

I recorded VCR tape onto DVD-R but will not play on my MacBook Pro. I have already recorded multiple DVDs. How can I get it to play on my Mac?

I recorded VCR tape onto DVD-R but will not play on my MacBook Pro. I have already recorded multiple DVDs. How can I get it to play on my Mac?

"I recorded VCR tape onto DVD-R"
How? Using what equipment/software?
"The DVD plays on the device on which it was recorded."
Just a guess: You're using a VCR-DVD combo recorder. DVDs produced in this way will play on the device that made them, but won't play on anything else until they're "finalized." In fact, Macs will recognize unfinalized DVDs as blank discs until the discs are finalized. Check the manual that came with the recording device for instructions.

Converting old analog camcorder video tapes to DVD

After spending days scouring the web I still have the following question:
I have old small Video 8 camcorder tapes, a Mac with a SuperDrive and iMovie/iDVD, but no camera anymore to put the tapes in - what do I buy in order to convert my little tapes into DVDs?
I would appreciate any and all help!
-Joanna 39

Joanna,
As previously mentioned, one method is to buy a Digital8 camcorder by Sony which should be able to play older analog 8mm and Hi8 tapes. I do this all the time as I have a stack of old 8mm and Hi8 analog tapes I am slowly getting around to digitizing, importing to iMovie, light editing, archival copy back out to digital tape, and finally a copy on DVD to watch. I have a Sony Digital8 camcorder and all I do is simply hook up the camcorder to my eMac via a Firewire cable, pop in my old analog tapes, and start importing. The camcorder does the analog to digital conversion and passes that stream up to the Mac.
You can also buy MiniDV models of camcorder that support what is known as pass-thru where you patch your old analog camcorder into the MiniDV camcorder and then firewire to the Mac. The miniDV takes the analog coming in, digitizes it, then passes it thru to the Mac. But since you said you don't have any camcorder now, this would require you to buy two, so this option is kind of out.
Perhaps if you are not interested in investing in a new (or used) Digital8 camcorder, someone in your area (or out of your area if you are willing to ship) with the right equipment could do it for you. Depending on the number of tapes you are talking about, you could invest in a large capacity external Firewire drive which could then be given, along with your tapes, to the person who is going to do it for you. They would import the tapes into iMovie project folders onto your external hard drive. Once all in the hard drive, tapes and drive would be returned to you and you could access the projects on the hard drive by plugging it into your Mac. Tapes could then be safely tucked away for safekeeping. You may have to pay a fee for this, especially if someone is willing to put the wear and tear on their Digital8 camcorder or other tape device to transfer that footage. You may be able to get the person to do stuff like put copies onto digital tapes and/or make DVDs of the tapes, all of which take time of course.
Maybe you could post the area of the world you live in and see if anyone near you is interested.
Patrick

Video8 tapes to DVD (un-edited) with custom chapters?

I have already digitized our families Video8 tapes to as RAW DV files. What would be the best approach, accurate, and speedy to add chapter markers for each event on the DV file (with labels), then drop into iDVD/DVDSP and add table of contents for chapters and put out to DVD?
This is only the RAW 1 Tape > 1 DVD so my mom and sister can watch the tapes. Would FCP trim ends, add chapter markers be the easiest way (along with compression markers) then not sure how to get it to DVD from their. I am new to FCP/iDVD but know them and never used DVDSP.
Thanks all for the help and workflow suggestions

I have 36 tapes to do (2hrs each total 68hrs) and want a trouble free workflow. Will adding the chapter title to marker name in FCP translate into Chapter markers for the DVD? I also then will need to put all the tape #'s+chapters into a printable table of contents.
Thanks again for all the help.

How best to save VHS tapes to DVDs using a Mac ?

I have over 30 VHS tapes, eight Hi-8 tapes, and a player for both formats. Would like to make DVDs of these movies. There are a few USB adapters (Elgato Video Capture for $100, KWorld DVD Maker 2x for $28) and Roxio makes Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus for $60. Have looked through AV forums on other websites and the directions are not concise, and are aimed at the PC platform. Prefer to use a Mac.
What is the fastest, easiest, and best way to save these VHS tapes to DVDs using a Mac ?

Frank Caggiano wrote:
Are you sure neither player has a digital output? FireWire would be the most likely connector on that type of equipment.
Both VHS & Hi-8 are analog tape formats so it is extremely unlikely that VHS players or Hi-8 camcorders would have built-in analog to digital converters. That's why you need a product that includes a hardware A-D converter like the three mentioned by the OP.
Roxio's Easy VHS to DVD 3 product is for Windows -- there is no software compatible with OS X included. The Easy VHS to DVD for Mac product does include OS X compatible software but it gets poor reviews at Amazon, has apparently not been updated in some time, & the support page for the product has some "page not found" links suggesting Roxio isn't currently supporting the product very well.
The KWorld DVD Maker comes with a software driver for its A-D converter, which apparently uses a Empia 28xx family chipset. According to this that driver will not work with recent OS X versions, but for $30 one can purchase the VideoGlide driver to solve that problem. The KWorld product does not include OS X compatible editing software; for that you use iMovie (& presumably Toast or iDVD or something else) to burn the movies to DVDs. That makes the price about the same as the Roxio solution but complicates support because hardware & software are coming from different companies.
The Elgato Video Capture product should be compatible with most OS X versions (but I could not find anything specifically about at beyond the typical "10.5 & above" kind of comment which may or may not mean it supports 10.8 or 10.9) but it captures to H.264/MPEG formats only, so like the KWorld you still need something to convert that to MPEG 2 to burn the captures to a standard DVD.
So basically, there is no easy "one step" method to transfer VHS (or any of the other analog video formats) to DVD's. Depending on the version of OS X in use, it should be fairly easy to convert the analog source material to a digital format that can be used with iTunes, iMovie, etc., but editing it & particularly burning that to a DVD that will play in a regular DVD player will take more work.

Convert VHS tape to DVD or flash drive

I would like to convert home movies that are on a VHS tape to DVD, and then to a flash drive or USB stick

convert a vhs tape to digital
I have done lots of that.
To get your VHS video into iMovie, use the Grassvalley ADVC300 (much better than the roxio easy vhs to dvd). With the ADVC300 Audio and Video go in, FireWire comes out. It also comes with a nice Macintosh application that works flawlessly with iMovie 06 and iDVD 09/11 (I have used it a few times with iMovie 11).
The program that comes with the ADVC300 has some nice filters that can improve video and audio of the source material. The ADVC300 will take Audio and Video from any source (VCR, Tivo, Satellite Receiver) and convert it to FireWire (iMovie will treat it like a camera).
http://www.grassvalley.com/products/advc300
I would use iMovie 06 with iDVD 09/11, why?
iMovie 09/11 uses 'single field processing' meaning every other horizontal line of the video is thrown out, which reduces the sharpness of the footage. iMovie 06 uses ALL of the image to form the video.
If your primary workflow is editing DV clips and making DVDs, iMovie '06 is better suited. Your movie will arrive at iDVD in DV format, which is an ideal match for making a DVD: same resolution, same pixels aspect ratio, and original quality.
If you share your movie from iMovie 09/11, it gets re-rendered at 640x480 or less, and then iDVD upscales it back to 720x480. The end result is obviously not as good.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 11 is a "lossless" combination.

How can I convert MiniDV tapes to DVD? I've use a Canon GL 2 and an iMac about 1 year old. I'm trying to use iMovie and I've installed the latest drivers.

How can I convert MiniDV tapes to DVD? I've use a Canon GL 2 and an iMac about 1 year old. I'm trying to use iMovie and I've installed the latest drivers.

MiniDV was a great format, one I still use often. I also still use iMovie HD6 to process it and, for all the iterations of iMovie that followed it, I still believe it was one of Apple's greatest movie software programmes, next to Final Cut Pro, using a timeline method of editing. That was also in the day which Apple put Superdrives into their computers, so that you could not only make your movie in iMovie, but you could render it to iDVD and then burn the DVD. Now you need to buy an external burner.
Since iMovie HD6 and iDVD 6 were "universal" software, it has continued to work through the many OS releases since it came out with Tiger, I believe it was. So, it may still work with Mavericks too and, if you could locate a copy of iLife 06, probably used, you might enjoy the difference that HD6 has over all iMovie releases since then.
Not saying you can't process your MiniDV with current iMovie versions, but I'm not the one to speak about that.

Help: Convert 8mm tape to dvd and edit with imovie

Please help. I would like to convert my 8 mm tapes to dvd and edit them using imovie. I have the original camcorder that captured the video and it still works. (The camcorder is a Fisher Camcorder-8 model FVC-801 circa 1987). It says digital on the camera so I think the videos may already be in some sort of digital. I also have a new macbook and it only has usb ports not firewire. To play the video on the tv the camera came with a RF Adaptor and all i do is plug the adaptor into the camera and the yellow, red, and white cords into the tv. I have done a bunch of research and it seems that I will need some sort of converter. Can someone please tell me what kind of convert, which brand I should buy, and how the process works (ie what gets plugged into what, etc) Thank You.

If you want to edit the footage, I'd recommend to NOT put them on DVD first. That will only compress the footage heavily ... then you'll have to uncompress to convert them into a format that iMovie works with natively.
Instead, capture the footage by playing through a qualified DV device (DV camcorder, VTR or converter) and capture directly into iMovie for editing.
Once you're done with the edit, that's when you'd export for DVD for final delivery.
-DH

DVR620 won't dub from tape to dvd

We bought at DVR620 over a year ago with the express purpose of recording old tapes to dvd. The several times since then we've tried to do this and been unsuccessful. First, you press the setup menu, go to General Setting, press enter and NOTHING happens. You can't enter diddly squat. Oh, I know my remote works since I can use the up and down arrows on it to move vrom General Setting to Timer Programming, etc. but you can't enter any of these selections. I've tried puttting in a blank dvd-r, pressing dubbing with a tape in it, we get a red circle with a line through it. I've done this in dvd and vcr mode with the tape playing and paused both. This does not work. I've pressed the record button, put the tape in, pressed pause once it's started playing. This did not work. I've had the tape and dvd in both, pressed record, pressed play then pause on the vcr and nothing happens. I do have several messed up dvds though. I did notice that if I press dubbing with the record slot taped over on the tape it instantly starts trying to record from the dvd to the tape though. This has put blank spots on a tape now. I have found no way to change the dubbing mode from dvd->tape to tape->dvd. At this point, I'm very frustrated. Something's not right with this unit or the instructions are simply wrong or both. Any help appreciated.

Be sure you have no DVD inserted, and no VHS tape inserted. Although this shouldn't matter, as long as you're not recording or playing back, let's be sure none are even inserted. When you press SETUP on the remote, and the Setup menu appears, you see General Setting, Timer Programming, Title List, and DVD Menu. You should see that Title List is in light blue and is therefore "grayed out" so it can't be selected. When you press the down arrow on the remote to move to Timer Programming, do you see that General Setting is also grayed out? If it is, that is the reason you can't press enter and then get the General Setting submenu. If the General Setting text is white, you should be able to press ENTER or the right arrow to go to the General Setting submenu. The changing of DVD->VCR to VCR->DVD dubbing mode is done by General Setting->Recording->Dubbing Mode and then selecting VCR->DVD. If General Setting is grayed out, such that it can't be selected, and you have no DVD and no VHS inserted in the DVR620, I'm not sure why that would be. In that case, you can try unplugging it for about 30 minutes and then plugging it back in to see if it resets itself. I have tested this with my DVR620 and only when the DVD or VHS is playing do I get the red circle when I press SETUP. I don't see the Setup menu at all in that case.

Capture/tranfer miniDV tapes onto DVDs/CDs

Since i upgrade my computer to Tiger 10.4.9, I can't capture without dropped frames any more with FCPro 4.5. According to Apple, I have to have FCPro 5. I wonder if you guys know a way /software that allows me to transfer footage from miniDV tapes to DVD or CDs. Thank you all.

I tried and It didn't work for me. Dropped frames could be from many other reasons. So I don't know. I movie works for me just fine.
After doing everything according to the instructions of the link, my final cut pro lost the audio during capturing. I didn't hear any noise even though the sound bars/levels indicated that there were sounds. I just couldn't hear it and figure out why. I had no problems whatsoever in I movie with the same tape. Thought you'd like to know. I appreciate any tips/info... however.

Have Sony RDR vx560 don't know how to transfer tape to dvd

Want to transfer VHS tape to dvd

Dubbing is the term use for transferring VHS tape to DVD or vice versa (see instructions on pages 83-85 of the manual).
If my post answers your question, please mark it as "Accept as Solution"
http://bit.ly/Win-4K

Import VHS Tapes to DVD and iMovie

I have many old VHS tapes I want to finally digitize so I don't lose them. Most are old football games, generally between 1-2 hours per tape. I am working off of a new iMac - 27inch 3.1gHz 1TB hard drive.
I want to do 2 things:
1 - Backup each tape to a high quality DVD for backup purposes - to be played in a DVD player
2 - Store lower quality versions on my iMac hard drive to be viewed/ edited/ possibly uploaded to YouTube or other web based video sites
I have iMovie, and would like the ability to edit if possible - nothing major, ading scores, dates, etc...and possibly manipulating video (cropping of scenes, etc...) but not much.
I have researched and found a few different options. Most threads I have read seem to indicate the need for one of the following:
Canopus ADVC300
Canopus ADVC55
Elgato Eye TV Hybrid
I am willing to spend $100 - $200, but this I'd rather not go crazy. At a certain point it would just be easier to sed them away to be professionally archived to DVD.
Any advice?

I have many old VHS tapes I want to finally digitize so I don't lose them.
I have done lots of that.
To get your VHS video into iMovie, use the Grassvalley ADVC300. With the ADVC300 Audio and Video go in, FireWire comes out. It also comes with a nice Macintosh application that works flawlessly with iMovie 06 and iDVD 09/11 (I have used it a few times with iMovie 11).
The program that comes with the ADVC300 has some nice filters that can improve video and audio of the source material. The ADVC300 will take Audio and Video from any source (VCR, Tivo, Satellite Receiver) and convert it to FireWire (iMovie will treat it like a camera).
http://www.grassvalley.com/products/advc300
I would use iMovie 06 with iDVD 09/11, why?
iMovie 09/11 uses 'single field processing' meaning every other horizontal line of the video is thrown out, which reduces the sharpness of the footage. iMovie 06 uses ALL of the image to form the video.
If your primary workflow is editing DV clips and making DVDs, iMovie '06 is better suited.
Your movie will arrive at iDVD in DV format, which is an ideal match for making a DVD: same resolution, same pixels aspect ratio, and original quality. If you share your movie from iMovie 09/11, it gets re-rendered at 640x480 or less, and then iDVD upscales it back to 720x480. The end result is obviously not as good.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 11 is a "lossless" combination.

How to transfer from DV tape to DVD through final cut studio?

I would like to take a my 1hr presentation tape from dv format to DVD, without capturing in to final cut pro then exporting to DVD studio and burning a disk. Can I do this?

If you forgo the DVD recorder solution, it doesn't matter which program you capture with ... ALL programs will capture in real time. So if you have a one hour tape, it will take an hour to capture in FCP. It will take an hour to capture in iMovie. It will take an hour to capture in FCE. It will take an hour to capture with QT Pro. It will take one hour to capture with CatDV.
Capturing in FCP will add no more time to the process than any other program used for capturing.
Once it's captured, then it will need to be encoded, authored and burned.
If the goal is to save time, the DVD recorder would be the quickest method. But the OP didn't state his goals.
-DH

How to convert analog SD video from VCR tapes to DVD

What is the simplest way to convert analog SD video signals from VCR tapes for input to a mac intel mini so that I can create DVDs? Any help would be appreciated.
Owen

not sure about doing it on a mac mini, but based on the costs of the equipment needed to do it and the time, your best bet is to take your vcr tapes to costco and let them transfer them to DVD...
then editing pieces of the dvd's to make a compilation would be fairly easy using any number of software tools for the mac.

Tape to DVD

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