Transferring VHS to DVD

Is there a way to transfer old VHS tapes to DVD using iDVD on a new intel Macbook?
Mark

Hi Judy 444
What's the difference between a DA2 and a DA1? I found someone who's selling a DA1 used, says it's in great condition, low price. Is it just as useful as a DA2 and just as compatible and reliable? I just want to convert VHS tapes to digital so i can edit and use still frames.
Also, i'm assuming i can do this with a powerbook G4, right?
The differences between the Sony DA1 and DA2 are minimal (with the exception that the DA2, a newer model, also incorporates a LANC feature for camera control whereas the DA1 has no LANC control whatsoever. Both devices were manufactured by Sony (and taken out of production a few years back).
But sometimes you can still find used ones that still work well. The DA2 is slightly newer than the DA1 so that too would be a slight advantage. But they both do the same work essentially .... and yes they work well for laptops and desktops alike in converting analog to digital and vice versa.
another approach is to use a camcorder with analog to digital pass thru in place of a converter box. Both approaches work well and yes you can use either approach with a G4 PowerBook.
A third option is EyeTV (highly recommended by many on this forum).
Note: Apple recently introduced AppleTV that addresses streaming video and media to many set tops. However I'm simply not 100% certain yet if this latest apple device might also act as a viable substitute for one or more of the above mentioned approaches. I'll try and post back later with additional info.
Hope this is helpful.
SDMacuser

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Transferring VHS to DVD Questions

I need to transfer numerous VHS tapes that are not available on DVD and may never be. What is the most painless way of transferring VHS to DVD?
Besides what's shown here I also own a VCR and a Canon ZR-10 that I figure can help in the process.
If there's another forum around that knows more about this topic and that's Mac happy please provide a link.
I'd like to use IDVD for the menus and such.
Thanks for any help,
Tony

This is what I'm aiming to to. I'm a pt woodworker and a full time imaging tech. So I'm on my Mac 40-50 hours a week. While at work and bored out of my mind I'd like to watch one of my ww vids to give me tips and to sharpen my skills, not to mention how much easier and quicker it is to jump scene to scene and FF. The ww world is slowly making progress in releasing footage to DVD, very slowly. I have about 30 VHS tapes that are not available on DVD yet (and quite a few that are no longer in print). I may be old and grey when they are if they ever are. See where this is going?
I also have some old home movies that I had transferred to VHS and would like to get onto DVD. To justify any cost (to the wife) I'd also like to transfer our wedding vid before that footage goes to crap.
I don't mind doing one or two vids the "slow and clunky" way, but it may wear on me after that. Now that I think more about it this converter may be the best solution for me in the end. I wouldn't be able to justify another camera as we own two ZR-10's right now, but I do have a Best Buy extended service contract, so if one of those cameras happen to die I could then get a new one. Hmmmm now how could that just suddenly happen?
These will all be for private use only.
Tony

I transferred home movies from VHS to DVD. How do I import the data into imovie.

I transferred home movies from VHS to DVD. I can open the data using the DVD Player but I cannot import data into imovie. Any ideas?

Another option is to download the free app MPEG Streamclip from Squared 5 here:
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
After loading the DVD on your Mac, drag the icon onto Streamclip's window. From the menu choose File>Export to QuickTime then for Compression select the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). Adjust the quality slider from 50% to about 75% - that should give good quality at a reasonable file size. Leave other settings as they are and click on Make Movie. From the next box, choose a name for the file (it will be a .mov file) and a save location (say Desktop).
The saved .mov file can now be imported to an Event and edited if desired in iMovie.
Note that you may be asked to instal a file from Apple. It's named QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component for Mac OS X. It's priced at US$19.99 and is available from the US Apple Store here:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/D2187Z/A?
John
Message was edited by: John Cogdell

Converting VHS to DVD with preserved closed captions

Can this be done via DV capture?
I'm trying to convert some of my old out of print VHS tapes to DVD, since they are obscure enough to probably never see an official DVD release. I figured firewire/DV would be perfect for the job because...well, my Mac already has that built-in. My intended workflow is to capture via DV using an ADS Pyro A/V Link analog->DV converter box (see tip below if you're trying something similar by the way).
Anyway, being the quasi-perfectionist that I am, I'd like to make as close a copy to the original as possible, preserving the closed captions. In researching this I've found that this data is stored in "line 21" which is normally not a viewable portion of the video signal, rather like metadata. I have read that DV does support this data in the "VAUX" data area, however before I even begin, I am concerned that any step of my intended workflow might not preserve this data (reencoding in the converter box, transferring into iMovie/FCP, reencoding onto DVD). I presume that any amount of editing to the captured video will hose the captions if they are preserved, but I'd only shorten the black padding at the beginning and ending of the program if anything, which I can't imagine would scramble it too bad.
I have read many suggestions of just manually transposing the CC text to subtitles instead, however since the DVD spec does support true closed captions, I figure it's gotta be possible somehow.
I'd like to be able to do this without purchasing a PCI capture card. And I'd also like to be able to do this without spending $6000 on a certain Mac captioning app (a ridiculous price for functionality which in my opinion should be free). I've seen some pretty cheap VCR+DVD combo standalone units on the market, but I'd like to think my Mac, as expensive as it was, will suffice.
Am I asking too much? Should I just give it a try to see if everything magically works? And if my current setup is not up to this task, what sort of setup would I need to realize my goal?
(Tip: By the way, if anyone is trying to convert VHS to DVD with a similar setup, be warned that the marketers of such analog->DV converter boxes generally don't mention that you'll also need a time base corrector (TBC) to do anything useful with less-than-perfect analog source video; I've found that without such a device, the video tends to drop frames like mad on rough spots of the source tape [I'm talking drops measured in seconds]. Too bad TBCs cost more than the converter box itself usually. Odd that those VCR+DVD combo boxes ostensibly must have a built-in TBC by definition, and yet often are cheaper than a standalone TBC...)
Power Mac G4 dual 867 Mirrored Drive Doors Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Ok well I tested it by going VCR->DV converter->iMovie->iDVD, and the closed captions were lost at some point. The tape does have closed captions when played in the VCR, and I know my DVD player displays closed captions properly (I tested a commercial disc both in the Mac and in a standalone DVD player and those showed captions), but the DVD I created doesn't display closed captions either in the Mac DVD Player or the standalone unit.
So...anyone think maybe importing into Final Cut Pro and burning with DVD Studio Pro would work better for this than iMovie? I imagine there would be no difference (since iDVD uses the same Compressor app as DVDSP).
So I guess I'm stuck. At this point I can't even use the DVD/VCR dub machine since it won't allow dubbing of copy-protected tapes (even though this tape will likely never see a DVD release and it's crappy VHS quality anyway and it's just for my own personal use as a backup)...any suggestions?

Put 180 min of VHS on DVD - DL disc or not?

I have a VHS tape with 180 mins of material that I want to put on a DVD+/-R.
Can I use DVD+R DL discs with DVDSP without a problem?
What resolution and bitrate do you suggest I should use?
I think using 720x576 and 4,5 mbit is very much overkill, and then the video won't fit on a 4,7 GB DVD-R.
I did a test with 352x576 at 3 mbit, and it did look OK, but that was more than two years ago...
Any suggestions much apprecieated.

As for the difference in resolution, VHS material stored on DVD-R is still 480 lines, regardless of what the native resolution was. It's like taking a photo of your screen with a digital camera -- sure, your screen is only 72dpi, but the resolution of the photo is determined by your camera's chip, not the resolution of the source.
A lot of people use the limited "resolution" of VHS as an excuse to use half-D1 resolution, but you often end up with sub-VHS video quality. Using the digital camera metaphor again, it doesn't matter if your screen resolution is only 640x480, if you take a photo of your screen with one of those cheapie 640x480 digital cameras, you won't get an image that's identical to the screen display, it will be visibly worse.
How can this be if the resolution of both the screen and the camera are both 640x480? Because the 640x480 resolution of the camera limits its capability to create a clear digital image of the analog world (pointing a camera at your screen isn't a digital transfer, even if you have a digital monitor). If you could plug a device into your monitor port that would extract a digital image from it, then yes, you could get a pixel-for-pixel representation of what was on your screen, but analog-to-digital doesn't work that way.
To understand the concept behind VHS-to-DVD transfers, it might help to look at it as a film-to-video transfer. Film does not really have a "resolution", strictly speaking. The grain of the film can limit image quality, but if you use the absolute minimum resolution to transfer film to tape, you won't get very good results. In the same way, you really need all 480 lines of an NTSC DVD for VHS transfers, and you don't really have the option of using less. You're essentially taking a picture of the signal from the tape -- it's not a line-for-line transfer.
For the same reason, cutting the horizontal resolution in half is the worst thing you could possibly do, since the horizontal lines in VHS or other analog formats isn't broken up into "pixels" as digital formats are. Therefore, using half of DVD's available 720-pixel horizontal resolution means you get an image that's only half as good as the picture you'd get using the full 720 pixels. If you had the capability to cut the number of lines in half so you only had 240, it would actually have less of an effect than using half-D1 resolution would. Unfortunately, that option is not available.
The bottom line is, if you go by the "resolution" figures of VHS to justify using less than the full 720x480 resolution of DVD, you're gonna end up less-than-VHS-quality. If you're okay with that, great -- it just blows a hole in the myth that simply transfering VHS content to DVD is an automatic improvement.

After using video capture device to copy VHS to DVD, burnt DVD will play on computer but not

After using video capture device to copy VHS to DVD, burnt DVD will play on computer but not on DVD player. Tech support for the VCD said my HP DVD burning software has to burn "DVD Video and not DVD data" and to check with HP. How can i check myself.

Grahamster, welcome to the forum.
I recommend trying CDBurnerXP for burning video CD's. I have been using it for years without a glitch. I use it mainly for burning ISO's, but have used it for all types. Please let us know if it works or not.
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I used Roxio VHS to DVD for Mac (have iMac with Snow Leopard) and the audio does not synch with the video when playing in iMovie. Any suggestions to fix?

I used Roxio VHS to DVD for Mac (have iMac with Snow Leopard) and the audio does not synch with the video when playing in iMovie. Any suggestions to fix?

Thanks for the reply. I tried playing with detaching the audio in iMovie, but with 20+ hours of video to correct, it would take too long. After 28 hours, Corel/Roxio tech support replied that it is a known bitrate mismatch problem and they have no real fix. I strongly suggest not to buy this product.

Is quality better with software for converting VHS to DVD than using an actual converter?

Is quality better with software for converting VHS to DVD than using an actual converter?

Not sure what you mean by "actual converter".
If you mean if you just played a VHS tape to a DVD recorder and recorded like that... You will get close to the quality of the VHS.
If you have a good capture software and hardware you might be able to clean the video and audio up. But VHS is pretty limited in quality.

Is the software from Roxio that converts VHS to DVD compatible with Yosemite?

Is the software from Roxio that converts VHS to DVD compatible with Yosemite?

Check the Roxio web site.

Converting old VHS to DVD

I am in the process of converting some old VHS to DVD. I am running the VHS feed in through my cameras analog input which converts to digital on the fly. The footage seems dull and I am wondering if there is a loss of saturation or maybe just a gamma adjustment that will fix it up. I wasn't sure if it was something I should do in FCP with a filter or if I can possibly just fix it in compressor on output. Any ideas on what is happening on import to dull the footage and what recommended steps I should take?

It will lose a little saturation on the capture, which can be corrected with the CC filter.
It will not look the same, as the video on the computer monitor is only a proxy representation, and the monitor gamma is different. You should hook the TV to the output of your camera and monitor FCP over Firewire. Then you can really tell.
As a side note...If all you need to do is convert VHS to DVD, and don't need any fancy things like menus and such, look at the JVC SR-MV40/45 or MV55 combo decks. They have good quality hardware compression (better than standard Compressor software settings), and are much more convenient. MV-45 can be had for around $400. I recommend it with two thumbs.
tim

Roxio Easy VHS To DVD For Mac work on a MacBook Pro version 10.6.8?

I want to convert some VHS tapes to DVD and I found out that there's a software that can do that with a Mac: the Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac.
However, when I looked some reviews and it says that this software doesn't work on Mac version 10.6.
Has anyone tried this software? Did it work well with your notebook? (Not a desktop!!)
Thanks!!

Why not ask Roxio?

Created a movie in IMOVIE and transferred it to dvd but cannot get it to play on my dvd player. i downloaded the free Burn program since i don't have idvd on my new mac the dvd comes up disk error or cannot read

created a movie in IMOVIE and transferred it to dvd but cannot get it to play on my dvd player. i downloaded the free Burn program since i don't have idvd on my new mac the dvd comes up disk error or cannot read. I am using a dvd-r dvd and my dvd player says that it uses this type of dvd. Any suggestions. I spoke to an Apple Support person who helped me burn the dvd but it still didn't work...help???

There's a difference between a data DVD, and a DVD-Video. I believe you made a data DVD, which can't be played in a video player. The Burn feature of the Finder can't author a DVD-V, just data discs.
I assume you made a Project, and put clips from your Event Library into the Project. But then, how did you output your Project, using the SHARE menu?
When I pull down iMovie '11s SHARE menu, "iDVD..." is one of the options. It's the job of iDVD to make the menu that appears when you insert a DVD into your player (that says the title, and chapters, and extras, etc.). You need software that will made a DVD-V disc. Lacking that, you might be able to go to Share/Export Movie... or Share/Export using QuickTime... to get your video into a format that software like Roxio's Toast could burn.

Best method for VHS to DVD

Hi, I'm just wondering which would be the best way to transfer VHS to DVD? Or the easiest. I know sometimes the easiest isn't always the best way.
1. Convert analog video (VHS) to DV using your VCR connected to a DV converter (ie. ADS Pyro AV Link), edit in Final Cut Pro, use iDVD or DVD Studio Pro to make a DVD (with chapter menu)?
or
2. Use a DVD/VCR recorder combo, or connect a VCR to a standalone DVD recorder, record DVD. Rip DVD onto computer, convert to MPEG, edit MPEG in Final Cut Pro, use iDVD or DVD Studio Pro to make a DVD (with chapter menu)?
And using this method, how much video can you record on a single layer DVD-R before the picture quality starts to look pretty crappy, what speed setting should it be set at?
And of the two, which would produce a better picture quality?
Or is there another way other than the two mentioned above?
Thanks for your input.
G4 AGP 1.2Ghz upgrade, 896MB ram, LaCie DVD RW Mac OS X (10.3.9) StarTech USB 2.0 card, 30GB, 80GB, 120GB HDs

Note to Mr. Schultz:
To start let me agree that any of Nattress' filters are worth the money you pay for them. Graeme makes great tools for us to use.
However, I cannot agree with your comments relative to the ADVC-300.
With all due respect to you, since your experience with the built-in filters in the ADVC-300 seems to be the exact opposite of mine, I would suggest that perhaps you are not using the built-in filters correctly.
I'm pretty picky when it comes to image quality, but I have had some very good results going through my ADVC-300 both directly into FCP and on to DV tape.
But to each his own. It's a free country and I'm not challenging your claim to have had bad experience with the ADVC-300.
But I am trying to point out to the original questioner that some of us do not share your experience of consistent failure with the built-in filters in the ADVC-300. That some of us think it is an excellent value and great tool if correctly operated.
I will admit the the ADVC-300 manual leaves a lot to be desired, and the whole filtering and level-adjusting process is not very intuitive. But after I figured it all out, I am consistently pleased with the results.
One note - I did need to find a used hardware waveform monitor and vectorscope to view the signal in and out of the ADVC-300 independently of FCP too make sure the levels and chroma in the outgoing signal were OK. If you are relying on the scopes inside FCP do this before capture, they are not reliable or accurate in this situation. That could cause error.
If you have the right scopes and have been taught how to read them correctly, a lot of this stuff is pretty easy to sort out.

Best way to transfer VHS to DVD

I just bought a new Macbook Pro w/ Retina display and am looking for the best software/device to transfer some of my old VHS to DVDs.
Anyone have any user reviews that work best with Mac?
Thanks in advance,
Ryan

For me personally, VHS to DVD was the easiest & very simple to use. Do a Google search for other reviews and products.

Good VHS to DVD conversion software/hardware to use on my iMac

I am in need of an easy to understand software/hardware program that will enable me to convert my old VHS tapes to DVD. I have read about Roxio's Easy VHS to DVD for Mac software, which retails for about $80 which I am interested in. I have a 20" iMac with 10.5.7 on it with plenty of memory on my hard drive. I have iDVD and iMovie as well. I have a VHS player (was thinking of buying a good TV/VHS player all in one). I have many VHS tapes that I need to convert to DVD format and I am interested in possibly doing this for family and friends as well. Does anyone have any recommendations other then the Roxio software?

That all sounds fine, but WAY out of my league price wise right now... I'm a novice, and looking to spend no more then $100 for both the software and hardware to start. Maybe after I get a better handle at this I may invest in a more expensive way with more options, but for now, I think I need something less expensive. Thanks for your advise.

Transferring VHS to DVD

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