steelie Posted March 20, 2004 Share Posted March 20, 2004 totally off topic post but i'm trying to get some help in transferring some cherished videos from my vcr tapes, onto my mac, and transferred onto dvd. one twist, the videos are in pal. we have a vcr that allows us to view these tapes on our tv but i'm getting worried that the tapes might not last. so... how do i go about the process? what hardware and software will i need? is there a better place to post this question? Thanks in advance for any help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEC Posted March 20, 2004 Share Posted March 20, 2004 Doesn't look like this thing supports Mac or Pal, but you might do a search for similar ones http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?dpno=301387&adcampaign=email,ewb05078 Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 20, 2004 Share Posted March 20, 2004 Steelie, What is the output of the vcr? Is it doing an s-video, or composite out to feed an NTSC video input on the tv? If so, you input to the Mac pretty easily. How much you willing to spend? If the Mac has a firewire port, you can borrow someones DV camera and plug the video signal from the vcr into it (analog), and pass the firewire signal to the computer. Capture in iMovie and take it from there. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelie Posted March 20, 2004 Author Share Posted March 20, 2004 are you saying to use the video camera as a middle man, just to send the signal to the computer? that would be interesting idea I hadn't considered. The VCR is sending a composite signal to the television right now. It's a Samsung, one of the few semi-affordable models I found that converted the PAL signal before sending it to the television. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted March 20, 2004 Share Posted March 20, 2004 We have something at work that may do the trick. If your VCR plays PAL the output to the TV should be NTSC. If theis is true then you may just need a codec(sp?) box. Ours is from Sony but I don't have the model number in front of me. It converts NTSC video (or digital video) to a saveable file on your hard drive. I'll do a search for one to find it. What I do remember is that there is a seperate feed for audio (stereo) and video. And I don't remember it being PC or Mac specific. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 20, 2004 Share Posted March 20, 2004 I do it all the time (although on a Windows box). Most Mini DV cameras also have three rca connectors (L/R audio and video) on them, to play back tapes from the camera to an analog (vhs, s-vhs, etc.) vcr. The harware codec in the camera usually allows you to pipe the video through to the firewire. I have copied from a vcr (rca outs) through both a sony and a canon, to the firewire input on my pc. I use Abobe Premiere, but iMovie should be able to easily handle this on the Mac. Depending on the Mac you have, it comes bundled with it. I don't have a camera here to try it with, but I think you leave the camera in vcr mode. There are different companies that make a small box that does the same thing, but they cost about $250 give or take a few. Canopus has one, and DataVideo has one for $199 (DAC-100). They will have a small walwart power supply, firewire port and the analog video in (rca and s-video). They are usually all bi-directional, meaning you can play video through the firewire port back through this to an NTSC vcr, or monitor the video on a tv set. Alway good to do if you edit these, as a tv uses overscan so you don't see all of the video onscreen. Wouldn't want to chop off titles. Using either the camera technique or the standalone convertor, the audio and video stays in sync when brough into the computer. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted March 21, 2004 Share Posted March 21, 2004 the only problem with using the digital video camera is the handy anti-piracy crap built into it if you're running into this problem, then you're going to need some other device that let's you get around it. in all my attempts in the past, i've never succesfully transfered any comercial VHS onto any computer...the sole reason is a "protected content" message...hmph anyways, you'll have to share with the rest of us (me?) what you manage to do and how well it works. btw, if you don't get stopped by anti-piracy stuff then the digital camera is by far the best route to take. i have converted tons of non-digital and even other formats onto both macs and pcs using the digital camera in the middle. it works far better than all the other gadgets out there that i've tried... some things to keep in mind: make sure your camera is in fact digital and is using the DV format. there are some other digital cameras out there that use other methods of digital storage and their lack of quality is noticeable (which is very important when you plan on doing extra processing in the future...ie, producing a dvd). i wish i could spit out the different formats, but it's slipping my mind at the moment. also, make sure that you capture the entire movie all at once. this probably shouldn't be an issue in your case, but when you start and stop and then start again, the timecode gets messed up and it gets annoying later on (even if/when you plan on editing the movie and reproducing it). have lots of discpace available. the DV format generally takes up about 1GB for 5 minutes of film. that's 20GB for a 90 minute movie! throw in 10 videos and you're already up to 200GB of storage! iDVD: correct me if i'm wrong, but iDVD requires that your movie be in the quicktime (.mov) format. If you use the camera as the middle man, you will need to use a program like iMovie (which works great btw) to capture the video from the camera and then convert it into the format that iDVD requires. once you have it in the format for iDVD, you have to import that movie and it has to do another one time conversion (which takes a long time). after that, it has to do a few more processes during the burning stage which takes a good hour. the reason i bring all these things up is to point out that this process will be very time and resource intensive. to give you an idea, we'll assume you use the digital camera and you have one 90 minute film to get onto a dvd. VHS > Digital Camera - 90 minutes Digital Camera > iMovie - 90 minutes iMovie > Quicktime - 60 minutes (this is a guess on the low end, it could take way longer) import into iDVD - 50 minutes burn DVD - 70 minutes total time - 360 minutes (6 hours) so to get 1 VHS to dvd, it'd take 6 hours and don't forget the 20GB of disc space (which would turn out to be more like 40GB when you factor in the quicktime file you'll be creating). if you can skip the digital camera intermediate step, you'll end up saving yourself a good 90 minutes. also, im not 100% certain that iDVD only accepts quicktime files. i just know that when using final cut, that the quicktime format is the only format that i can export that works with iDVD (as far as i know anyway). if you can find a DVD burning program that can capture from your video camera or other device that you choose to use, then you might be able to save yourself a good 20GB and 110 minutes. oh wow, i hope i didn't write too much on all this...and i hope all of what i said is fairly accurate. (im pretty sure it is as i have been running an annual "academy awards" movie festival for the last 3 years where im doing basically the exact same process...only the films i work with are under 15 minutes in length.) anyways, i hope i've helped and if i haven't, then you can just ignore everything i said Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 21, 2004 Share Posted March 21, 2004 You don't need to record onto DV to get it into the computer. Just pass through the camera straight to the computer. Unless you want it on DV tape first, there is no reason to do that. play the analog tape through the camera and capture on the computer. Using your example, the 90 minute tape will only take 90 minutes to get into the computer. If you are taking the time to record onto DV first, and don't need to, you are only causing wear and tear on the camera that is not needed. I understood these were not commercial tapes, so the ocpy protection shouldn't apply. I think all programs on the Mac natively use the Quicktime format. Why not, it is a great format. The codec is clean and works quite well. And I agree, iMovie works quite well for a lot of things. You don't necessarily need the killer app to get done what you want to do. I'm not going to bash the Macs. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelie Posted March 21, 2004 Author Share Posted March 21, 2004 no, not working on any commercial tapes here, just some old video tapes I ran into recently that I hadn't seen in years. Thanks for all the help. I found a device that wil allow me to connect the VCR to the Mac but cost is somewhat prohibitive for this sort of project $200 - $300 just for a few tapes doesn't seem worth it. I'm sure I can manage borrowing a camera from someone to try your approaches. Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted March 22, 2004 Share Posted March 22, 2004 O.K. That little codec box at my office is a Sony DVMC-DA2. It's about the size of 2 or 3 decks of cards and was about $300 2 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 ---------------- You don't need to record onto DV to get it into the computer. Just pass through the camera straight to the computer. Unless you want it on DV tape first, there is no reason to do that. play the analog tape through the camera and capture on the computer. Using your example, the 90 minute tape will only take 90 minutes to get into the computer. If you are taking the time to record onto DV first, and don't need to, you are only causing wear and tear on the camera that is not needed. ---------------- woh there, how do you pass straight through the camera into the computer? is it camera specific? man, to think all the time that would have saved me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 Seriously, it works. Yes, it may depend on the camera you use. I have done this with a Canonn GL1 and a Sony DSR-PD100A (no longer sold). Plug your 3 RCAs form the analog vcr into the camera. Plug the firewire cable from the camera into the computer (might work with a usb transfer but I have not had a camera with only the usb port to try it). The firewire port should be active at the same time the RCAs are active. Pretty handy since you don't need a tape moving through the ape transport in the camera for it to work. I still want to get the ADS or Canopus to use, so I don't have to get out the camera. You can go back to VHS the same way, feeding out from the computer through the camera into the analog deck. The Canon GL1 also has an S-Video connector on it which you can use for higher quality. If you use that, you still have to use the L/R audio outs on the camera. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 haha awesome!!! in the past, i just plugged it all in like you said and it didn't work. But since you said it's possible, i decided to go through all the settings to see if there was something to turn on and lo and behold there was! i had to turn "A/V > DV OUT" to on...the default is off in my camera. anyways, thought i'd share my find in case others out there trying it happen to overlook the settings like i first did. also, thanks marvel for the tip! you have no idea how much time in the future this will be saving me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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