Advice on archiving home movies?

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Bob,

1) I would convert the video to digital AVI and save them on miniDV
cassettes. Before saving them you could erase parts that you feel sure do
not qualify for any future use. It is easier to edit your source material if
it is saved in AVI. If you choose MPEG2 you have to keep track of the
I-frames.

2) CBR or VBR. This depends on the video content. More complex video frames
and especially with frames with lots of details and movement would benefit
form VBR. Considering that your source is VHS I think that CBR is OK.

3) max 7800 and target 6500 bps if CBR.

4) If you are in the US and expect to film in NTSC I would suggest that you
stay with that.
Most European DVD players can play both PAL and NTSC. Today this is not
common in the US.

PAL gives you a slightly better immage but after conversion to NTSC the
quality is slightly worse than if it were filmed and edited in NTSC. One
thing is that you have to be careful with the choice of color in titles,
animations and such. NTSC colors require you to be careful. Some editors
like Adobe Premiere and Canopus Edius as well as Photoshop have some built
in warnings when you select colors.

Peter
Skanor, Sweden


"Bob" <AbbyNormal@hotmail.com> skrev i meddelandet
news:x1GOc.4313$tK5.18713@news1.mts.net...
> We have approximately 40 hours of home movies on VHS that I want to
transfer
> to DVD. At this stage I just want to convert the analogue video to digital
> video, save it to DVD, and then at some later date go back and do the
> editing and authoring. Remembering that my ultimate goal is to have the
> video play as an ordinary DVD with menus etc., what file format should I
> capture in (e.g. AVI or MPEG2)? Other recommendations on the following
would
> be appreciated:
>
> - CBR or VBR?
> - Maximum and target bit rates.
> - Any other parameters that I should consider?
>
> One complication is that the video source is in PAL (UK), and I'll be
> viewing it on an NTSC (US) system. I will also want to send copies back to
> the UK for family members to view. Any advice on this aspect?
>
> At this time, my capture device is a recent model ATI All-In-Wonder video
> card that can capture in both PAL and NTSC.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Bob
>
>

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 06:56:42 GMT, "Pete D" <no@email.com> wrote:

>Before you start make sure you really need to do it this way, the standalone
>DVD recorders are really cheap now and make it really easy, may not let you
>edit but do you really need to?

Once he has recorded all the tapes, he can put the disc in the PC, and
edit the parts of it. But in my experience, editing these discs (which
are not recorded the same way as authored ones), can be very tricky,
at least until some software can see the light that addresses
specifically the issues.

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

I'll second the recommendation to store the video as AVI on miniDV.

miniDV requires approximately 13 gigabytes per hour of video. Your 40 hours
of home movies would thus require approximately 120 DVDs to store as AVIs.
You do _not_ want to archive to mpeg is you're planning to edit later.
First of all, you _will_ lose quality going from AVI to mpeg2. Next, mpeg2
is _not_ easily edited.

Convert to AVI, store to miniDV (1 hour per tape), then you can reload when
you're ready to edit.

"Bob" <AbbyNormal@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:x1GOc.4313$tK5.18713@news1.mts.net...
> We have approximately 40 hours of home movies on VHS that I want to
transfer
> to DVD. At this stage I just want to convert the analogue video to digital
> video, save it to DVD, and then at some later date go back and do the
> editing and authoring. Remembering that my ultimate goal is to have the
> video play as an ordinary DVD with menus etc., what file format should I
> capture in (e.g. AVI or MPEG2)? Other recommendations on the following
would
> be appreciated:
>
> - CBR or VBR?
> - Maximum and target bit rates.
> - Any other parameters that I should consider?
>
> One complication is that the video source is in PAL (UK), and I'll be
> viewing it on an NTSC (US) system. I will also want to send copies back to
> the UK for family members to view. Any advice on this aspect?
>
> At this time, my capture device is a recent model ATI All-In-Wonder video
> card that can capture in both PAL and NTSC.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Bob
>
>