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Date:	Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:17:49 -0700
From:	madodel <madodel@ptdprolog.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: VHS to DVD...?

Content Type: text/plain

Martin Rosenfeld wrote:
> I have a collection of about 30 VHS cassettes (movies I purchased,
> things I recorded off the air, camcorder tapes from friends) that I
> would like to convert to DVDs. I have not yet purchased a DVD burner for
> my computer (running eCS). I see that I have three options:
>
> (1) Send the cassettes to be converted by a professional for about $8.00
> each.
>
> (2) Buy a unit that can read either and write to the other (Sony has one).
>

This is what I did. I bought a Sansui DVD Recorder / VHS combo unit at
Sears 2 or 3 years ago. If all you have is the 30 tapes, then either 1 or
2 would net out about the same. Either solution involves little of your
actual time but some effort for the do it yourself process. Here I
converted about 20 OS/2 related VHS tapes to DVD for showing at Warpstock.
It took several days as the conversion is in real time, so I had to
periodically change tapes and put in new blank DVD-Rs. But the machine
handles most of the work and I didn't monitor the actual recording much.
Some of the tapes were real short so I was able to fit several on one
DVD-R. The one benefit of having someone else do it is that with my copies
I just wrote the titles with a Sharpie, while the professional will most
likely label them. But if its a paper label then you might want to make
copies when you get the DVDs as the adhesive may cause a problem in the
future. I bought a Casio CD-DVD labeler at OfficeMax or Staples and use
that now for labeling my DVD-Rs. It has its own little keyboard so no PC
is needed, though it can do some fancier stuff with windoze. It burns a
label directly onto the disc, so no adhesive label and it looks
professional though simple, text with just a few canned graphics, and only
a few colors (it uses only one color cassette at a time). The little ink
tape cassettes it uses are expensive and the tape breaks on occassion.

> (3) Buy a CD burner and do it myself. I don't know how? Can I connect a
> VHS player to the computer? Can I burn CDs with RSJ 5.05 or must I
> upgrade it.

5.05 should work with DVDs, though the latest version (6.02) has a lot of
fixes and will supposedly handle files > 2GB. I've only used RSJ to burn
data discs and to copy CDs. I've used DVDDAO to copy DVDs, but I have
never created a video DVD on eCS. You really can't burn full length video
to CD as there isn't enough room on the disc. From my experience with the
Mac, this would be more time and labor intensive, but it should be doable.
You would need something like EmperoarTV and a supported PVR card to
import the video signal and save the video files.
http://www.s-t.de/emperoar/ and RSJ to burn the DVD-R. I've never done
this under OS/2-eCS. I have done video editing (from video inputed from my
FireWire connected Panasonic video camera) and DVD burning on my iMac and
the process requires a fairly fast machine and a lot of disk space. My G5
iMac (1.8GHz PPC) can just about handle it. There is a forum on the
Emperoar site where you should be able to get answers about the process.

>
> Someone, please help me or tell me where I can read on this. I am a
> complete novice to VHS, CD, MP3, MP4, et al.

I still have several dozen homemade VHS-C videos to convert. I barely
started several years ago but never finished those. Its easier with a
standalone machine but you still have to find the time to put the tapes in,
make sure they are rewound and format the DVD-R media and then tell the
machine to record from VHS to DVD. And I'm terrible at finding time to do
stuff. Just ask my wife.

Mark

--

From the eComStation Desktop of: Mark Dodel

Warpstock 2008 - Santa Cruz, California: http://www.warpstock.org
Warpstock Europe 2008 - Düsseldorf, Germany: http://www.warpstock.eu

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democratic State itself. That in it's essence, is Fascism - ownership of
government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling private
power." Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Message proposing the Monopoly
Investigation, 1938

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