Help, I have too much Equipment Wedding Video

[HeidiSchold]

We just bought a new big screen tv and when looking at our wedding video we had transferred to DVD years ago its terrible quality. I own the stand alone Sony DVD recorder which i can hook up to a VHS to try to get hi-quality out of the VHS tape, but i also have Nero, Vegas movie studio and several other softwares to try to capture this VHS video. What will give me the best quality and i would appreciate any advise. I could also hook the video up to one of our camcorders and try to convert it that way, we have a Sony with the MINI-DV's that is supposed to convert, and we have a sony with the ilink which i could hook up to the stand alone DVD recorder. I dont know which route to go, i dont want to wait until the quality of the Video gets bad with age........ I would like to get the best quality i can to save this video. Thanks for your help

[edDV]

So is the camcorder original tape VHS-C or SVHS-C?

If you hook the camcorder directly to the new HDTV does the picture look better than watching the DVD transfer? What is the model number of your new TV?

[HeidiSchold]

its a professional video tape purchased from photographer, not a camcorder tape, i mentioned the camcorders since i have used them before to convert to DVD, but i dont know which will get me the best quality.

[HeidiSchold]

The only way i have watched the video is through the DVD we paid like $20.00 to have a local photo store create from the video about 7 years ago so i know it wasn't the best quality DVD. We have a 52" LCD 1080i and the DVD player is hooked up through the coaxial cables (i think they are called the blue/red/yellow).

[Heywould3]

for one most of the time 480i or SD sources will looks bad on an HD set. your set will upscal it but it will still look bad. most of the time.. the biger the set the more you see the poor wuality in SD on HD tv sets. with that said. your `bet option is to transfer the tape to a computer and then reencode for dvd. vhs is at 240 lines of rsolution and dvd are at 400 so just by the nature of the technology and media your source is only about half as good as a dvd to start.

there is nothing you can do to increase that. unless you can get the source from the photogtrapher and hopeing he used DV tape.

if you want to convert what you have the fast way and for the time its about as best youll get. you can get better but not by a large margin.. a VHS to DVD player will work at its highest setting. any other option will take a lot of time, a few programs and a computer able to capture the video.. youll need to know how to edit convert and author among other things.

[HeidiSchold]

Thank you for your help i will then just record to the highest quality DVD and see if that helps some.

[edDV]

If you have a VHS player, play the tape directly to the TV and see if the quality is better. If so you can match that quality by authoring a new DVD.

If you want much better quality, contact the original videographer and get his/her camera master tapes. Good Luck.

For others, you should always negotiate that you get the original camera tapes. These people want to make money off every copy.

[Marvingj]

Most of the time the copy will never be as good as the source (original). There are ways to make it look better.

[ozymango]

If you want much better quality, contact the original videographer and get his/her camera master tapes. Good Luck.

Yeah. Plus if the original videographer recorded on VHS to begin with ... ... even the masters could suck badly when viewed on a current model large screen TV. The perils of advancing technology, I suppose ...