Writing Proposal for archiving tapes to DVD; equipment help?

[ChicagoJohn]

First, I love this site. I'm learning a lot of cool new things about my DVD player, and I plan on flashing the BIOS to my APEX DVD player sometime tommorrow.

Now for the reason I'm here:
I work for a theater that has been recording each new show on tape since 1972. (I'm trying to find out what format the older tapes are on, but its taking some time.) I'm writing a proposal to transfer the tapes onto DVDs for archival purposes. Obviously, tapes aren't the best way to store video for long periods of time. Some of this actually has historic value. This is a big theater, but I'm going to have to write a convincing proposal to wrench money out of the producers pockets.

I want to talk them into buying a computer with a burner strictly for this purpose.
It sounds like the Canopus ADVC 100 is exactly what I need to transfer the videos, from all of the reviews and articles I've read on this site. However, I appreciate that I'm a newbie and probably don't know the compatibility risks of such a move.
What draws me to the Canopus is that it sounds like I won't have any sound-sync issues during the transfer. (Some tapes will be 2 hours long). I also assume that if I lose some sync on the tape, the Canopus won't get lost as easily as some of the cards I've read about.

I'm also assuming that a lot of the videos will have noise and other artifacts on them, so I'll need software that can not only capture and transfer, but can possibly repair video. Does such a thing exist?
The shows are sketch comedy made up of several scenes, so I'd love to index them on the DVD for easy retrieval with a menu.

I realize that I'm asking a lot, but that's why my subject line is fuzzy and general. Archiving these videos are kind of important. I'd love to get the best possible transfer out of it that I can. Any information on archiving old tape to digital is helpful to me.

One last question, and this is for the hard-core techies: I know that when people archive audio tapes to digital media, they try to get hold of tape players that have adjustable heads, so that they can line the heads up exactly with the signal on the tape. Are their similiar issues with videotapes, despite the fact that the heads move constantly?

Thanks,
John

[BJ_M]

are they loose reels of tape or on a big cassette ? if a cassette - one would hope that they are 3/4" u-matic as those will be easy to transfer and lots of machines around -- if they are D1/D2 or 1" or 1/2" tape .. you should send them out to get transfered unless you have the players in really good shape there .. which is doubtfull as the rollers harden with age and the heads get a build up of crud even idle ..

if you are really wanting to preserve these shows -- you should think about capture the output through a TBC / image corrector (like one of the kramer units) to a laird or canopus 500 / a 100 would be alright i guess also as all you will get is a composite input ...

lots of stuff archived long term on tape btw -- betasp and d-beta ..

a lot of the quality issue will be determed by what camera was used and if shot in low lights of a theater -- if low light , the quality could be the pits ..

[ChicagoJohn]

I expect the quality of the first ten years to be completely awful. It is stage video, and I expect the subject to be blown out while the background is dark. I have someone inside the theater doing some research for me, so I'll update this as soon as I can with the actual media source of the video.

Thanks for your reply to date.

John