Recent home videos (VHS) recorded to DVD & now in Mpeg2...

[tehfreeman]

I understand that there is some basic protocol to forums and reading a cross section of the threads and posts is extremely important, but i don't have the time to sift at the given moment because i'm attempting to take 30+ "home video" dvds and make copies of them, so could anyone take a look at this and give me a hand?

The wife and I decided to help out her parents by taking three boxes of VHS media (home videos from past 25 years) and record it to DVD with an older Panasonic DMR-E60. We have recorded on Taio Yuden DVDs (if that matters) and I recently attempted to use a 'duplicating tower' (an acquaintance of mine) with like 3 dvd burning drives to just make copies of all the discs (perhaps my ignorance and lack of knowledge is shining through now).
Due to various issues of which some of you might be aware the "full" DVDs could not be copied.

I moved in a different direction by using Ulead Video Studio 11.5 to import the DVD's (have imported 7 of the 30+) and after importing them into the work/project area, I encoded them as mpeg2's (but I suspect that is just an unnecessary extra step because I could just rip them maybe with say "Mac the Ripper"? I'm unsure)

Bottom line is that the mpeg2 files i encoded them as have come out as file sizes: 4.47 gb, 4.59 gb and 4.80 just to name a few. Additionally if I go to burn a DVD video disc through Ulead it appears to recognize the mpeg2 file that is 4.50 gb (according the properties tab) as actually like 5.13 gb on the Ulead side. Really i just am attempting to do one of three things (depending on the choice that retains best quality really):

1. Made a direct copy of the recorded home video DVDs

2. Rip it o/ encode each DVD (?) into Mpeg2 and then do something with the file despite the fact that each file is generally larger than what a DVD can contain (is DVD Shrink of any value here and if so can you offer your insight into this freeware)

3. Rip o/ encode in another standard (Mpeg-4? perhaps loss of quality?) and the applicable software to do so)

Again I apologize for the sense of urgency at the expense of more "research" on forums, but I have been reading for few hours scattered in forums and I'm trying to take these discs (or a significant number of them) and somehow replicate them to some degree by Christmas (yes I know I should have started this process earlier, but this is where we're at).

By the way I have both a Core 2 duo T5500 1.66gh, 2gb ram, 8ogb hdd laptop with an ATi Mobility Raedon X1400 card and a 2.2ghz Core 2 duo Imac with 4gb ram and a 250gb hdd, as well as some external hdds too if any of that helps...

[lordsmurf]

Due to various issues of which some of you might be aware the "full" DVDs could not be copied.

This doesn't make any sense, no.
It sounds like his duplication system is messed up. He might not know what he's doing either.

[tehfreeman]

Ok that's fair. The issue remains that I don't have access to that "system" any longer. I am now stuck with my 30+ Home video DVDs and trying to identify an appropriate manner to duplicate these discs (even if it is lengthy) or rip o/ encode them etc and reburn them as new DVDs... I'm just not extremely familiar with that process.

[LJB]

If you are not going to edit any of the media then:

If the DVDs are not copy protected, why not make an image with imgburn and burn to a blank with imgburn?
Imgburn is the best option for a DVD burning software package, and it's free!
If you use dvdshrink to copy the DVDs to your HD and shrink them to fit a DVD5, then use imgburn to make the new DVD.

I hope this helps at least a little bit.

Also, please do not double post.
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic361251.html

[tehfreeman]

Wow. Thanks. I'm going to test your suggestion out and see what I come up with. I'm going step one with DVD Shrink to backup the DVD onto my HDD and then try ImgBurn which I haven't downloaded yet...

[tehfreeman]

My apologies for the multiple post. I wasn't 100% sure where to put the post. Sorry.

[tehfreeman]

It worked perfectly!

Thanks for the help and despite my multiple posts (sorry again), someone gave some great info in another as well. Imgburn is awesome and it has totally accomplished what i needed in large part so donation time is coming. Thanks again.

[redwudz]

tehfreeman, please do not double post. I've locked the other topics. If you want to move a topic to another forum, PM a Mod.

Moderator redwudz