Need recommendation-Beginner-Video-Editing softwater/computer

[TeaOlive]

My friend has about 150 videos + several reels of 8mm film. I want to digitize them and let him watch them and add on his voice with his recollections, and organize it all. I have an 8 yr. old Toshiba Satellite laptop but am ready to get a new computer, perhaps the Dell Studio 15 (1558) or a Sony Vaio.....or possibly a 21.5 iMac. My main objective is getting started on this video editing project. Otherwise, I only need Internet access, and Word/Excel/Powerpoint. I plan to do this at home so I don't have to have a laptop. Can anybody advise me on video-editing software and how to get started? I heard that iMovie was really great. Is it worth getting the iMac just for that reason?

[redwudz]

What format are the '150 videos' presently in?

If they aren't digital at present (VHS or similar), you would have to figure out how you want to digitize them, what format they would be in. That would largely determine the type of editor you would use. If you used something like a Hauppauge PCI capture card and converted to MPEG, then you would use a MPEG editor.

VideoReDo is one simple one. There are many others, depending on what type of editing you want to do. Most have trial versions, so you can try them out. Adding voice overs can be done with some editors or with a program like Audacity.

For the 8mm, maybe best to have those transfered professionally to digital video, though you could use a camcorder and tape them from a projection screen.

Mostly with editing you need a lot of hard drive space and a laptop isn't well suited for that. Whether you want to use a Mac is up to you, but Mac software can be expensive and you have a learning curve involved with a new OS if you aren't familiar with how a Mac works.

And welcome to our forums.

[TeaOlive]

I haven't started yet. The videos are all VHS. I have a VHS to DVD machine. Someone told me that I should get something like the Blackmagic H264 Recorder which will "rip" the footage to digital format. What do you suggest for digitizing them? I'm just trying to get a system set up that will be easy to use and then get started with the work.

I had planned to get the 8mm transferred professionally, and then follow suit with whatever system I'm using.

Thank you.

[edDV]

I haven't started yet. The videos are all VHS. I have a VHS to DVD machine. Someone told me that I should get something like the Blackmagic H264 Recorder which will "rip" the footage to digital format. What do you suggest for digitizing them? I'm just trying to get a system set up that will be easy to use and then get started with the work.

I had planned to get the 8mm transferred professionally, and then follow suit with whatever system I'm using.

Thank you.

Two questions:

How much can you spend?

How much learning effort (aka brain hurt) are you prepared to commit ?

[TeaOlive]

Money: I've got money to spend, within reason. It doesn't have to be the cheapest system out there, nor should it be the most expensive. I'm willing to spend more for a system that will be easy to use, sturdy enough to do everything I need, and also offer the capacity that I can grow with it after I learn the basics. I'm not looking to make professional movies....I just want to record my friends recollections while he is fit....and organize all his videos/tapes...and identify the good stuff. It might develop into something more polished later on, but archiving/organizing is really what I have in mind right now.

Brain hurt: Low tolerance for brain hurt. Please make it easy. Once I learn how to do it, I'll become very good at it, but it's going to be hard for me to get on top of it. I'll probably run into problems quickly unless someone can give me some really explicit instructions.

Thanks!

[lordsmurf]

Transferring film is above home solutions. Pay to have the reels done by a quality service. Look at wood-land.com for film work. Honestly, people who try the DIY approach with film reels are foolish. You'll make low-quality crap, spend lots of money, and you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. It's about on par with building your own car, instead of having one made for you (i.e., buying one from the local dealer). It takes lots of time, knowledge and tools. This isn't for you. (It's not even for me.)

Transferring videotape also takes a lot of time and costs a good bit to do a decent job. It's not about "I don't need professional quality" but rather if it even converts or not. You can't buy a whizbang device, pop in a tape, and have it pop out a DVD an hour later. That's just wishful thinking. Consumer equipment was not made to convert VHS to DVD -- and I don't care if it's written on the box (it's a lie). VCRs are for recording TV and watching tapes. DVD recorders are for recording TV and watching DVDs. Same for capture cards on computers. To get a DVD recorder to record from a VCR, you'll almost always need professional equipment in between (i.e., a timebase corrector). Having a good VCR is important, too -- and I don't mean "a good one I bought from Best Buy" but rather an expensive S-VHS deck that can lock onto a stable VHS signal. VHS tapes are a chaotic/erratic medium that relied on the TV's circuits to look correct when viewed. The signal out of a VCR can be awful. When it's not corrected, devices like capture cards and DVD recorders don't handle the signal well (or at all).

I know I'm coming across as "a downer" here, but you came for honest advice, not the sales pitch of some goon trying to sell you something.

With about $500-1,000 to spend, lots of time, lots of reading/learning, and lots of patience, you can probably get 150+ tapes converted, edited with dub-overs, and burned to new DVDs just in time for the format to be replaced in 5-10 years.

[lowellriggsiam]

Since you said "Beginner" and "Simple" if you directdub to dvd you can copy the VIDEO_TS foler to your pc and load the VOB files into sony movie studio. For his voice you can have him watch the films and "recollect" into a microphone attached to your pc and use that as the voice audio layer.

[redwudz]

I might add that H.264 is a really poor candidate for editing. It's more a final format. And most times, you need a computer to play it back. I would stick with MPEG, or if you really must use AVI, maybe Divx/Xvid. Better for AVI editing is a lossless codec like Lagarith, but you need lots of HDD space.

I'd agree you need a good VHS deck, and probably a TBC (Time Base Corrector) to clean up the VHS signal. A proc amp is also helpful for correcting color, brightness and contrast in hardware. Once you have a clean, corrected VHS signal, then you can capture and edit it.

Even if you use a DVDR deck to record and convert to digital, you still need a good VHS signal. The worse the condition the VHS tapes are, the harder it will be to get a good digital copy.

[victoriabears]

I am just coming to the end of my 500 plus vhs collection transfers, so my first question is , what is your budget, $200/$2000/$20000, I've got money to spend does not quantify/

My own personal experience is the quality obtainable against perceived quality obtainable, some recordings just cannot get that much better, sorry.

My success with NTSC, is much poorer than my PAL collection, but I do not like Computer capture./

[TeaOlive]

OK. Money - I'd like to spend up to $2,000-3,000.
Brain Hurt - It needs to be pretty easy and simple. If someone can step me through it, though, I'm sure I'll be able to do it. Thanks again.

[usually_quiet]

Brain Hurt - It needs to be pretty easy and simple.

Somehow you have missed the point that this won't be easy or simple, and brain hurt is unavoidable. You have lots of technical reading ahead of you. If you can't deal with that, this is not for you.

If someone can step me through it, though, I'm sure I'll be able to do it. Thanks again.

The members here are very willing to help with specific problems, but this process is too involved for a personalized walk-through. Writing up comprehensive instructions on something like this requires a substantial amount of work.

Guides on the subject of converting VHS to DVD or other digital formats are already available at VideoHelp. Also lots of threads about various problems that people have had with their own conversion projects. I suggest you learn how to use the search feature and guide section to research the subject, then come back with some questions, if you are still interested.