Any Freelancers out there?

[TechieMan]

I just have a quick question. Do any of you do freelance work converting VHS to DVD? Whats your hardware? I am thinking of doing this but I am on tight budget so whats the best route?

Many thanks for the info you provide.

[lordsmurf]

I do sometimes.

The problem is always the VHS, not the computer.

I have several VCRs and some other video hardware to fix playback. Otherwise garbage in will be garbage out. I've got a JVC 9800 SVHS and a JVC 3800 SVHS and a Samsung 5000W and a Datavideo TBC1000, and a Sharp VHS.

Not all tapes will play perfectly in all players. The TBC can sometimes hurt more than help (gamma and chroma distortions). I can't always use all the filters on the SVHS machines, and the 3800 will sometimes do better than the 9800 and vice versa.

As far as the computer, that part is easy. I bought a Compaq some years back that came with a DVD-R burner and a ATI All In Wonder Radeon DDR32 card. Took a while to learn, but I know how to use it (hence my guide) and it runs great.

Not an unhappy customer to date, though I sometimes admittedly take longer than expected on projects. Not every tape you get will be "plug-n-play", that's for sure. Customers normally save the real B!+cH tapes for people like me. They do the easy ones themselves.

[TechieMan]

Seems like I need to get a descent VCR/VCP.

[mkelley]

Yes and Lordsmurf has all but told you that there are times (it seems often) that no matter what the VCR you have you'll have problems.

Like him, I have *many* (our studio has a wide variety of VCRs in every flavor and shape, from old betamaxs, and new, to 4 SVHS machines and seven or eight "normal" VHS machines -- I tell you this only to demonstrate we have an arsenal) and we STILL got lots of tapes that had problems in playing.

What you find is the original tape was recorded on a machine whose head alignment was off -- it probably will only ever play right again on that particular machine, as no amount of tracking/TBC and filters can ever fix it. Picturewise you can usually pull *something* but with these misaligned tapes you often have sound problems that just can't be solved (although if you get desperate one trick is to track for the picture and then make a separate capture for the sound and combine the two -- lots of work but sometimes the results are worth it). It's all excacerbated by that fact that most folks have recorded something at SLP on a tape that was used a hundred times previous.

At the bare minimum you'll want a TBC and a VCR capable of terrific tracking -- the more heads the better, since you'll want dedicated heads for all speeds. If you want it all inclusive (and want SVHS, which you should have as well just to cover your bases) expect to pay at least $1k for it (then again, I haven't bought one of these machines for years, so I may be out of touch).

But if I were you I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket -- one of the other things that happens if you do this a lot is you'll go through a lot of VCRs (we burned out at least one every other month when we in full production mode -- that's of course why you buy from a place that handles your returns, but you still need backup in the meantime). Getting a separate TBC means you'll have more control in deciding when and how you use it, and having more than one quality VCR will vastly increase your odds of success.

Good luck (I'd tell you to have fun but it was never much fun for me :>)

[TechieMan]

Hhhhhmmmm....

I don't think I am going for a fully fledged studio just yet. I was just was toying with the idea for some extra cash until something takes off....

The market I will be going for will mainly involve wedding video's. I do understand the VHS recordings...sometimes they will only play right on the recorder it was recorded on...

Which ever way you look at it...you gotta spend....to get anywhere!

[mkelley]

I was in the wedding business for a while as well (at my age you've done just about *everything* :>) and my advice to you would be to hook up with a still photographer in your area that isn't already offering video services -- or if they offer video, hasn't offered DVD yet.

If you can find one (or more) you'll be in the best possible position, since you won't be hunting for the work (it will be presold for you, essentially). There are still small photogs out there that would probably be thrilled to be able to offer this addition to what they can do.

If you get lucky you'll be able to take the editing high quality tape from them and just turn it into a DVD -- you won't be able to charge much, but you also won't have to do much work. Best of luck to you.

[TechieMan]

Thanks Mkelley....I do like video editing.....and as I am a perfectionist it may take me a little longer to do certain things but I generally don't settle for second best. I do know of one person who makes wedding videos....and thats what exacttly I was gonna ask him about. I don't think he offers such a service but I am also looking at editing.....

However I want to get a decent card...Matrox RT.X100, Canopus DV Storm2 etc but as I am on a tight budget I want to start with VHS to DVD conversion and move into post production later.

I'll see how things go....

Many thanks all

[lordsmurf]

I was all set to buy the DVSTORM card before the ATI AIW Radeon came out, and at this point in time, with all that money still left in my pocket, I don't think I've missed out on anything.

For editing: ATI captures AVI just fine, Premiere can edit just fine, export with MainConcept, burn with DVDit!

For straight conversion, maybe cutting out commercials: MMC can capture MPEG2 just fine, and TMPGENC can cut out commercials using the MPEG TOOLS, burn with DVDit!

Took a while to learn (about a year) to perfection, but that was in the days before guides really existed (like the one I made).

Most of what I get ARE wedding videos to edit/restore/convert. I'm a pro photographer by trade, so that's how I find my customers, though I never shoot the source video, not my thing. I'll stick to stills, thanks.

[TechieMan]

lordsmurf....you reckon for straight conversion, the quality I will get with ATI such as Radeon All in Wonder 9000 card is comparable to a DV Storm!!! Thats a huge saving.....

But if I was to edit...add efects wipes, dissolves etc I think a card is needed....unless the Adobe Premiere Pro coming out soon compensates for a card as it supposed to have realtime effects but requires a hefty PC!

[housepig]

But if I was to edit...add efects wipes, dissolves etc I think a card is needed....unless the Adobe Premiere Pro coming out soon compensates for a card as it supposed to have realtime effects but requires a hefty PC!

are you going to do the effects on the fly, or do you just want to preview your effects without rendering them first?

If you just want to preview your transitions, edits, etc in realtime, you can do that with Vegas Video (without any special hardware) - I have version 4, running on an Athlon XP 1800 (not the beefiest machine, these days) and it has no problem previewing complex effects in realtime.

I think the newer versions of Premiere will do this as well, I just prefer Vegas.

If you are going to do the stuff on the fly, I would think you'd need a more robust setup - as you'd need the facility to preview two incoming streams, and the output stream....

[lordsmurf]

lordsmurf....you reckon for straight conversion, the quality I will get with ATI such as Radeon All in Wonder 9000 card is comparable to a DV Storm!!! Thats a huge saving.....

But if I was to edit...add efects wipes, dissolves etc I think a card is needed....unless the Adobe Premiere Pro coming out soon compensates for a card as it supposed to have realtime effects but requires a hefty PC!

Yeah, again, the biggest issue is the VHS source and its playback.

The conversions from any of the top MPEG cards (ATI, Canopus, Matrox) looks about the same, at least on tv... HDTV or some other fancy high-res display may make a small difference, but nothing most of us ever worry about. If I had money for HDTV, I wouldn't need to freelance for extra cash. My customers are the same as me.

For realtime effects, yeah, I know the higher-end cards are faster. Not really better, just faster. I don't do enough to warrant 1000 dollars. I spent enough as it is on all the VCRs sitting on/under a very large desk.

My PC sports 512 meg RDRAM and a 1.8ghz Intel P4 CPU, with about 300 gig of space, so it's been plenty of system so far, and I've had it for almost 2 years now. My editing isn't all that sophisticated (usually just Premiere editing only, but when playing with After Effects, I can get my work done in a reasonable amount of time. I had other uses for the extra money between the ATI and the Canopus. Mine ATI was about $300 and the dvstorm was about $1900 back when I first started this. The same ATI is about $150 now, and the dvstorm is about $1300 last I saw. Still too much for me. The new Matrox is about $1600 also (I'd buy the ReelDVD version).

I'd start with an ATI now, and learn this first, then move up to the expensive cards when you can. I'd love to have a Matrox card (a buddy has a Mac Matrox), but I don't have that kind of money, and I don't think it has 10x the functions, even though it has 10x the price.

I see complaints about ATI cards, but only on these forums. Everywhere else seems to give them good ratings, and the stores often sell out and they were a top seller at some site I went to a while back that did an industry rating. It's sort of like my camera... if you don't kow how to use them, I can easily understand somebody calling it "junk" and moving to something simpler. (Nikon F5 nd Nikon D1, not for the faint of heart). It's all about the user, not the equipment.... well, except for those damned VHS tapes... those are the tape's fault.

[mkelley]

Even Premiere 6.5 can do real-time previews of effects and transitions, so there really isn't any need for a high end capture card.

[TechieMan]

very informative...thank you.

I have been looking recently for an AIW on ebay....here in UK the OEM 9000 pro are selling for about 100 quid. I think I need to get rid of the Pinnacle DC30....No proper support for Win2K and no support for XP time to drop the legacy card and opt for an ATI....I generally like ATI cards...don't know why some people have had drivers issues....I seem to have had no problem in the few ATI cards I have used so far.


Thanks again....I'll weigh my choice's between the AIW 7500 upto the 9000 pro.

Thanks all

[TechieMan]

but for rendering....Premiere 6.5 still takes about 1-2 minutes for a 5-6 second effect...some are quicker some slower....then again I only have XP1800 with 512 MB RAM. I think for VHS > DVD I am o.k...only when I want to do some fancy editing and I need to put transitions it is a little slow...but I can live with that.

[mkelley]

Render time is a non-factor, unless you do broadcast work (which I have -- even then we never worried about rendering).

The important thing is to be able to preview your editing -- you can do that in real time. Even if it takes overnight to render that's okay because you're not using the computer otherwise anyway (and 6.5 has batch rendering so you can do LOTS of jobs then).

Quite frankly, since we do a lot of 3D work, I find it real silly when people talk about rendering times of any sorts -- it wasn't long ago we measured *our* rendering in weeks (now it's only days :>): and we have a render farm (although not very big or impressive).

[macleod]

I just started into doing VHS to DVD conversions for people. Here is what I have been doing. I have a E-20 DVD-R/DVD-RAM recorder and a JVC S-VHS player. I rip their VHS home movies to DVD-R (should actually be using RAM) in XP mode(1 hour). Take the DVD-R, put it into the computer, use DVDDecrpyter to rip the whole thing down to the HD, then use MF2 to add chapters, menus, and foo-foo stuff to it and then burn 2-5 DVD-R's on 100+ year graded DVD-R's. The E-20 already has a TBC on it and so far they all look great.

I haven't figured out what to charge yet. I spend $1.00 on the cheapo DVD-R's, $5.00 for the expensive ones, and well, that is my "hard costs".

Short answer is you might want to ebay an E-20 vs the cap card route. (I do both).