VHS to DVD to File Attachment

[ChildofJah]

Hey, I'm a newbie and have a few questions. I've been reading the various articles on this site but I'm still a little bit confused. Basically, I have purchased a DVD Recorder and I have been converting my VHS tapes to DVD. I also want to get the DVD video files to my hard drive to send them as a file attachment (via e-mail). Do I need a decrypter, even though the stuff I am recording is not protected? Please let me know the easiest way to do this, Thanks.

[BobK]

You need a DVD ROM in your computer that will read the correct disks- whatever your DVD Recorder burns- +R, -R or DVD RAM.

Put the DVD in the DVD ROM and copy the files onto your hard drive. You'll then need software to convert the files to whatever format you want to use.

A full DVD holds over 4 gigabytes- that would take many hours to send as an email attachment (with broadband- several days using dialup).

[dar dorn]

As mentioned above, a full DVD is way too big a file to send as an email attachment, and as a side note, I don't know of any ISP that would allow that large of a message and attachment to go thru, so even if you did take the time to send it, either your ISP or the recipient's ISP would probably kill it.

Much better to just purchase some good CD/DVD mailers and pop it off in the postal service.

[ChildofJah]

Thanks for the help guys, I didn't want to send the entire DVD via e-mail, only like a 1 or 2 minute video clip.

You said I need a DVD-ROM to copy the files to my hard drive, is that the same thing as a DVD drive? Also, if (for example) I wanted to convert the video to a avi file, what software would I need?

[BobK]

There are two types of DVD drive
DVD ROM- reads DVDs only
DVD writer/burner- reads DVDs and writes to DVDs

Either one will read your files- DVD ROM is much cheaper (easy to find for $40-$50 and often on sale for less than $30).

I don't think you want to convert to an avi file- they're much much bigger than the DVD (mpeg 2) files. You probably would want to convert it to mpeg 1 or something smaller.

There's a lot of software that will convert it- click on the 'Convert' button to the left. I think Windows Movie Maker will convert it wmv. If you have Windows XP you have Movie Maker already.