Big Job Episode Archive

[dennis1202]

I have a large task ahead saving 75 episodes of kidsstuff taped off TV onto VHS tape before the tape decays. The tapes are already over 10 years old and they play great to OK now.

I want to go to two mediums; VCD and DVD.

VCD cuz' its cheap and replaceable as the grandkids destroy cd after cd and

DVD as the "Masters"

This is for personal use only.

I think I have all the parts in place (2.4 ghz, 1 gb mem, 1 tb drive space, Osprey 200 capture card, 3 vcr's to last through the project Sony 4x burner. Vdub, TMPGEnc, DVDShrink, Vegas 4 Soundforge, Nero 6)

I plan to automate as much of this as I can with batch files and small programs.

I am in the spec'ing stage now with an outline of proceedures.

I am seeking counsel/opinions as to varied courses to persue. Has anyone done as large a task and care to advise of pitfalls, easiest path etc?

Thanks

[redwudz]

If you have the capturing to your PC part down, that's the hardest one. From there it depends on how much editing you plan to do. Editing MPG's can cause all kind of problems. If no editing, then just encode to VCD 352 X 240 with TMPGEnc or similar. Save the MPG's to a DVD data disc for masters and burn the VCD's. If you don't mind spending a few dollars, Use a ADVC-100 and Firewire, easily edit in DV format. If no editing is needed, you can also use this setup to covert to VCD format directly with Mainconcept encoder in 'real time', then to disc.