I am so new..can I do chapters?

[kissvid]

Hello everyone,

I hope you can help me. I need to transfer quite a bit of VHS, video 8 and Hi 8 tapes to dvd. I was going to get a vhs/dvd combo but got nervous when the person in the store did not know anything about the unit or my main question. My main question is this....When I transfer a full 2 hours VHS tape or any tape to dvd...how do I make chapter marks for when I want scene changes? For example I wil have 5-6 different family moments on a tape. How do i mark it to be able to go to it? Nobody can answer this for me. That's my main thing if i transfer that I want to be able to do the scene select. Sorry If I sound ignorant but I do all my burning on a computer and I have way too many tapes to do it that way. If anyone can answer this for me with their favorite sets this would be great. I heard quite abit with this lci chipset. Thank you.

Marc

[redwudz]

OK, lots of way to approach the problem. I would think about using a separate VCR and a DVR DVD recorder. The dual VHS-DVR units are pretty limited. That will get your videos onto a digital format the easiest way. From there, to add chapter points where you want and the rest, you would rip that DVR DVD to your computer and re-edit and re-author it.

Or you can capture the video in your computer, edit it as you like, then encode and author it and add the chapter points during authoring. This takes more time than the first method, but you end up with more control and maybe a better end product. For capturing, you can use a hardware capture card directly to MPEG-2, or a AVI capture card and encode, or a DV type capture and encode. The last is easy if you have a DV camcorder with passthrough, or there are external boxes for this.

If you are capturing from a VHS source, you may want to consider a TBC (Time Base Corrector) that can help greatly to stabilize VHS video. Some JVC VHS players have a form of this built in.

The chapter part is the easy part. That is generally done during 'authoring'. That's the last step in creating a DVD, just before burning to the DVD disc.

If you have lots of VHS tapes, the DVR method may be the easiest.

[samijubal]

If you get a recorder with a hard drive, you can make chapters where you want. If you use a PC and authoring program, you can make chapters that way too. Without a hard drive recorder or a PC, the chapters will be at set intervals 5 min, 10min, etc., depending on the recorder.

[ZippyP.]

In my experience with Panasonic DVD recorders, when you pause and then resume during a recording session you will get a chapter mark at that point.

[kissvid]

Hello all...Thank you so much for all of your help. I am pretty much a mster at the dvd on a pc thing. I'm looking to avoid that due to the amount of tapes that I have. So you are saying that I can get a standalone dvd recorder and set it to make standard 5 minute chapter marks? I can deal with that. Any favorite models?

[redwudz]

No particular models. I have a Pioneer 633HS and I like it well enough. But there are many models out there that others will recommend. I would definitely look for one with a hard drive. That gives you more options, such as easier editing before burning on the DVR and recording longer VHS tapes without compromising quality. You can also use DVD-RW media, so you can reuse the discs.

If you want exact chapter points, you will need to re-author the DVR DVD. Still, all you need to do is re-author, or maybe re-edit if you want more controls and options. The encoding to DVD MPEG format is already done, so the rest is relatively easy. For editing, you will need a good MPEG editing program. VideoReDo or MPEG-VCR are two economical ones that come to mind. Then a authoring program. DVD-Lab if you want the most control, TMPGEnc DVD Author for easy. There are plenty of others, also.

[kissvid]

For the PC...I have dvd architect and encore dvd 2.0. I use CCE for encoding and premeire for editing. I'm just alooking for a standalone that will do tha chapter insertion. Evry 5 minutes is fine. I guess I will have to start with the model and brand search now.