Want to transfer home movies from camcorder tapes to DVD

[shashgo]

I have several home movies that I shot with my camcorder and I have all the footage on tapes. How do I go about transferring all this to DVD? I have Pinnacle but I dont know what to do next

[manono]

Have you already searched for and read the many many threads on this subject?

[shashgo]

where and how do i find the threads

[manono]

You could do a search using the search engine here. There's a 'Search' link near the top of this page.

Or, even easier, right below this thread are a bunch of links under the 'Similar Threads" header.

[LMotlow]

I have several home movies that I shot with my camcorder and I have all the footage on tapes. How do I go about transferring all this to DVD? I have Pinnacle but I dont know what to do next

There are very few one-stop guides that cover everything. But a couple of websites have capture and transfer sections with several guides batched together. All of these guides refer to hardware that's getting a bit hard to find these days, but people somehow manage to get it together with a little effort. One such collection is at Doom9, but that site gets pretty techy for beginners. The Digitalfaq guides have been around for a long time and are usually better for newcomers. Try some of their articles on what "DVD" is, how to capture, encode, and author to DVD, etc. A whole list of their guides is here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video.htm

I think you'll find that it's not a one-button, one-application process. At this point in the game the right hardware is tough to find -- mostly affordable, but not exactly cheap. You'd probably want to consider a pro transfer service, many of which are not as expensive as you'd think (digitalfaq has one such service), and most of which are big ripoffs if you don't know what to look for.

If you're looking for good quality archival results, most members here wouldn't recommend Pinnacle. But that's up to you. Take a look at some of the guides first, then decide.

[Jackal_05]

shashgo,
I'm new at this too. I'll tell you what I know and you can base your researches on it. First you need a piece of hardware to capture video and audio (Canopus advc110 or advc 300, there is also a hauppauge usb live capture dongle. Then you need what's called a TBC (time base corrector) for doing analog tapes such as vhs. Here is a couple links for you to look at, hopefully this can clear up some of your questions and get you started on your search.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeVNid389Tg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMA5aH_olAQ

[hech54]

Then you need what's called a TBC (time base corrector) for doing analog tapes such as vhs.

No you don't.

[LMotlow]

true, you don't need a tbc to capture home-made VHS. A capture setup will work without one. The type of tbc you really should have would be a line-level tbc, but you can capture without it. A frame-level type is optional (required if your tapes are copy protected). If you have poor tracking and old or aging tapes, you'll soon see why you should have at least a line tbc. There are several threads in this forum that discuss the issues and at digitalfaq as well.

[manono]

No you don't.

Maybe you don't need one to actually capture, but that second link Jackal_05 provided gives a vivid demonstration of why a line TBC might be useful so you can capture better.

[ahhaa]

Just to be clear, are you talking about a VHS or Digital 8 camcorder? (Digital video via Firewire is comparatively simple.)
Does the original camcorder still work?

Also, you might want to reconsider putting your transfers onto DVD; you may need to transfer it all again in a few years.
Depending on the number of tapes, a $60 terabyte HD or just a couple 16 Gb flash drives may be a more practical archival solution.
You might call the Engineering Depts at your local TV stations; those guys usually own a lot of obsolete videogear, or at least will know who in your area might do the work for you. It takes some skill and experience to do it right; it is best to have somebody else to yell at if it isn't up to snuff. hth!


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