Digitizing old VHS and mini tapes. First post

[runner9]

I'm digitizing old VHS and mini tapes from my late FIL. I'm, good with getting them onto the computer using a thing I bought but could use a little help after that.

The computer is 8 years old which is probably the issue. I am cutting the tape between events taped using Windows Movie Maker. It takes a quite a while to then save.

My bigger issue is what to do with the videos when on the computer. He probably has 200 tapes, I've done about 30. Should I burn to DVDs, and if so using what program to create chapters?

Should I put on a USB stick or an external hard drive? Should I do something else?

Advice on what forum(s) to post these questions in would be appreciated. Thank you!

[redwudz]

This forum is OK. But your title needs improving to let others know what your thread is about.
A good title also helps others find your topic with a search.

So I will change your title now.

And welcome to our forums.

Moderator redwudz

[Backpain]

I did that for several people I know and wound up doing the DVD selection for the best way to save them. I also did the files so I could save them on a separate hard drive in an MP4 format. No one method is a sure fire way to keep your hard work forever. I over a period of time lost some files that were on a USB stick. I did back them up on a hard drive. For editing, I used TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 at the time. Work well and had the features that I needed. Nowadays there are several free programs to do the same. Just do your homework and look for the software that will do what suits your needs. Use this site and lookup video editing software and choose what you feel good about. A high dollar program is not the best and free is not always the way to go, but have seen and heard of some good free software. Do your homework.

[OldMan64]

Using Windows Movie Maker, it should be able to save to DVD. I have not used it for a long time but if you choose to save to a file, be sure it saves the files as MP4. Windows Movie Maker tends to want to save as a Windows Media Video file, depending on the version of WMM that is being used. If that is all it will save it as, then that will be a problem for future uses. It would be advisable to use some other capture and editing software to do the project where MP4 is a choice of exporting. Many on this forum do not recommend Windows Movie Maker, anyways. Virtualdub is available on the software list and may support the capture device you presently have. It might be more difficult to learn than WMM, however. I do not use it and have learned to use other software which many on here do not like either, so use what you can easily use and go on. Others might offer better choices for the capture, editing, and exporting.

Saving the files to USB may be easy to do for portability but not safety. Using a hard drive to save or DVD on approved media (Verbatim AZO not Life Series) will give more safety for the long haul. If you continue to use WMM, save to DVD if you cannot export to MP4.

[DB83]

As stated, Windows Movie Maker is probably not the right tool. The issues are quite simple. You are probably capturing your tapes in Mpeg2 format. Import that in to Movie Maker and it re-encodes the footage in to wmv files so you already lose quality. Whatever program you then choose to create a dvd will re-encode the footage again so that means even more loss of quality.

Some things we need to know.
1. Your capture device
3. Your Operating System. XP, Win7 etc.
2. The format of the captured video. What you should do here is download a little program called mediainfo and produce a report (text mode) of the video.

BTW The age of your computer is not necc. an issue. It could actually work to your benefit

The device may be fine and we might be able to suggest a tweak or two of the capture settings. Suggest free programs to edit and create a dvd and minimal loss of quality.

[johnmeyer]

I agree with everything that DB83 says, especially that MPEG-2 is a lousy choice for capturing.

However, if you cannot change your setup, you can find programs that will let you do "cuts-only" edits (where you simply cut stuff out and/or rearrange the order of various scenes) without re-encoding, even for MPEG-2 footage. The one mentioned most often is VideoRedo. It will let you cut without re-encoding MPEG-2 (except for a few frames at the cut points), so there will be zero loss from the editing process. In addition, because you don't have to re-encode, it will take only a few minutes (the time it takes to copy a file) to create the edited version of the video, once you press the button to create new video. This will dramatically increase your productivity, and completely avoid the quality degradation that is inevitable when you have to re-encode.

In addition, the "TV Suite" version of VideoRedo does include a basic DVD authoring tool. Here is a link to their overview of the suite product:

VideoRedo TV Suite

It costs a little money ($99), but if that is a problem, you can often get earlier versions on eBay for almost nothing. They are at version 5, but version 4 would work just as well, and probably version 3 as well. Most of the newer versions contain features to handle MP4 video in the same manner as the program has always handled MPEG-2.

I just checked, but didn't see any older versions for sale on eBay, so maybe that idea won't work right now.

[runner9]

Thanks all.

I'm saving from a VHS tape using a Sony SLV-D360P VHS/DVD combo and Elgato Video Capture which creates a MP4 file.

I'm then using Windows Movie Maker on a Dell Studio XPS 8100 purchased 8 years ago to cut the tape into the individual dates recorded. These are saved as "MPEG-4/H.264 Video Files" which shows as "MP4Video" in the folder.

I'm hoping to use a free program to burn DVDs that allows for separate chapters, possibly with chapter title screens.

I hope this answers all the questions asked. Thanks!

[DB83]

I did not think that Windows Movie Maker could export as mp4 - the original program certainly could not.

Even so, mp4 is also not a good capture option or export option since you will still be losing quality after the edit.

It would still help if you do as requested but now provide the mediainfo report of the video file that is exported from Movie Maker.

But since you are still asking about a dvd program you clearly do not have the more updated version since that will create a basic dvd for you.

But the programs recc. here for dvd creation are avstodvd and dvd-styler. Both free. The latter is more advanced for menu creation. The former, IMO, creates better quality dvds and is supported directly in these forums.

[DB83]

Oh. One other thing. If you are just trimming mp4 files you do not need Movie Maker (which is going to re-encode regardless)

There is the program my friend above suggested or a free option is avidemux. A/B mark to select the portion to keep. Select copy for audio and video and save as mp4. That will also only take a minute or two to save and no re-encoding.