From VHS to YouTube

I received a question today about how to copy footage from old VHS tapes to youTube and how difficult or expensive it is. Most of us have what is called analog tapes and even old 8mm film on rolls they want to copy to DVD or any other digital formats. And most of us have computers these days.

I will just cover some of the methods in this blog post and if time allows, I will follow up later with some more details.

Here is a tip from PC World:

Converting your old analog VHS and 8mm videotapes to digital and then burning them onto playable DVD discs–is a great way to start. DVDs don’t degrade a little every time you play them like analog tapes do. And DVD is just a lot more convenient than VHS.

Before you can start copying all of that footage onto digital media, you need some way to capture all of the video in your PC. I’m assuming you already have an IEEE 1394 port (also called FireWire or i.Link) on your PC. Many new computers come with an IEEE 1394 port, but if yours doesn’t have one you can buy an easy-to-install IEEE 1394 add-in card for around $70.

The IEEE 1394 port will help you transfer video from any Mini-DV or Digital8 camcorder to your PC and store it on the hard disk. Your old camcorder or VCR doesn’t have an IEEE 1394 connection. So what do you do?

Take a look at your new digital camcorder. Many have analog inputs. If yours does, it’s a snap to transfer the video. Just pop an analog tape into your VCR and connect its outputs to the digital camcorder’s analog inputs. Next, plug the camcorder into the PC’s IEEE 1394 port.

When you’re ready to capture, set the camcorder to playback mode and press the Play button on the VCR. The video will go from the VCR to the camcorder, where it’ll pass through the IEEE 1394 cable into the PC. If you start your video capture software and begin recording, you can capture the entire tape in digital format on your PC’s hard disk.

If your movies are in 8mm or Hi8 format, you have a simpler option: Today’s Digital8 camcorders can play those older formats just fine. That means you don’t have to rig a Rube Goldberg-style plumbing system from your VCR to your camcorder to your PC. Instead, just put your old Hi8 tape in the camcorder, press Play, and capture the video in digital format on your PC.

Finally, now that the video is on your PC, all you need is some DVD production software to finish the job. DVD software can help you break the video into chapters, add menus at the beginning of the disc, and write the whole video to a recordable DVD using your PC’s DVD-R drive.

To date, the only consumer drives capable of writing to the widely compatible DVD-R write-once format have been DVD-RW and the latest-generation DVD-RAM models. Soon, however, second-generation DVD+RW drives will offer the capability to write to DVD+R write-once discs. Industry experts suggest that movies on both DVD-R and DVD+R discs should be compatible with about 85 percent of home DVD players. Movies put on DVD-RW and DVD+RW rewritable discs, on the other hand, tend to work with only about half the home DVD players out there. Of course, compatibility is less likely with older DVD players.

Some good DVD production packages include Pinnacle Systems’ Pinnacle Express (about $34), Sonic Solutions’ MyDVD ($79), and Ulead’s DVD MovieFactory (about $44).

Personally, I have a Sony Camcorder that does not use tape of any kind. It has a hard drive like the one you have in your computer. When I convert VHS tapes to digital, I simply connect the camcorder to VHS player and record it directly. Then I simply copy the movie files in the camcorder to the computer through a USB cable.

As soon as you have your movie files on the computer or on a DVD, you have the option of edit the footage into small video clips and upload it on youTube, etc.

[amtap book:isbn=1234567890]