Last week I discussed some of the issues of copying DVDs. But if you create your own DVDs there are of course no such problems. So, this week I began to explore copying some of my old videotapes to DVD. A few years ago, I learned how to scan 35mm slides and digitize them to PC files and I found the video process somewhat similar in that there were techniques that I had to learn. There are a number of tutorials on the Internet about doing this, so I won't cover some of the same areas, but rather give you my own experiences.
This was not my first experience at digital video. I did get involved in it a few years ago. Oh, I didn't have a DVD writer at that time, but few people are aware that there is a video format for CDs. You can't save much, perhaps 20 minutes, but it can be done. The biggest problem with VCDs (Video Compact Disks) is that many of the DVD players attached to living room TVs did not read that format. In fact, some recent DVD players don't support all the writeable DVD formats yet either.
The first thing you need is some way of digitizing the incoming video. If you have a modern digital camcorder (either DV or Digital8 format), the camcorder will probably have a Firewire interface, which will supply the digital video. The next thing you need is a Firewire interface on your PC, but many modern PCs come with them built-in. If not, you can easily buy a Firewire interface card and you may get one bundled with video editing software.
I had previously bought a Sony Digital8 format camcorder. This model use 8mm tapes, rather than the smaller DV format tapes. But it also will read 8mm analog tapes, and since my prior camcorder was an 8mm, this was the perfect format for me. The big question was whether the new camcorder would not only read and play (through the TV) the analog audio, but also would digitize it and send it through the Firewire connection. A little reading of the manual and a quick experiment showed that it would. It will also digitize analog video from an external analog video input, so I can connect a standard analog VHS deck and copy my older VHS tapes also.
The next thing you need is video editing software. I had tried a number of offerings back when, but none of them worked very well. They were buggy, quirky software that often crashed. But reviews of newer software seemed better and I decided to get Pinnacle Studio 8. Shopping around, I was able to get it bundled with a good DVD writer.
Pinnacle 8 (soon to be 9) has really matured. It provided all the functions you need to create videos, including the basic capture, editing, insertion of titles, menus, fades, wipes and background music, and writing of the DVD itself. It did leave a system error message on exit on occasion, but nothing that stopped its function.
Finally, you need lots of horsepower and hard drive. I did a full DVD of my daughters' graduations in 1991, and the files took up about 10 gigabytes (that is right, I said Gigabytes) of data on my hard drive. My new 3.0 GHz. Pentium IV processor and serial ATA RAID hard drive configuration ate it up without a hitch, but it still took about an hour to render the video to the correct format and write the DVD. I will be adding a second hard drive to my system just as an archive for these videos, but I still won't be able to store them for long before I need to free up the space. I will probably end up archiving the video data files to data DVDs.
The results were actually pretty nifty. You feel like you are in Hollywood. But on the other hand, the results were fairly commonplace. It reminds me of when I first started out playing MIDI music. I had music editing software and a drum machine and effects boxes, but the results were, quite frankly, purely elevator music. Well, now I have graduated to elevator video!
Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his web site at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.