General Mac software discussions forum: Converting VHS tapes to DVD' using an iMac G5

Hi, I've found that DVDs are not as reliable as you might think. If you do this, make 2 copies to be sure.
Colin.

PS. Uncompressed video is huge, anything upto 30 gig for some long films. Just a thought.

Why are you contemplating an iMac G5 and not an Intel model?

Has someone offered you a "good" price on a new one or is this one used?

I note that nobody has answered you question regarding the machine so here goes:
The amount of RAM is adequate, I would increase the RAM by as much as I could afford though. At least 1Gb and possibly 2Gb.
The 160 Gigs that you refer to is Hard Drive size and not ROM, which is something else entirely.
Once again, adequate. Consider purchasing an external, Firewire, hard drive of at least 250Gb or greater. As you can appreciate, once you get into the editing side of this project, you will need lots of space.

As mentioned, you will need to convert the Analog VHS video into Digital Video so that the computer can recognize it and process it. A DV Camcorder will do this as will an Analog to Digital convertor such as the ones produced by Dazzle. Conversion is reasonably straight forward and will take as long as the contents of the VHS tape takes to play in real time.

Remember that DVD's are not a "Live happily ever after" type of Archive medium. Expected life span of a Home produced DVD is around 5 years and may even be less. Plan to copy each DVD every 2 years if you intend for the video record to remain intact.

P

I've imorted hundreds of VHS tapes, old VHS-C and 8mm videos of family events, etc., and for what it's worth here is my 2-cent recommendation: First, buy a good Analog-to-Digital converter. I bought a Canopus and it's been one of the best investments I ever made. Importing your VHS tapes may not be the last time you use the converter. I still use my converter when I record a TV show that I want to save and watch on DVD for a later time, like when on vacation. If you buy a converter, buy the model that allows you to also export back out of the computer via Firewire and record into a DV camera. You could certainly use a mini-DV camera to do the convesion if it allows "Passthrough", but a stand-alone converter to me, is more streamline. I have a VHS/DVD combo player and a converter connected to my Mac permanently. Anyways, the converter takes the output of your tape player and converts it to a digital signal to import via Firewire. Second, I would recommend that you try to import and edit as you go. Recording the VHS to DVD then re-editing the DVD video will highly degrade the image quality. Converting VHS to digital is bad enough, but if you go to DVD first (which is MPEG2 compressed video) and then re-convert this MPEG back into a DV stream for editing, isn't the best. It can be done, but it's a multi-step process that requires some add'l software. Third, buy a large external hard drive. I bought a 250 GB LaCie for $189 and what a boon this is. You can store a decent amount of raw footage for future editing, but keep in mind that video eats space like my kids eat cookies. Try to edit as you go along.