Newbie objective: Convert 8mm video to DVDs

[famousdavis]

In 2005, my intention is to convert roughly 150 hours of 8mm video tape that I've shot from 1998 forward onto DVDs for a more permanent archival. I understand that video tapes degrade over time, and that colors tend to wash out over the years. I also understand that there are a myriad number of issues with DVDs, too, including the quality of the dye used in the DVD platters, as well the software used to encode DVDs and the DVD recorder itself.

I don't want to plunge into that time warp abyss called "video editing" where you edit videos, add music, titles, effects. (Well, actually I am interested in that stuff, but I don't have time to immerse myself into that work right now). So, my objective is more straightforward: convert my 8mm videos onto DVD discs that can ostensibly last for many years and can play on a wide variety of DVD players.

The hardware I have is:
- 2Ghz Pentium 4 desktop
- 512MB RAM (not expandable, I'm outta slots)
- 20GB free space on an 80GB HD
- a three-year-old video card that wasn't cutting edge when I bought it

The hardware I know I need to get is:
- a daughtercard that will convert an analog signal into digital via RCA-type jacks
- a DVD burner

Plus, I need:
- software to edit the videos
- software to burn DVDs (I have an OEM edition of Roxio Creator 5 Basic)

I'm sure there are 100 ways to skin this cat, but I'm looking for your recommendations on hardware/software to buy that will most likely give me success with my objective. Although I'm on a budget, I don't mind spending money to get excellent results with minimal fuss.

Thoughts?

[Jason Dunn]

You're right, there are a LOT of ways to do this. Given the size of the potential files, you probably want to get a big (120 GB+ external hard drive). There are some solutions out there, like Sonic's MyDVD, that will allow you to capture the video straight to DVD, but I have a hunch you have more than 2 hours of video on each tape. If you don't, this is probably the easiest route and wouldn't require an external drive - it's just a straight dump & burn.

But if you have, say, four to six hours of video on each tape, you'll need to dump it to your hard drive - keeping in mind that for DV-AVI video (with very mild 5 to 1 compression) you'll need roughly 13 GB of space for every hour. And even if you don't want to do ANY editing, you'll need to at least break up the pieces into smaller chunks capable of fitting on a DVD. And having done this myself, even with some VERY basic editing you can probably cut 30% of your footage out. ;-)

ADS makes some good stuff in this realm:

http://www.adstech.com/products/intro/products.asp

In terms of capturing, if you have USB 2.0, an external unit is probably the best way to go rather than a PCI-card based solution. The quality of USB-based capture devices has improved greatly in the past year.

Tell ya what - it's the Christmas season, so contact me privately with your mailing address and I'll send you a copy of my book, Faster Smarter Digital Video. It talks a lot about this stuff, and I think you'd find it helpful (though it's by no means an end-all, be-all book on the subject).

[famousdavis]

So I was at Best Buy last night doing some Christmas shopping for .... ummm ... well, it was supposed to be for some other family members, but, well .... ummmm .... you see, they had these mail-in rebate offers, and before I knew what hit me, BAM! in my hand were an 80GB Western Digital internal harddrive and another 160GB Western Digital external harddrive.

"What am I gonna use these for?" I said aloud, to no one in particular.

Then an X-Man figure popped into my mind and said: "You need a data backup solution in case your harddrive crashes, and you're well over 50% utilized on your current 80GB harddrive, and you'll need oodles of free space if you plan on burning DVDs."

So, if I fill-out all the mail-in rebates (ridiculous! there are four separate rebate forms to fill-out for the two harddrives -- small wonder many folks never follow through and fill-out the paperwork) then I have the 80GB internal harddrive for $25, and the external 160GB harddrive for $120 (USD).

While in Best Buy, I saw that a Sony DVD internal read/writer can be had for about $100. Also, a Pinnancle gizmo that has the number 80 in the model number can accept RCA analog input and connect to my PC's USB port. So, for about another $200, I think I'll have all the necessary hardware to start the process of transfer all my home video to DVD.

BTW, Jason, the 8mm videos I have are all 2-hour videos.

I just have to settle on a few matters now:

- which DVD make/model to buy?
- should I get an internal (cheaper!) or external (flexible!) DVD drive?
- which make/model of the analog input gizmo should I buy?

If I go with the Sony, at least I shouldn't have much problem in the way it writes to the DVD disc -- they created one of the DVD formats, right?

By way of desktop hardware, is my 2Ghz Pentium and 512MB RAM sufficient to do basic editing and video manipulation? Upping the RAM isn't an option, as my Gateway has all 4 memory slots filled, and it uses now-obsolete RDRAM memory instead of DDR-SDRAM (I THINK I got my memory acronyms straight).

[Jason Dunn]

Post moved to Just Chattin' - Video because it took me FOREVER to find this post again. ;-)

Wow, you ask so many questions! :-)

First, here's the software you should use:

http://www.roxio.com/adban/internal_campaigns/email/sonic_roxio_landing.jhtml

Right now it's 50% off, and it says it has a "direct burn" function which means you can take one of those 2 hour tapes and burn it directly to DVD, without having to capture it to your hard drive. That's the real goal, right?

As for your other questions:

1) The Sony DVD burner would be fine. I tend not to buy Sony myself - last night I bought a Pioneer A108 (16x burner) for $99 CND, which is about $80 USD. And BenQ burners are even less expensive. But I trust the Pioneer brand the most. Internal/External really doesn't matter much - if you have other computers you want to be able to burn DVDs, external would be best, but in terms of performance, there's zeo difference.

2) Pinnacle makes some good stuff, although sometimes it doesn't play nice with all software. I might suggest something by ADS, like this one:

http://www.adstech.com/products/USBAV_701/intro/usb701intro.asp?pid=USBAV701

3) A 2 Ghz CPU is fine, but be warned that converting 2 hours of footage to MPEG2 will easily take six hours or more - this depends on the CPU, RAM, and mostly the MPEG2 codec (which is a factor of the software you're using). The 512 MB RAM is my biggest concern - your video editing experience may be a bit sluggish, but there's nothing to be done about that. I'm quite shocked you have 4 x 128 MB - I haven't seen configurations like that since 1997. 8O

Hope this helps!