I can't help a lot with this but you seem to have a bunch of questions which are crossing over one another.
First, let's address the VHS-C (analog) to DVD (digital) conversion.
The most straightforward way would be to use a stand alone DVD recorder which connects straight to the camera. No real editing capabilites, but very easy to use. Press record on the DVD-R, press play on the VHS-C, you are done. No digital intermediate.
The next thing would be to capture from the VHS-C to your computer. For this you would need a video capture card of some sort. There are any number of video capture cards on the market, but you really do want one which can capture full frame, full motion video. I'm certainly not as up on them as I once was, but I would think that something like this would work...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815144028
The product likely ships WITH non-linear editing software and capturing software.
Don't confuse your editing software with burning software, and you should not need to uninstall anything to use something else.
The rules are pretty simple: Capture video at the highest quality possible which maximizes the quality of what you shot. So, if you shot VHS-C, then full resolution is something like 720x576 or so, interlaced video. The software should allow for that. You then edit and mix at that resolution, and then you create a final video, which you can use DVD burning software to create industry standard DVDs. The software will automatically handle the final conversion and compression which is necessary to go from your original capture to a DVD compatible final standard.
It takes a fair amount of time and effort to go from one format to the other, but it does work.
Now, the HD side of things is similar, but can be completely different. One of the things that goes on with HD recording is that it typically is done using a compressed format right away. This is likely why it is possible that tape recording is going to surpass hard drive recording because the technology for tapes allows for less compression of the digital original and you have a cleaner image.
Yet, this truly depends on the camera you get I would think as the end result is still digital video of some sort. AVC HD recording is one of the HD standards and probably what I would be considering. It's an MPEG4 variant and is pretty solid.
Once you have the AVC video, you need to put it on your computer's hard drive. From a hard drive, this is obviously a very simple transfer. From tape, you would typically go firewire from the camera to the computer. If you just want it fun and easy, then go with the hard drive. It will really simplify your capture process because you don't capture from tape to drive, but just transfer files over.
The downside to this is that you may end up with terrabytes of video which need to be stored and archived and may not be easy to sort through.
I know that we shoot most of our kids lives using a camera with good video capturing capabilities. It's not HD, but we get better than VHS video quality in a format which we can put right on our computer anytime we want. We load videos, move stuff around, compress for the internet, etc.
When you make a HD video, you are getting into ground I am not qualified to give you any personal experience on, but would surmise that you want decent video editing software to do things right. Ulead has software which I have generally used and liked and would be where I would look first. It is EDITING software, not disc creation software.
For disc creation, I'm not sure what you would use, but if you want to maintain HD, then there is only one standard which is out there, and that is Blu-ray Disc. If you want it to play on anything you must go with Blu-ray which requires a Blu-ray player. OR - you bring the quality down to standard definition, and burn it as a DVD. There is no other way to guarantee playback. AVC HD discs aren't 'standard' even if it is highly compatible with many players, there is no promise it will be allowed on any specific player, and no guarantee that anyone will be able to play a disc.
Yet, a Blu-ray Disc is a standard in the same way that a DVD video disc is a standard. There is software which will encode it to Blu-ray standards and will allow for any Blu-ray player to play that disc back in HD without issue.
At least, that's what I've heard.
I have seen one of my friends who uses a digital camera (Nikon) which can caputre HD video to a flash card and he edits in Adobe Premiere, but then just puts videos on his computer for playback. He does not burn to disc. So, for the final output disc, you would want to do some more research on that.
EDIT: One of the best sites I used for research some years ago was at
www.videoguys.com - I haven't looked through it recently, but I would recommend you at least take a look there. They are a storefront, but had really good info when I was editing before.
Hello,
Could anyone recommend a few DVD burning,VHS-C to DVD, Video editing software Forums?
In case your are interested....
The Best VHS to DVD software? / Future HD Editing
I have an old 1997 JVC Analog Camcorder and about fifty VHS-C tapes I would like to copy, edit, burn, so my family can view these on their own CD or DVD disk players. I realize this would be all real time editing. I might even invest in another 500GB WD External HD, or one Terabyte (1000GB) because my present HD is half full, and I will need lots of video storage.
That’s Old technology, and I am thinking for the future, to get a onboard Hard Drive High Definition Video camera, so I wanted to know if I would have to purchase tow separate software items.
1) For backing up old VHS tapes to disks, and 2) To burn HD 1080i or 1080p HD to DVD to play on the HDTV display. (I don’t know if people are even using regular CD’s for this, or only DVD’S...and not all my friends even have a bluRay player, and certainly don’t have a Blu-Ray burner on my computer…yet)
I also have Nero Ultra7, which I burn audio mp3’s to cda/wav files, so I need to know if all I need is a video capture card to use with Nero, and forget about buying anything else except the HD Video editing software.
Since I already have the Nero7, I don’t want to buy anything that would conflict with the Nero, like maybe the ROXIO VHS to DVD. I was told by someone at Fry’s electronics, that I would first have to remove the Nero to install the Roxio. He also told me that Tape like Mini-DV is always better for editing that the new Hard Drive Video cameras.
I was also looking at the following software and wondered if anyone has used them:
MAGIX’s “Rescue Your Video”,
MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 14 plus..
(maybe for the HD editing, when I decide on a camera)
HONESTECH’s VHS to DVD v4.0,
Or PINNACLE STUDIO PLUS v.12 software.
As you may have guessed, I am totally confused on these issues. When I do burn the files, what format? MPEG2,.MOV, AVI?
I would like to be able to edit by fading in/out the snowy, bad areas of the old camcorder tapes and maybe even add mp3 music as background for the non-voice areas of the VHS. (not a biggie)
I’d hate to think that on the Mini-DV, this is better suited to easier edit tape than the newer built in hard drive cameras. To me, it’s like stepping back a few steps in technology than going forward, I just don’t know.
Thanks tons!
