External DVD recorder or Video Capture Card

In today’s fast-paced digital world, VHS, 8mm, Hi8, Digital8 and MiniDV tapes are not very useful for the person on the go. Having your video footage imported into your PC computer can give you access to these files on the road through a laptop or through a portable video player (such as Zune or video iPod). Many people who want to convert their older video recordings to DVD. Our service will make this conversion for you, or you can choose to do the transfer yourself. This article describes two ways to transfer that VHS tape of your special event, family gathering or Christmas party to DVD so that you can have a more permanent digital copy to share with family and friends, and have the ability to take your video on the road with you as you travel.

If you want to transfer your video to DVD without importing the footage into a computer first, a DVD recorder is a video device designed to record to DVD. This is a good option if you are one of the many people still around that still does not have a computer. You cannot record video footage that is copy protected, in most cases your video footage will be the same as it is now because video editing is not an option, and the units are very expensive. Also, depending on what model you choose you may or may not be able to play your new DVD on a consumer DVD player—you may have to play the DVD on the DVD unit you record it on.

First, you need to connect the DVD recorder to the video source (your VCR, or connected through cables to your video camera). If the option is available use an S-video cable because you will get a higher quality conversion. If that is not an option, you will need RCA cables (the ones with the red, white and yellow connectors).

Second, you need to select a blank DVD that will work with your DVD recorder. Caution—stay AWAY from DVD-RAM unless you only want to use your DVD recorder to play your new DVDs. We highly recommend using DVD-R blank DVDs, as they have the highest compatibility with consumer DVD players and computers.

Next, press play on your VCR or camera and make sure that you have a good signal of the video showing up on your TV screen. If it looks good, rewind to the beginning of the tape, press play and when you get to the point that you want to start, press pause. Press the record button on the DVD recorder, and then press play on your VCR or camera. You will need to watch so that you can be there when the tape ends so you can stop the recording.

If you have more than one tape, do the same thing over again to add your additional tapes. If your tapes are long, you won’t get many on the same DVD. Read the instructions with your DVD recorder to add chapters, titles, etc. before finalizing the DVD. If you do not finalize the DVD, it will not play on other DVD players. If you added more than one tape, each tape will be shown on the DVD menu. You’re done.

If you are going to use your computer’s capture card for your video to dvd transfer, you will need a connection between your computer and your vcr or video camera. Most of the time this is done through a firewire, but if you are using a VCR you will need a device like the Pinnacle capture device which allow you to connect the RCA cable from the vcr to the Pinnacle device, and then the Pinnacle device to the computer.

If you choose to use your computer capture card, it is a very simple process and it also allows you the ability (depending on your software) to edit the video, remove bad spots, remove blank spots, add music, and add transitions between scenes. If you have an older computer, you may not want to choose this method because if the computer is too slow, the audio and the video may or may not sync (you’ll see and hear that the audio of people talking doesn’t match the video of them talking—like a badly dubbed Japanese horror movie). You will also need a very large hard drive because the new files from the video that you import will be very large. An external hard drive is recommended not for the actual process, but to store the new files when you are finished making your DVDs. You will need either an internal or external DVD burner.

Next, you need to select a blank DVD that will work with your DVD burner. Caution—stay AWAY from DVD-. We highly recommend using DVD-R blank DVDs, as they have the highest compatibility with consumer DVD players and computers.

Now you will need to configure your video capture card. If you want very high quality, choose the AVI format. If you want very good quality, choose MPEG-2. If you want good quality, choose MPEG-1. If you’re doing a video to dvd transfer of only one tape, choose AVI. If you plan on doing more than one video file on the same DVD, choose MPEG-2.

Connect the video card of the computer to either your video camera (using a firewire cable) or to your Pinnacle capture device as described before to hook up between your computer and VCR. As before, do a test to make sure that you can see your video playing on the computer screen and follow the steps as before to start your recording. Note that you are not recording to the DVD yet—you are just capturing the video to your computer’s hard drive.

When finished, use software such as Sonic MyDVD or Roxio Media Creator and import the video footage into the program, set up your menu and chapters, and burn your new dvd. If your software has the option of video editing, you will be able to delete bad footage, adjust the lighting, adjust the volume of individual clips, add background music, and much more. Understand that the video editing process is long and tedious. If you’re not a very patient person, skip it.

Practice video to dvd transfer and capture

A. Record some video of friends, family or an event. To make the capturing of the video easier, DO NOT record blank spaces. If you need to stop recording, hit the stop button and then hit record to start again. DO NOT hit the stop button, FF to leave space, and then hit record again--it will make your capturing and editing of the video much, much more difficult.

B. Connect the video camera directly to the computer you are using with the firewire IEEE 1394 cord. Turn the camera on. Turn the computer on. Open the software you are going to be using for your video capture.

C. Change the input on the software to match the capture input that you are using (for example, change the input to "DV" if using a digital camcorder)

D. Press play on your camcorder to test that you can indeed see the video you want to capture on the computer screen. If you can't, test the cable connection, the input settings on the video capture software you are using, etc.

E. Rewind the tape on the video camera to a few seconds before the section you want to capture (there is a slight lag time between the time you start the camera and the time the computer software starts capturing your video.

F. Hit the "record" button on your computer screen for the video capture software you are using. If you want to capture a set amount of time, most video capture software allows you to choose this as one of the settings. Otherwise, just let it keep capturing and you can hit the stop button on the software when the portion of video you want has been captured.

G. When the capture is finished, press the stop button on the software and you will be prompted where to save the captured file and what to name the captured file. We always recommend saving to your desktop so you can find the footage easily, and make sure if you are capturing multiple parts from a single event, use numbers in the name (such as wedding1, wedding2, etc.).

H. Always use AC power on the video camera and the computer. If you use battery power and the battery starts to get low, your audio and video may not be in sync.

I. Make sure you save the file even if the capture software is the same software you are going to use to edit the video.

J. If you are using analog cables to record from a digital camcorder to the computer, make sure you use highest quality cables possible. Use firewire if at all possible.

IE7 Flash Player Error

If you keep reinstalling Adobe Flash Player in IE7 and keep getting an error that they latest flash player is not installed, here's the fix:

Running Internet Explorer 7 and getting the «Get the latest flash player» error message while trying to visit flash web sites?
Go to C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash and run FlashUtil9b.exe
We recommend restarting afterwards.

Pinnacle Studio 10

Pinnacle Studio 10 is an excellent video editing program. We especially like the ease of applying transitions to the video footage, and the fact that when video is imported through the program OR when video you've already stored is imported, it does an automatic scene detection which makes editing a breeze. The only time that the automatic scene detection becomes a problem is when a scene with many light changes takes place (such as a strobe light being used during a wedding reception).

Once the video transfer is done, you can add transitions, lots of special effects, cleanup effects, background music tracks, lots of audio cleanup, and titles.

It is HIGHLY recommended that you have a fairly new computer, and we have had no problems with 2GB of RAM (we tried it with a computer with 1GB of RAM--it was ok, but not nearly as responsive as with the higher RAM. Also, read the software description for minimum required video card options.

We have used Pinnacle Studio since version 9. Both are great programs and we highly recommend them. Easy to learn.

Sonic MyDVD 6.1

Sonic MyDVD 6.1 is one of the best video to dvd transfer programs that we've used. One of the little known secrets of the program is that it has a "Fit to DVD" option, which in many cases can fit as much as 8.5GB of video footage on to a 4.7GB dvd-r or dvd+r disk. It does this by recoding the footage you add and the results are really good.

You can use Sonic MyDVD 6.1 to do you video to dvd transfer, then use the built in menus (we especially like the dvd motion menus) to burn your DVD. We should note that obviously the faster your PC and DVD burner, the better this program will work for you.

It has some basic editing features which let you trim the start and end of each video file, and also the ability to add chapter points. When you add chapter points to your DVD, make sure you choose "NO" when the program asks you if you want to create menus based on your chapter points. This saves disk space and you can easily skip through the chapters on your DVD without going back to a menu.

While Sonic MyDVD 6.1 may be hard to find (since Roxio took over Sonic a few years back), it's definitely worth finding to produce your video to dvd transfer project.

DVD formats

Which dvd format should I use to make my own dvd?

From much experience and trial/error, I have found that DVD-R discs have the highest compatibility with the most number of consumer DVD players. In all the years that I have been making dvds for customers using the DVD-R format, only one customer had difficulty with the DVD-R disc. According to most reports, the DVD-R format is compatible with about 95% of all consumer dvd players. Understand that once a dvd has been burned in the DVD-R format, it is permanent. The disc cannot be erased and used again.

The second best format is the DVD+R format. Like the DVD-R discs, it is permanent. Once the disc has been burned it cannot be erased and used again. While similar to the DVD-R disc, the DVD+R format is compatible with about 89% of all consumer dvd players. If you use the DVD+R rather than the DVD-R format, you increase the chance that your dvd will not be compatible for the person you are making it for.

There are other formats, some rewritable and some dual layer which hold much higher capacities, but it's touch and go whether or not they will be compatible with the dvd player you are going to watch them on.

Best advice--stick with the DVD-R format.

Which should I use - .avi or .mpg?

Should I choose .avi or .mpeg?

.avi give you a much higher quality for your footage. However, it also takes up way more space (in megabytes) on your hard drive. It will also take up this amount of space on your dvd, so if you are using a 4.7GB DVD-R disc and you have a two hour video file, it will probably not fit on your dvd.

Choosing .mpeg is a much better option for most people. It still has good quality when you output your video file to .mpeg and will give you the ability to burn more than one file to a dvd.

For example, if you have five or six 20 minute video footage files, chances are good that if you use .mpeg you will be able to put each file on the main menu of you dvd, burn them all to the same dvd, and have all of the files in one single location. If you choose .avi, you may only get 2 or 3 of the video footage files to fit and will have to use multiple dvds to complete your video to dvd transfer project.

Video capture cards/video capture devices

What does the video capture card/video capture device do?

As we discussed before, you will need a capture card or device to capture your video to your computer before you can edit the footage and output it as a file so that you can author the video file to dvd. The capture card (or capture device) is what brings the video footage into your computer and turns it into a digital format so that you can work with it.

On some computers, the ability to capture is built directly into your computer through a firewire connection port. This will allow you to run a firewire cable from your video camera to the firewire port on your computer.

If your computer does not have this ability, then you will need an external video capture device. It is a small USB unit which usually has ports for firewire, USB, and RCA cables. The firewire capture port will give you the highest quality video in most cases.

Video importing

Hopefully, you've downloaded either the free tryout of Adobe Premiere Elements or Avid Free DV to try out. Here are some steps to help you get started.

1. ALWAYS connect either your video capture device or the video camera (with the firewire cable) to the computer, make sure everything is powered to "ON", then restart your computer. This will make sure that your computer will recognize the device that you are using.

2. After the computer has restarted, make sure you tape is playing, then open the program you are going to use for the capture. When you click on the "capture" tab you should see your video playing on the screen.

3. Rewind the tape using the onscreen buttons to the point where you want to start the capture, then click the pause button on the screen. Make sure the capture settings are ready for the output you desire (avi is best quality, mpeg is good and much smaller).

4. Click the capture button and begin your capture of the video file.

Adobe Premiere Elements training

Adobe has some good online tutorials for getting started doing your video to dvd transfer using Adobe Premiere Elements. You can many of these tutorials by searching on Youtube.

Adobe Premiere Elements

Adobe Premiere Elements is another good program for video to dvd transfer. At the link below, you can download the free tryout and see whether or not it will meet your video to dvd transfer needs. It's also a good way to practice importing video from your VCR or your video camera:

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere-elements.html

Avid Free DV - a good place to start

You can download a copy of Avid Free DV (a free version of their more popular professional program). It has lots of bells and whistles for a free program, and should be all you need to get started:

They have a great deal of online tutorials for your video to dvd transfer. We recommend downloading the entire package so you can view it offline, unless you have a broadband connection.

Importing video to the computer

Importing video to the computer can be one of the most difficult aspects of video to dvd transfer. In most cases, you will need a fast computer with lots of RAM and hard disk space. If you try using a slower computer, your audio and video may not match, making your new imported video look like a dubbed Japanese horror movie!

If you are importing a VHS tape, you will need to use an RCA cable (red, yellow and white connections). Next, you will need a connector between your computer and the VCR which will capture the video. While we don't recommend one device over another, if you do a google search for "video capture devices" you will get a good idea what's out there. Most of the capture devices will connect to your computer via a USB cable.

If you are importing an 8mm, Hi8, Digital8, or MiniDV tape, you will need a firewire cable that connects from your video camera to the capture device OR to the computer directly. If you are able to connect to the computer directly, you will get a much better video capture than if you have to go through the video capture device.