How to Convert your old videos into DVD

Once upon a time there was betamax, then along came VHS videocameras. Only to be replaced by 8mm and VHS-C. All of these once high tech formats allowed us to capture our precious moments but little did we know that the media we were recording on is slowly deteriorating. Those analog videos are slowly losing their quality, and depending on our storage practices, it is only a matter of time before those precious moments are lost. The one thing we can do to prevent and stop the loss of our family treasures is to convert these analog tapes into digital media, namely DVD. There are a variety of ways to achieve this, but not all of these are easy or necessarily cheap so I have listed my experiences with each of the major methods so that you can decide what works out best for you. The methods I have reviewed include computer based capture devices, DVD recorders, and online/3rd party conversion.

Computer Based Video Capture:

The most common way that people convert their videos to digital formats is through the use of their computer. Although one would think that this would be a pretty easy task with all the high tech computers out there, let it be known that it does require the use of video capture devices (sometimes bundled with and called TV tuners). These units allow you to plug in your old player and simply play your video while the computer records it into a digital format. Once these are converted to digital formats on your hard drive, you can edit your movie and then burn it to DVD. There are 2 main types of units for computers to capture video, internal and external (USB) units.

external units

cost: $50-$200.

Difficulty level: moderate

These units are generally USB connected devices that allow you to input your old player (through RCA connections). They come in 2 flavors, those with software encoding and those with hardware encoding. The software encoders rely on your pc's processor to actually convert the video whereas the hardware encoders do the encoding themselves. Naturally the hardware encoders tend to perform better because the computer does not have to use its resources to process the video. The downside is that the hardware units are more expensive and both of them are still relatively time consuming because you have to first digitize your video before you encode it and then burn it to a DVD. The downside to these units is that if you record in the highest quality settings there can sometimes be a delay between the audio and the video. This can be a major annoyance because the sound does not match up to the video.

Internal Units

Cost: $50-$100

Difficulty level: difficult

These units are usually sold as either pci cards that you must install in your computer or bundled with a graphics card (such as ATI all in wonder cards). Either way they entail physically opening your computer and installing the card before being able to burn. While this is not particularly difficult it does pose some risks and can scare away casual users. The results tend to be better than external USB units. There is very little audio delay and the hardware tends to have more settings for encoding so a DVD friendly format can be selected without any extra steps.

The downside to this is that it is time consuming and (as with the external units) you will require a lot of hard drive space to store the video before it is compressed and burned to a DVD. Another downside to both the computer based encoding methods is that they require some degree of knowledge of video encoding and they entail learning the steps in different programs. Some of these programs are pretty easy to understand yet others can be quite daunting to a first time user.

Using a DVD Recorder for Conversion:

Cost: $50-$400

Difficulty level: easy

DVD recorders are still considered a techie item but more and more people are starting to realize their benefits. These units are much easier to use in that you simply need to connect your analog video player and the unit converts it into a DVD in real time. The only extra step is to finalize the disc which takes just a few minutes more.

The prices vary considerably for DVD recorders, with off brands from Radioshack, & Apex in the $60-$100 range and the pricer name brands(like Toshiba, Sony, and Samsung) anywhere between $100-$400. The main difference between the cheap recorders and the more expensive ones are the level of burning features. The more expensive recorders offer greater flexibility to create menus and to edit your videos (some even come with hard drives built in to allow for editing before burning). Also some of the more expensive models can record to multiple formats like DVD+R or -R in addition to DVD RAM etc. The quality of the recordings is not significantly better with the more expensive models, so if you are putting off converting your videos simply because of cost, go with a cheaper model and you will not be dissapointed.

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Store/Online Conversion:

Cost: Expensive

Difficult: n/a

Although this is the easiest method of all, it tends to be relatively pricey and it entails mailing your precious video to a center for conversion so the risk of your videos being lost is very real. Another problem is that you don't really have any control over the menu's or what footage is added. The overall quality is good but considering the cost it, is generally better to buy a DVD recorder and do it yourself.

Conclusion:

Store conversion of your home movies is not really something that can be recommended unless you have very few analog movies and don't mind the expense.

DVD recorders are proving to be the easiest and most reliable way to convert your old home movies into DVD. Using a DVD recorder has proved to be far simpler than using a computer to create DVDs. Although you have far less control over the editing and menus, the end product tends to have better picture quality and no audio delay. In the long run it can save you a great deal of time versus the computer based methods. The best part of using a DVD recorder is that you can use the recorder to convert your videos to digital and then later use a computer to edit the footage, in effect getting the best of both worlds.