There
has been some recent interest in transferring video to DVD in
the club. Here is the first of two articles that have recently
appeared in the Daily Telegraph Connected column. The second article
will feature next month.
Bootcamp 326: home movies to DVD, part one
Keep
abreast of the latest issues in computing technology with Rick
Maybury
I
have no wish to alarm you but if you own a camcorder then time
is running out for your video movies. Within a decade or two,
possibly sooner, some of them may become unwatchable. Over the
next couple of Bootcamps we'll be looking at how to use your PC
to preserve your treasured recordings on DVD.
The
most pressing problem is the gradual deterioration of video recordings
on magnetic tape. If you were an "early adopter" and
had a camcorder back in the mid to late 1980s then your tapes
could well be starting to break down or wear out, especially if
they've been played repeatedly or stored in damp or hot conditions
or close to a strong magnet, like a loudspeaker. Even if your
tapes have been properly stored and are currently in good condition
there is still the problem of playing back tapes on equipment
that is now or one day will be obsolete.
Recording
formats typically have 25-year life cycles and VHS is already
on borrowed time. In as little as five years it could become difficult
to find anyone selling VCRs and camcorders to play back your VHS
and VHS-C tapes, not to mention the more exotic "high-band"
Super VHS (and S-VHS-C) variants. The 8mm and Hi8 camcorder formats
are heading the same way as digital camcorders take over but eventually
these will also pass into obsolescence.
Transferring
video recordings to digital disc formats like DVD isn't a guarantee
of immortality. DVDs have a finite life; the current best guess
is 25 to 30 years for recordable discs stored in ideal conditions
and the hardware to play them on will be superseded by emerging
technologies like "Blu-Ray" and high capacity memory
cards. However, once a recording is in the digital domain it can
be copied to other digital media without further loss of quality.
There
are basically two ways to get your ageing home videos on to DVD.
The easiest method is to use a stand-alone DVD recorder, which
costs from around £350. The results can be quite good but
it can be a chore if you want to compile more than one disc from
several tapes and few models have anything other than rudimentary
editing facilities, to cut out the iffy bits, let alone add special
effects, fades and scene transitions, tinker with the sound or
create eye-catching menus.
If all you want to do is archive your movies on DVD then this
is undoubtedly the way to go but if you have a reasonably up-to-date
PC then not only can you turn your home movies into DVDs, with
a little patience you can end up with productions that you will
be proud to show, share and keep. It should also be cheaper than
buying a DVD recorder but needless to say it is a little more
complicated, so let's begin with the PC.
While
you can edit movies on older, sub 1GHz PCs I wouldn't recommend
it. I suggest a minimum processor speed of 1.8GHz; faster is better
and your life will be lot easier if your machine is running Windows
XP Home or Pro.A minimum of 256Mb of RAM is desirable, 512Mb is
preferred and you will need a lot of spare hard disc capacity,
at least 80Gb to be on the safe side as each minute of video can
swallow up 250 to 300Mb of disc space. However, I strongly suggest
that you fit a second "slave" drive and use it just
for video files as this will help to reduce processing errors
and "jitters" in your finished movie, caused by data
bottlenecks. A new 120Gb drive will set you back around £50
to £60 and only takes a few minutes to install (see Bootcamp
315). If you haven't got one you will need to fit a DVD writer
drive to your PC, but they're not expensive. The Sony DWU-14A
multi format drive featured in our home build PC project - Bootcamps
321 to 324 - costs less than £70. Finally, you need a means
of getting video from the camcorder into your PC. There are two
methods: if you have a digital camcorder then for best results
fit a FireWire card or adaptor. Plug-in cards currently sell for
less than £20 from on-line suppliers. If your movies are
on analogue tape (VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS-C, 8mm or Hi8) then get a
video capture card (around £20 to £25) or a USB video
capture device like the Pinnacle Movie Box or Belkin F5U208 (£40
to £50). Once your PC is up to spec you are ready to get
creative!
Jargon
filter
Blu-ray
An optical disc format widely touted as a successor to DVD with
disc capacities of up to 54Gb.
Firewire
(aka IEEE 1394 and I-Link)
High-speed serial data connection system used on digital camcorders
and PCs and laptops used for editing video.
High
band formats
High performance analogue video recording formats developed in
the early 1980s, such as Super VHS and Hi8, based on existing
"low band" VHS and 8mm recording systems.
Top
tip
DVD "authoring" is a fairly demanding task for the PC,
so if yours is beginning to show signs of slowing down now would
be a good time to think about a spring clean. Better still, save
all of your irreplaceable data to CD-R/DVD-Rs, or a second hard
drive - you could use your new slave "video" drive for
temporary storage - format the C drive and re-install Windows.
Not only will this restore your PC's performance, it will also
rid it of any viruses or other nasties that you may have picked
up, and provide a clean slate for your editing software.
Next
time: home movies to DVD, part two
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