Is there a way to transfer old home videos to DVD?

Question

Clearly with our relatively new digital camcorder, we can use the firewire to upload videos to our Mac computers and burn to a DVD. The question is: what can we do to preserve tapes from older non-digital camcorders? Is there any kind of adaptor that you think can help with this so we can somehow get these old home videos from the non-digital camcorder on the computer/DVD to preserve it?

Answer 1

You can borrow a MiniDV camera from someone, and plu your camera into the AV-inputs on most DV cams, and then plug the DV cam into your computer. OR, you'll need a capture card with RCA / CoAx inputs, OR a capture box that converts analog signal to USB / Firewire

Answer 2

If you have an analog (VHS) camcorder…

You need an analog converter, either internal card or external such as the dazzle. It's very easy to use and come with good software. You would hook your analog VHS camera or VCR to the analog converter, the dazzle and then hook the dazzle to your PC. The dazzle cost around 70.00 , but worth the money if you have a lot of VHS to tapes to convert.

**Please Note There is no 8mm or Hi 8 to VHS Adapter that currently exsists. This type of VHS Adapter only exsists with VHS-C tape**

Answer 3

I have tried many methods.  Most seem too complicated - like buying converters etc.  Two simple ones that I like are:

a) If you have VHS tapes, what you can do is you can buy a combo VHS recorder or DVD recorder. You just have to put your VHS tape into DVD recorder, put an empty DVD and then dub it. You will be able to play, and edit, your DVDs on your Mac.

b) Buy the Sony DVDirect (Amazon has it at http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VRDMC5-DVDire...  Hook that up to your old Camcorder, VCR etc.  Burn a DVD.  Then edit on your Mac.

Answer 4

You may take a look at this guide, it's about how to burn home video to DVD.

http://www.mac-dvd.com/mac-guide/how-to-...

If you have any other questions, feel free to email me.

Answer 5

This DVD Creator for Mac provides an easy and fast way to convert AVI to DVD, MPEG to DVD, DivX to DVD, WMV to DVD, and burn DVD movie, burn DVD folder to DVD, DVD ISO file to DVD for Mac!

http://www.dvdtoipod.us/macconverter/dvd...

Answer 6

There are several "converters" in the market, some come in a package that contains the converter and the software to edit and burn the software to the DVD.

Prices start at around $70, there is a little box which is plugged into the USB port in the PC, then you plug in either a video camera or a VCR into it. There is a learning curve, but it's not really hard to do.

However these "packaged" converters do not give high quality results. Buying a high end video card with ViVo (Video In/Video Out) technology will give better results as will also a TV card, specially a high def card, this will also allow you to watch TV on the computer, as long as you connect it to cable, satellite or an antenna. These cards start at about $100 but can run as much as $400.

You can also achieve better results by getting high end software for editing such as Sony's Vegas Movie Studio:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/movi...

The standard version costs around $75, the platinum around $115 but has more features.

A lot will depend on the power/capabilities of your computer.

You can get the hardware from newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/

Call them an ask for advice, since you will need to give them information regarding your system, operating system (windows, mac, etc) memory, etc. otherwise you're just going to toss a lot of money out the window, as your computer may not be able to handle it.

Answer 7

try this software, Total Video2Dvd Author can help you convert all movies to dvd simply and directly, work on any dvd player

. Click "New Project", add video files,

. Click "2. Menu", view dvd menu,

. Click "3. Output", Click "Convert & Burn" output.

1. easy convert AVI or other popular video formats(such as Youtube FLV, MPG, XVID, DIVX, MP4, 3GP, MKV, RM, RMVB, MOV, WMV, OGM, TS) to video DVD or ISO image file.

2. support SRT, SUB, SSA, ***, SMI, PSB, TEX, IDX subtitles.

3. support dvd menu with background music.

4. support download YOUTUBE video and other video share website`s video, then burn it to dvd.

5. support photo slideshow to dvd, more than 300 kinds of effects.

6. easy to use, only a few clicks,

you can download this software FREE:

http://www.google.com/search?q=video2dvd