GaryOldman
Active member
.
Last edited:
VHS to OS X
- Thread starter GaryOldman
- Start date
Blaine
Mr. Hollywood
When I converted VHS to DVD I went from VHS player to a DV camera and from there to the computer via firewire. I actually captured it using DV Monitor Pro and got one giant clip. The camera was set to video playback mode, I believe. Worked like a champ. The DVD won't be any better quality that the master tape you're recording, but if you need to go that way, it's pretty easy.
Tom 4
Well-known member
Hi Gary,
If you have heaps to transfer I'd use the unit you linked from B&H, to ingest into the macpro would only be needed if you intend to do some editing...
Straight transfers in my opinion are fastest achieved by the standalone recorders.
cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au
orangesaybananas
Active member
I have an EyeTV. It records in MPEG2, which requires a conversion before you can edit it. So, it's not very efficient. I would use an analog to firewire converter (or dv camera) to bring in the VHS tapes as DV clips into Final Cut, if you must edit them. Or, realistically, just get a couple of old VCR's and used standalone DVD burners, and do a deck-to-deck transfer of all the tapes. That would be, by far, the fastest, and most profitable way to get this done...
BTW - I now use a Blackmagic Video recorder to store all my old video tapes from the 90's. Nice bit of kit. Cheers!
kgimedia
Well-known member
I don't own a HV30 but according to the info on the Canon website, the HV30 does have an AV input, and can act as a pass-through A/D converter.
Basically you connect any VHS player via RCA to 1/8 inch adapter and the camera converts to DV. DV then goes to your Mac Pro via a 4 pin to 6 pin Firewire cable. No DV tape is needed. If you need the very best quality then look for a deck that supports S-video. Although the difference between S-Video and Composite on standard VHS is very hard to see. The VHS tape format combines the Color information with the Luminance information.
Depending on the budget for the project you might find an encoding or duplication house locally that can convert your media to DV for you. You do the math. Let's say 100 VHS tapes each 2 hours long = 200 hours of real time capture and 2400 Gigabytes or 2.4 terabytes.
Trust me no fun. I have 4 large totes full of footage I shot multicam with video mixer in the late 90's. At least it was S-VHS but it has no proper time code and some times I forget it is capturing and find I have 20 minutes of blue on the end of my DV files.
Tom 4
Well-known member
Hi Gary,
sounds like your very very new to video, I'd strongly advise you to get a video basic's crash course by someone close by to you, your only wasting your time on these boards, and you'll only get more confused.
cheers
Tom k
To clear up some of the confusion:
When folks talk about using their miniDV cameras... no, you do not need to use miniDV tape. There are small DV units out there called DV bridges. They take analog inputs from VHS machines (composite video, S-video, stereo RCA audio) and convert them to a DV signal that is sent to the computer via FireWire. No camera, no lens, no tape deck. Just a signal bridge. By using a miniDV camcorder as a pass-through, you're basically using it as a bridge.
All you need is a bridge to take the analog signal, convert it to DV, and send it by FireWire into your MacPro. That's the basic, no-frills way to do it.
That said, if you have a miniDV camcorder, or a DV or DVCAM deck, you can make copies to DV tape and can even do this and capture the signal into the computer at the same time. When working from VHS, I tend to prefer making DV copies. This gives you an archive on digital tape medium, and because it is striped with time code you can also go back to the DV tapes later and easily resurrect old projects or locate specific clips.
Probably your best bet is to get a deck. You can find a good deal on a used Sony DSR-11 right now (check eBay). Just make sure that it still has the door on the front. This will allow you to use the more robust DVCAM tapes, as well as the full-size DV tapes. If you are dealing with VHS tapes that are each over 1 hour in length, you'll need to go to the full-size cassettes to get 2-hours on each in SP mode (avoid LP).
There is one other concern here, since you are using VHS. Depending on the age of the tape, and how well it has been treated, it could have some signal instability. VHS was notorious for having the control track chewed up, and when that happens you'll see the picture start to roll and wiggle. When that happens, the DV camcorder/deck/bridge will drop the signal altogether. So if you are having these issues with VHS, you'll need to pass the signal through a Time Base Corrector (TBC) that will replace the sync burst and thus stabilize the signal.
Here's a good, basic TBC: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...eo_TBC_1000_TBC_1000_Single_Channel_Time.html
By the way, what program will you be using to capture and edit, and to author the DVDs?
When folks talk about using their miniDV cameras... no, you do not need to use miniDV tape. There are small DV units out there called DV bridges. They take analog inputs from VHS machines (composite video, S-video, stereo RCA audio) and convert them to a DV signal that is sent to the computer via FireWire. No camera, no lens, no tape deck. Just a signal bridge. By using a miniDV camcorder as a pass-through, you're basically using it as a bridge.
All you need is a bridge to take the analog signal, convert it to DV, and send it by FireWire into your MacPro. That's the basic, no-frills way to do it.
That said, if you have a miniDV camcorder, or a DV or DVCAM deck, you can make copies to DV tape and can even do this and capture the signal into the computer at the same time. When working from VHS, I tend to prefer making DV copies. This gives you an archive on digital tape medium, and because it is striped with time code you can also go back to the DV tapes later and easily resurrect old projects or locate specific clips.
Probably your best bet is to get a deck. You can find a good deal on a used Sony DSR-11 right now (check eBay). Just make sure that it still has the door on the front. This will allow you to use the more robust DVCAM tapes, as well as the full-size DV tapes. If you are dealing with VHS tapes that are each over 1 hour in length, you'll need to go to the full-size cassettes to get 2-hours on each in SP mode (avoid LP).
There is one other concern here, since you are using VHS. Depending on the age of the tape, and how well it has been treated, it could have some signal instability. VHS was notorious for having the control track chewed up, and when that happens you'll see the picture start to roll and wiggle. When that happens, the DV camcorder/deck/bridge will drop the signal altogether. So if you are having these issues with VHS, you'll need to pass the signal through a Time Base Corrector (TBC) that will replace the sync burst and thus stabilize the signal.
Here's a good, basic TBC: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...eo_TBC_1000_TBC_1000_Single_Channel_Time.html
By the way, what program will you be using to capture and edit, and to author the DVDs?