egafd.com

Hi guys, I hope you do not mind me asking you another question AGAIN.

I am about to buy an old adult website with over 60 hours of movie material but it is all on svhs tapes. I aim to convert the movies to digital to wmv and .mov format by using adobe premier etc and also selling dvd's aswell. The website currently only sells videos.

I am not sure if this is a. possible or b. be good enough quality.

I have no idea about this so I thought I would ask the experienced producers on here as you know best.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards James

Could I just plug a usb lead into the camcorder and unoald it? I don't have a camcorder that plays svhs but I could buy one.

Whats a capture card?

Regards James

Hi, i have loaded hours of svhs tapes on to the comp using Win TV external capture which just plugs into your USB, you will need an svhs camcorder to play the tapes but you can buy these seconhand very cheap on ebay as well as the capture device, once captured you can then edit with whatever editing software you are using but if you capture to wmv format it will be ok for loading onto a website but you may have to convert to mpeg file before you can burn it to dvd.

If you want to sell as DVD suggest you record on a decent DVD recorder.
In my experience they do a better job than PC capture cards, particularly off tapes which my have the odd glitch.
Panasonic machines record at 708 x 576, rather than 720 x 576 which is standard, which is not accepted by some programs. I use a Pioneer recorder and been very happy with results.
You can then read into PC, tidy up and title the DVd to look professional and
with suitable software you can then convert to other formats.

JVC do some double deck machines which have sVHS in 1 side and miniDV in the other. These machines have firewire output so they are ideal to capture SVHS straight to the PC. I have the first generation machine, the JVC HR-DVS1EK that cost around ?1500 at the time. The HR-DVS3EK is out now at ?600-?700, but having used both I can say that the new one is a much cut down and cheaper machine, though still ideal for the job, it feels cheaper and less well built than the original machine. Neither are cheap in price I know, but for ease they are the best. Its worth investing for that, plus you have the added bonus of a miniDV deck for capturing modern digital tapes as well.

I also use Sony Vegas for capturing and editing. Providing you disable 'device control' when capturing from analogue sources, it works a treat.

If they are actual SVHS recordings (as opposed to VHS recordings on SVHS tapes) then the quality should be more than good enough for websites, and passable for DVD as well. Most general public would not know its come from SVHS.

As for using standalone DVD recorders as one poster suggested, they are all very well if all you require is a basic transfer from tape to disc. If you require editing of any kind, eg fades in and out, adding music, titles, cutting bits out, re-arranging clips, and creating custom menus with your own design and layout, then you would have to do the job properly by getting the footage into the computer first and outputting to disc at the end of the process.

I am happy to assist in the conversions if you need someone to do so. I can provide dvd as well as web based formats like quicktime, windows media, and real media.