h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I managed to burn a DVD for the first time last night! I bought a DVD burner for the computer last week but it was only yesterday that I realised I had everything I needed to create a DVD from my camcorder footage. I also managed to use my video editing suite to help cut out the really worst pieces of the original footage and to insert some fading effects.

It's takes time though. I spent about 3 hours editing and burning, and all just for around 15 minutes of footage.

So, I have 15 minutes of footage now on DVD. Only 12 hours of material covering 2001 to the present day left to go...

Well done,sounds like a lovely idea.Not been technically minded i only vaguely understand what you've done,but i think hubby could probably do the same with all our holiday video's that are still on camcorder tapes??
I'll got my coat ,shall i

Your husband is in a similar predicament to me . I have tons of these small camcorder tapes that really need to be transferred over onto DVDs before I start losing them or before my camcorder packs up. Every time I want to show people our holiday movies I am forced to play them through the camcorder. There are wires everywhere, and the ever-present possibility that one of my twins will find the camcorder and either start chewing on it, or mistake it for a football.

I am running the home movies through my computer, then editing all the nasty pieces out, and then burning the finished products onto a rewritable DVD. At least that's the theory. When I will get a chance to do it all is a good question...

I am considering purchasing a nice new set of audio-visual gear for the living room and would rather not include a VHS option.

Has anyone experienced transfering VHS to DVD?

Any pointers please?

JT

I got a gizmo just the other day which is supposed to be able to connect our VHS player with the USB port on the computer. There's software supplied with it for transferring VHS tapes to DVD, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. It says it needs a 2GHz processor, but mine is only 0.8 GHz.

Depends on where you are, perhaps. In Canada, there are quite a number of home devices labelled as "DVD recorder, with VHS". Intended to record 1, 2, 4, 8 or 10 hours to a disk, right from the antenna/cable/satelite. And most will have a one-button dub to copy directly from the VHS to the DVD. Works quite nicely in my home.

Thanks folks - looks like I should do some shopping around for the various options to see what suits my setup best.

JT

Nearly 3 DVD's completed and I have already worked through 4 hours of footage, which is about a year and a half in my family's life. It's strange and quite poignant to see my kids grow up so quickly (and my dad deteriorate quickly at the same time) as 15 months of life whizz by in 3 hours or so.