A stroke of ambition hit me late last night and I decided to test out the TV tuner card Mike lent me to see if I could digitize my old videocassettes.
Success! Sort of?
The thing works…I started recording a Smashing Pumpkins: Intimate and Interactive concert back from…1998? It records in real time so I figured it would try and tape the entire 6 hour tape. I left it running overnight and when I awoke, I found it did in fact tape the 2 hour long show, but didn’t bother capturing any other footage on the videocassette. Another drawback is the fact that this 2 hour long MPG file is 8 gigabytes large…I would need a dual-layer DVD to put this onto.
Granted, this is after setting it up for 45 minutes and letting it run overnight. I’m sure this weekend I will find the answers to the following questions:
- The resolution of a TV set is 320×40. But if I record at 700+ it turns out to be less in size. What’s up with that?
- Is there a way to bring down the size while recording? When trying to create the DVD, it does start talking about how it’s WAY too big for a conventional single layer DVD and attempts to downgrade the quality, but it only shaved off 500MB. So two options appear: 1) Figure out a way to record it into a lower quality to begin with. 2) Use a program to downgrade to a nice 4.7GB size (perhaps DVDShrink? Does it work with MPGs?)
- What do I do with all the old videocassettes afterwards? I’m talking EVERYTHING. I want to first transfer any home videos, as well as stuff I’ve videotaped off of TV. Then I will ahead and tape actual movies. But afterwards, should I just chuck them in the garbage? In essence, I have converted the videos and they will be on a nifty DVD. I have heard that DVDs degrade over time, but so do videocassettes…
- Can I make a business out of this? Someone told me that a business charges $75 per hour of video that they convert to DVD. That is insane. I mean, I haven’t gone through the whole process of making a DVD yet, but I don’t think it will take too much of my time. MAYBE if I have to search for different scenes and make a menu and whatnot.
Comments
3 responses to “Sayonara Cassettes!”
Don’t chuck them in the garbage. Have a gigantic yard sale and someone who hasn’t entered the age of technology will buy them.
Check the software for recording options
Mmmyeah, thanks for the insight Matt.
So, I did a little research and if I choose VCD instead of DVD, it’ll drop the quality which is probably what I need to do.
Considering it’s coming from a video cassette feed anyhow, it’s not like I’ll get the greatest picture anyhow.