Moving home movies to dvd's

[The Disney Bunch]

I have a whole bunch of 8mm home movies and VHS home movies that I would like to move to DVD's. Has anyone done this? Can anyone tell me how I would go about doing this? What equipment if required? It is a huge understaking but I would like to have them saved onto DVD's. (especially my Disney trips!)Thanks for anyone's guidance!

 

[the kabuki]

I am going to be doing the same thing. Here's some sites to check out for info:
www.afterdawn.com,
the message boards at www.Camcorderinfo.com,
www.mrbass.com/dvdnewbie/
www.videohelp.com

These sites have given me a starting point to begin. You're right when saying it's a huge undertaking!! I just purchased a video editing program, and it is difficult at first, but as with anything, it does get easier with experience.

 

[fanofdisney]

Is it something you have to do yourself?

 

[The Disney Bunch]

I am going to be doing the same thing. Here's some sites to check out for info:
www.afterdawn.com,
the message boards at www.Camcorderinfo.com,
www.mrbass.com/dvdnewbie/
www.videohelp.com

These sites have given me a starting point to begin. You're right when saying it's a huge undertaking!! I just purchased a video editing program, and it is difficult at first, but as with anything, it does get easier with experience.

Thanks for the links- I am going to check them out. What type of film editing equipment do you have? Thanks

Is it something you have to do yourself?

It is not something I have to do myself but due to the sheer volume of film and movies I am looking for an inexpensive way to do this & having someone doe it for me is not that expensive.

 

[the kabuki]

Remember, I'm new at this too, so here's what I have so far-Sony TRV22 camcorder which is connected to my computer with 1394 firewire.(my computer savvy dad hooked this up for me by putting in a new "card?" into a pci slot in the back of the tower, forgive me those who are tech savvy) to which a cord runs that connects to the camcorder. I also had him install a HP dvd writer420i, so I could actually burn onto dvd so it would be able to be played on the dvd player on the TV. I have the Pinnacle Studio 9 program which allows me to "capture" the video that's on the camcorder to the computer, from there I'm able to edit, and then "make a movie" Also installed a external hard drive that is strictly used for video and pictures. That one was easy to install actually. You need certain memory and speed requirements on the computer, which you can read about on the above links.

All sounds simple when writing it down, but actually there's so much to learn. I don't know if I would recommend the Pinnacle studio program, only because now that I have it and have started reading others' comments on that forum, it seems that many people are having many problems with it, crashing, hanging, not doing what it's supposed to etc. But can't necessarily recommend another one either, having no experience with them.

think of it as a learning experience, rather than getting overwhelmed by it all.

 

[alloyd1170]

You can take your videos to a camera store (ie Ritz, Wolf Camera-check your yellow pages under photograhy) and have them transferred to dvd. Ive done it a few times, but it can get pricey. I would love to do it on my own but I dont think our computer is cut out for it. Thanks for the links-Im going to check them out. Ive been thinking about getting a vhs/dvd recorder combo unit to do all this too.

alison

 

[the kabuki]

The disadvantage to having them transferred is that you can't edit it. I'd like to be able to trim some of the massive amount of home movies that have, for example,the 2 hours of opening presents or the 3 hours of the school x-mas concert. It's nice being able to just put certain footage on your movie.

 

[The Disney Bunch]

The disadvantage to having them transferred is that you can't edit it. I'd like to be able to trim some of the massive amount of home movies that have, for example,the 2 hours of opening presents or the 3 hours of the school x-mas concert. It's nice being able to just put certain footage on your movie.

When you say it can't be edited - what if you had the movies transferred to dvd & then ran them through an editing program on the computer - would that work?

 

[timandlesley]

PM me, my husband does this for a living at a VERY low cost- He takes your pictures from vacations and puts them on DVD for a very affordable rate in a slideshow with music, and he can transfer video. For the video he only charges 10 dollars per hour. PM me for details.

www.preciousmemoriesdvd.com

Lesley

 

[the kabuki]

When you say it can't be edited - what if you had the movies transferred to dvd & then ran them through an editing program on the computer - would that work?

I meant that if I paid someone else to transfer them, they might not edit them the way that I would if I did it myself through an editing program. You can take the older movies and pass them through the digital camcorder and then edit them on the computer.

Just today, I finally completed a movie from our disney trip. Edited it, put in background music, some still pics, and was able to play it on our dvd player on the tv. Was thrilled that it actually worked

 

[mrskay9]

I love Studio 9.

 

[the kabuki]

I love Studio 9.

How long have you been working with Studio9? Have you been able to download the new 9.3.5 patch? Just curious , because everytime I try to download, it shows a time of 60 hours or some crazy amount, and my computer clocks out before it's ever downloaded.

Even though there's so much info out there,it would sure be nice to know someone who's been through this already. It seems as if I'm always the first one to try these things out in our family. Everyone waits for me to figure it out first, then they'll start getting into it!