Re: OT converting VHS to DVD live loop performance

["Krispen Hartung" <khartung@cableone.net>]

Also, Rick, there are many local companies (like Monument Photo) here in 
Boise, who will take a VHS and convert it to DVD for you, for about $15. 
There are probably a lot of places near you to do this. It may be easier 
for 
you to go this route and save yourself some time. Then you can rip that 
DVD 
to avi or mpeg to edit, etc.

Kris

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Larson" <jeff.larson@sailpoint.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 11:29 PM
Subject: RE: OT converting VHS to DVD live loop performance


Another quick comment:

> 1) Make hi resolution DVDs as a promotional product for my touring  and

If by hi resolution you mean "high definition" or HD with 720 or 1080
scan lines, you will not see much if any quality difference rendering
to HD if the input is a standard definition VCR tape.  It might even
make it worse because converting standard definition to HD requires
"upscaling" and not all upscaling implementations are the same.

Unless you are dealing with a service with really pro-grade equipment
it is best to keep the transfer in the same resolution as the source.

Typically you take in a VCR or camcorder tape and you get back a DVD
ROM containing "avi" files.  You then copy these files file onto your
hard disk, load them up into a video editor and go to town.  But note
that you can't stick a DVD ROM into many consumer DVD players and have
it play.  If that is what you want you need to use DVD burning
software such as Adobe Encore or Nero (or many, many others) to
convert an avi file into the format that most DVD players require.

If this is the end goal, then you can just ask the transfer service
to put it in DVD-Video format.

If you have the transfer formatted as DVD-Video and later decide you
want to edit the video (or convert it to MPEG, see below), you have to
get "ripper" software that will extract the video and audio from the
DVD and convert it back into avi files.  This is the same thing people
use to steal, er "backup" commercial DVDs.

> 2)  Make lo resolution copies for streaming on my website and also at
>       YouTube.com.

For this you would compress standard definition video, typically in an
avi file into an MPEG file.  The process is similar to converting a
full resolution audio file into an MP3.  Most of the commercial video
editing software can do this.  If you don't want to mess with doing
this yourself, the transfer service can do it for an additional cost.
Or you might be able to find a friend with video editing software that
will do it for free :-)

Jeff