Making Ready for VHS to DVD

Just took a bullet for my budget, and purchased the Canopus ADVC300 ... ("on sale") ...
For specs: http://www.grassvalley.com/products/advc300

I'm pretty new at this, so pardon my jargon-less terminology ...

First, realizing the Canopus is an 8-10 year old hardware product, am I missing something by not finding an "up to HD" converter box? (I may have a couple of hours to cancel my Canopus order ...)

Secondly, wondering if folks might suggest what 100% free app I might use to accept the on-the-fly FW input, and code it to hard disk?

I have iMovie 4 and 5, but read it can lose video and audio sync for long sessions. I plan to digitize 1 to 2+ hours of VHS in a session, to burn to DVD-DL disks. The Canopus ADVC300 claims to keep perfect A/V sync, so I'm guessing I also need to impose the same for my capture app ...

Will probably set up my QS 2002 Dual 1GHz under OS X 10.5.8 to be the work horse:

RCA VR678HF Video Cassette Recorder > RCA connectors > Canopus ADVC300 > FW > QS 2002 Dual 1GHz (with a dedicated hard drive)

Suggestions welcomed.

QS 2002 Dual 1GHz + DA Dual 533 (Mac Plus, Performa 6116, PPC 8500 G4/450), Mac OS X (10.5.8), Tiger 10.4.11 on Yikes! oc'd @ 450 + Sonnet G4/450 on 8500

Posted on Mar 4, 2010 6:54 AM

25 replies

Mar 10, 2010 11:50 AM in response to Jeremy Hansen

I'm pretty new to VHS to DVD ... thanks for understanding my use of non-sensical terms.

I saw SHD somewhere ... now can't remember in what context ... I thought it was supposed to mean non-HD.

Change the Rate doesn't make sense does it, since I now know NTSC uses 29.97? The canopus Defaults to "Best" even when choosing an NTSC compression. Just thought I should set it to 29.97 in the selection list ... but I won't bother.

Those 21+GB DV files are scaring me a bit ...

Now need to read up on iDVD.

Thanks.

Mar 10, 2010 12:43 PM in response to Bill Connelly

There you go; you're getting better. You had meant SD, or standard definition.

NTSC isn't a compression; it is a broadcast standard. Sort of like how all North American power outlets are supposed to play nicely with native appliances. So you are right that the default would be 29.97 fps.

Yes, video files are often huge. DV is around 12gb per hour. But again, a DVD uses mpeg-2 compression, at around 6 mbps. Hence, a single layer disc (4.3GB) ends up holding about 1.5 or 2 hours, depending on the bitrate of the mpeg video. So you often need a big scratch disc, but your final project will be much smaller.

(Actually, a DVD also supports the older mpeg-1 format, and at smaller resolutions. So if you really wanted to cram a lot of footage on a disc, you could do that with less clarity. But most folks wouldn't bother.)

iDVD has preset bitrates, allowing 60 or 90 minutes per disc. For finer control, you need something like Toast or DVD Studio Pro.

Mar 11, 2010 5:59 AM in response to Jeremy Hansen

What's an affordable way to compress from the canopus > iMovie DV files to a DVD format? I have Dual Layer burning capability.

Doesn't look like iDVD 5 under Tiger is working for me. Toast 6 not enough, either.

DVD Studio Pro is too expensive ... Toast 10 looks like it excels with communication / sharing to devices (iPhone, iPod, etc). I just want DVD authoring ... iMovie 5 and _____________ ?

10.5.8 ... 10.4.11 ...

What-to-do ...

Mar 11, 2010 6:23 AM in response to Bill Connelly

Without iDVD, Toast is probably your best bet. Its menu templates are limited and some are ugly, but it will be the simplest to use if you can't get iDVD working. But I would try for iDVD if I were you.

Toast will recognize chapter markers in quicktime movies, but won't use the names. And there is no way to name them either.

Why can't you use iDVD?

Jeremy

Mar 11, 2010 7:43 AM in response to Jeremy Hansen

One DVD project I create is 165+ minutes. and iDVD 5 comes up with "... content exceeds maximum duration ..."

Tried to use Save as Disk Image, thinking I could use Disk Utility afterwards to burn a DL DVD, but iDVD 5 doesn't allow me to save the file.

My DVD project looks nice in iDVD's Preview ... just cannot Burn or Save as ... I would be satisfied with a disk image ...

Workaround?

Mar 11, 2010 8:03 AM in response to Bill Connelly

Well, iDVD needs to know that you are planning on a DL disc in the first place. But I don't know how iDVD 5 uses DL discs, if at all. You could post a question in the iDVD forum.

iDVD 7 has a project info window, which allows me to set what type of disc I'm using, and switch between three qualities of encoding; the highest quality setting (think of it as most efficient) allows what appears to be 240 minutes.

Maybe you should order the newest iLife?

Mar 11, 2010 8:38 AM in response to Jeremy Hansen

Let's see ...

iLife 9 came out in Jan 2009 ... is there a 10 for 2010?

hopefully for PPCs?

I think that would do it for < $75 ...

Mar 12, 2010 8:04 AM in response to Bill Connelly

I'm now considering Final Cut Express 4 ... to finish making ready for VHS to DVD ...

Is that a complete workflow? From capture via my canopus, editing, then burning to DL DVD with complete DVD Menu included? or do I need to also have iLife '06+ on hand?

I cannot get iDVD 5 to burn a DVD larger than 60 minutes. I could possibly do a <120 one by selecting Best Performance over Best Quality, but I have a DL burner, and I should be able to get 240 minutes ... tried the Patchburn 4.0.5 to get Vendor Support, and also added the User > Documents > Hurz & Pfurz Hidden Menu hack to recognize my DL drive, to no avail (Patchburn recognizes the need to install this for iDVD 4, but says its not necessary for iDVD 5). Maybe my installation of iDVD 5 is flawed?

I'm trying to read up on these things ... just too much info to do it alone ...

Final Cut Express 4?

Mar 12, 2010 12:29 PM in response to Bill Connelly

That won't help. Final Cut Express doesn't come with DVD Studio Pro. So you would still need something to author the disc.

It would appear that iDVD 5 can't deal with dual layer discs. Get the latest version of iLife, which will give you more control. Capture with iMovie, edit and chapter, import into iDVD.

Mar 12, 2010 10:19 PM in response to Jeremy Hansen

I read in another thread someone had good luck even with burning DL under iDVD 5 ... hmmmm ...

So ... I decided to re-install iDVD, iMovie and iPhoto using Pacifist. Allowed all the system files to be replaced as it asked to do ... then did a Software Update and got a couple of upgrades to iMovie 5.0.2 and iPhoto 5.0.4 ...

I'm Saving to Disk Image now for a 1 hour < Compressed Length < 2 hour project.

Still may go on and try 9 if I can find a good deal ... wishing I knew when 10 might be coming out ... probably August since it didn't arrive over last few months ... may need to HexFiend hack one of the Contents to get it to run on my G4.

Thanks for all the suggestions and sounding board use ... will report back as success continues to come my way ...

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Making Ready for VHS to DVD