Video tape to MP3

[NellieBly]

Does anyone have any suggestions on turning vhs tapes and casette tapes into mp3s so I can put them on a website? Is this possible?

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by NellieBly

Does anyone have any suggestions on turning vhs tapes and cassette tapes into mp3s so I can put them on a website? Is this possible?

Musicmatch Jukebox ( http://www.musicmatch.com ) has most of the tools you will need, and you can get by with their free version.

This assumes you have a not-too-old computer (Pentium or AMD), a fair amount of memory (512Mb is OK for WindowsXP) and a good amount of space on a recently defragmented hard drive to store it.

Also, make sure you turn off all unnecessary "features" before connecting to the internet (it's a good idea to temporarily disable any broadband connections before installing any sort of shareware or freeware, until you have had a chance to look it over).

[BKDotCom]

quote:Originally posted by NellieBly

Does anyone have any suggestions on turning vhs tapes and casette tapes into mp3s so I can put them on a website? Is this possible?

mp3 (just audio)?
If you're wanting video, you'll need a video capture card OR a lot of the new portable video players are also recorders.  For example, check this out (I just did a quick search).  

I've only put video up on a website once a few years ago and for that I converted the video to quicktime.    Now the way seems to be to use flash (ala YouTube) (everyone has flash in their browser)   I'm sure there are some freeware utils to make it easy to do.

[NellieBly]

Being the techno dork that I am I don't even understand the concept of taking an old VHS or cassette and turning it into a video for a website. Are there any local businesses that do it? How much do they charge?

[BKDotCom]

quote:Originally posted by NellieBly

Being the techno dork that I am I don't even understand the concept of taking an old VHS or cassette and turning it into a video for a website. Are there any local businesses that do it? How much do they charge?

No different in concept as copying from VHS to VHS.  Press play on the VHS, press record on the other device.
I searched for "digital video" in the yellow pages and a couple showed up.   There's a guy/business in my bldg that does video work and he said he'd charge $75/hour of his time.

[inteller]

that video place behind mexico lindo at 71st/lewis can do it for $20 i think.

[sgrizzle]

A good VCR/DVD Recorder dual deck (looks like this)


Is a good option for doing it yourself.

[art_cat]

Hi, I am a filmmaker. If you want to add titles and transisiton effects, you'll want a decent capture card for your computer. A capture card is usually bundled with editing software, allows you to input your VHS content, then edit it, and save it as an MPEG, other video use files, or "print" to CD or DVD. (You will, of course need a CD or DVD burner in your computer) A CD will hold up to about 15-30 minutes of VHS quality video. You should be able to get a nice capture card for $100 or less. This is, in my view, a far better option than converting an analog video to digital via stand-alone recorders. You will need a computer with a fair amount of muscle: at least a 600mhz cpu, at least 512 Megs of RAM, and at least a 30gig harddrive.

Call or visit the Video Revolution in Tulsa; helpful folks, who will assist you with a purchase or advise about local transfer services. Walgreens used to offer a VHS-to-DVD service. Also, check out VideoMaker, or Videomaker Magazine at the downtown library. At any rate, good luck!

[BKDotCom]

quote:Originally posted by art_cat
A CD will hold up to about 15-30 minutes of VHS quality video.

Actually, with a good codec (compression/decompression algorithm) such as XviD or DivX, you can fit an entire movie on a CD.  And I'd consider the quality on par or better than VHS

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by BKDotCom

quote:Originally posted by art_cat
A CD will hold up to about 15-30 minutes of VHS quality video.

Actually, with a good codec (compression/decompression algorithm) such as XviD or DivX, you can fit an entire movie on a CD.  And I'd consider the quality on par or better than VHS

you cant make something out of nothing.  if your source material is VHS, compressing it with Xvid or DivX can't make the quality better than VHS.  and, since both xvid and divx are lossy compression algorithms, the quality WILL be less than the original VHS.

[pmcalk]

Like Nelliebly, I am a complete technodork, but would like to transfer VHS to DVD.  A few years back, we looked into a DVD recorder.  The problem I found was that the recording formats were very confusing--some -R, some +R, some something else--and not all DVD players played the same format.  The DVD player in our car played something entirely different, which meant we couldn't transfer our kid's VHS to DVD to watch in the car (which was our main goal in the first place).  After asking several people, I was advised to wait a few years, till the formating conflict was resolved.

Has that been resolved?  We would like to transfer our VHS's to DVD in a format that will last a while--I don't want to have to do the same thing a few years from now.  (Who remembers BETA?)

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by pmcalk

Like Nelliebly, I am a complete technodork, but would like to transfer VHS to DVD.  A few years back, we looked into a DVD recorder.  The problem I found was that the recording formats were very confusing--some -R, some +R, some something else--and not all DVD players played the same format.  The DVD player in our car played something entirely different, which meant we couldn't transfer our kid's VHS to DVD to watch in the car (which was our main goal in the first place).  After asking several people, I was advised to wait a few years, till the formating conflict was resolved.

Has that been resolved?  We would like to transfer our VHS's to DVD in a format that will last a while--I don't want to have to do the same thing a few years from now.  (Who remembers BETA?)

unless you have a cheap player, it doesnt matter what the format is for playback.  -R and +R only matter when trying to record.  I recently recorded a DVD-R DL and it plays in every DVD player I own.  However, I could only record this disc on one of my computers because the other computer only supported DVD+R DL media.  I use -R media because my drives can record faster on it.  just wiki DVD-R and it will tell you all about it.

Video revolution behind mexico lindo can do all of this conversion stuff for the technically inept.  I know it was $20 from MiniDV to DVD, may be more or less between other formats.

[BKDotCom]

quote:Originally posted by inteller

quote:Originally posted by BKDotCom

quote:Originally posted by art_cat
A CD will hold up to about 15-30 minutes of VHS quality video.

Actually, with a good codec (compression/decompression algorithm) such as XviD or DivX, you can fit an entire movie on a CD.  And I'd consider the quality on par or better than VHS

you cant make something out of nothing.  if your source material is VHS, compressing it with Xvid or DivX can't make the quality better than VHS.  and, since both xvid and divx are lossy compression algorithms, the quality WILL be less than the original VHS.

Thank you!  My comparison to VHS was based on a good quality source, such as DVD or HD.  If the source is VHS, you probably won't see much degradation in "quality" by converting/saving in aforementioned lossy formats.  This falls under "on par with."

[BKDotCom]

quote:Originally posted by inteller
unless you have a cheap player, it doesnt matter what the format is for playback.  -R and +R only matter when trying to record.  I recently recorded a DVD-R DL and it plays in every DVD player I own.  However, I could only record this disc on one of my computers because the other computer only supported DVD+R DL media.  I use -R media because my drives can record faster on it.  just wiki DVD-R and it will tell you all about it.

+R and -R matter very much when it comes to play back and support on DVD players.  -R is the media to buy if you want to be able to play it on most, if not all, players.  +R, while technically a better (it's debatable) format, is not as widely supported.   Surprisingly, it seems to be the cheaper bargain, players that handle +R the best.  For example my JVC DVD player won't play DVD+Rs (it's an older player)
Wikipedia Info

[pmcalk]

What about DVD-RAM?  Also, what are the risks that one the formats disappears in the future, thus rendering my DVDs useless?  It does appear that newer DVD players play all formats, but will that continue in the future?