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VHS to DVD is Not For You If….

July 10, 2008 By 3 Comments



Transferring your VHS to DVD is not for you if you plan to edit your raw video footage.

Families are becoming more aware that magnetic media (that's your VHS tapes, Super-8, Hi-8, Betamax) doesn't last forever. They have a shelf life of 10 years or fewer. Some would even say they start degrading after 5 years. If you can't make out the little baby's face (that was you) in the your parents' VHS tapes, don't blame their video shooting skills. Blame it on Time and the tape degradation that comes with time. As a result, families are rushing to transfer their VHS tapes to DVD.

However, when you convert a VHS tape to DVD, the video format is stored as MPEG2 format which is a compressed format. 5 minutes of uncompressed video format is 1 Gig. A DVD can only store up to 4 Gig of data but somehow it has managed to compressed up to 2 hours of video. Which is fine if you are happy popping it into a player, but not if you plan to cut out scenes, add special effects and transitions.

For that, you want to convert your video into uncompressed video format, which is the AVI format. Since the AVI format is uncompressed, it is large (5 minutes = 1 Gig), so you will need to transfer it to a hard drive.

I feel compelled to inform our readers about this because too many families get a false sense of security that once they transfer their video tapes or film reels to DVDs, their memories are preserved. Then when they try to splice out sections and edit it to show at a daughter's wedding reception, the video quality is not what they expected.

Not all VHS to DVD transfer services offer hard drive transfer. If yours does not, you have couple of options, to purchase a video capture/transfer device and do it yourself, or to outsource your VHS-Hard drive transfer to the professionals.

Related Posts:
How to Transfer Video to a Hard Drive

Filed Under: Tape/Film Transfer

Digital Picture Frame that Plays Video

June 18, 2008 By 2 Comments

You know a product has turned mainstream when you start seeing all kinds of options, sizes, extra features, colors, flavors – not unlike how Cornflakes now appears in 101 variations. Such is the case with Digital Picture frames. The other day, I saw one that even reports on the weather real time. And a few lets you crop, lighten, and add effects to your photos right on it (I prefer to edit the source photos on my PC before transporting my photos to a picture frame, ipod, flicker, etc).

Picture Frame designs – you will find one that will match any living room, from simple clear frames to this handsome, wood, fashion-statement designs like the Philips 6.5-Inch Digital Picture Frame.

Want your digital pictures to come alive and greet you when you return from the office? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Camcorder Reviews

Flip Video Editing Software

June 15, 2008 By 37 Comments

Technorati Tags: [tag-tec]flip-video-camcorder[/tag-tec], [tag-tec]flip-video-editing[/tag-tec]
The super-easy flip video camcorder plugs directly into your laptop or PC USB port so you can transfer the video without any fancy cables or firewire ports.

While that makes it very easy to upload your videos on internet to share with your friends and family, you may want to take an extra step and edit it first. Watching unedited raw footage is like watching grass grow.

To turn your flip video clip into an entertaining movie with nifty transitions, special effects, titles and music, you need a video editing software. The movie-editing software that I highly recommend for busy and time-pressed folks like us is [Read more...]

Filed Under: Video Editing Software

Costco Video Transfer

June 13, 2008 By 30 Comments

If you are a Costco member, there's a new service you may want to look into: Costco Video Transfer and Costco Film Transfer.

This service fills an important role, because it’s estimated that 700 million home movies are stashed away in closets and basements, many of them degrading away because of the limited life span of film and video. If you don’t believe me, here’s a video my father took over thirty years ago – I can’t even make out my mother’s face anymore. Do you have your wedding video stashed 'safely' in a closet in your bedroom? Don’t end up like this faceless bride video.


Costco charges $20 for a video transfer and takes about three weeks. You drop them off at the same place you drop your photos, but unlike their photos [Read more...]

Filed Under: Tape/Film Transfer

Why Friends and Family Won't Watch Your DVD

June 5, 2008 By 2 Comments

My friend John just gave me a bunch of his father's 16-mm and Super-8 film reels to digitize. His summer project is to edit the video into a DVD for a family reunion. I made a comment about how his siblings must appreciate the work and love that go into a project like this and he laughed. "We've gone on a cruise together, vacationed in Africa, Europe, and I've made some beautiful DVDs for all of us but no one watches them except my wife and I".

His comment reminded me of my own similar experience in the past. My parents are abroad and I made beautiful videos of the children to send them. After many cross-atlantic calls to get them to watch it, they finally did and my dad fell asleep in the middle of it. How insulting. Don't they love their grandchildren enough to watch to the end of the video?

Why don't friends and family watch your videos? I have a few ideas, and it's got nothing to do with whether they love you or not.

1. Home videos are usually long and boring. To the parents, 10 minutes video footage of watching baby eat his peas is darling, to others it's like watching grass grow, death by boredom. Suggestion: Make your videos short and sweet, 3 minutes maximum. Even your 7-day European tour, check out my post on keeping your finished movies 3 minutes or less.

2. Got no humor. Have you noticed that the successful TV commercials are the ones with humor? Same thing with YouTube videos that get millions of views, they are very funny. Like this video on How To Hug a Baby (a Guide for Ambitious Dogs). Suggestion: Turn on your funny bone. Got not funny bone? Find humor videos on the web, watch how they do it.

3. No documentaries please. We play reporter with the video camera, capturing every blow, every turn our marathoner makes, every step up Heartbreak Hill (Boston Marathon), all the way until he disappears into the shower stall. Is this video for the archives or for entertainment? Suggestion: If it's to share with friends and families, I suggest it's more entertaining to capture more details about a specific incident than a long stretch of the event. That's why the Charlie Bit Me video got virally passed around to millions of viewers. Long generalities makes a good historical archive, detailed video clip of an emotion, an incident, an experience makes a good story.

4. It's not on their errand path. How many harried families take a breather, sit down and pop in their old home movies to reminisce? The DVD is much easier to pop into a player but it still takes tearing away from your normal routine to sit down for a home movie. It's not the natural errand path of busy families. Suggestion: Send it by email. I don't mean the actual large video file (or you'll lose even more friends and family), I mean the link to the video that you post on the web. That's just one option, there are many ways to share your video today, be versatile if you want your families and friends to watch your video.

Happy video editing. Remember, keep it short, keep it funny, keep it tight, make it easy for them to watch, and you'll have friends and families raving and asking for more. To do all that, you will need to know how to do simple video editing. If you've been intimidated with that in the past, don't. Today's software, such as Windows Movie Maker (free), and camcorders such as the Flip Video, for example, make the process a lot simpler and quicker. Also many video tutorials out there to guide you every step of the way.

Related Posts:
Flip Video Camcorder- Super Simple
How to Make a Home Movie

Filed Under: Movie Making Tips

Simple Video – Charlie Bit Me

March 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment

The simplest video editing is when you take out the editing completely. It's rare, but on occassion, you shoot a short snippet that's so perfect you want to share it as is. Like this video of Charlie biting big brother's finger.

This short video about a toothy baby, Charlie, who bites his big brother, has been viewed on YouTube over 12 million times. The video made us chuckle, but if you were Charlie's parents, would you be concerned that the whole world knows about your 2 children by face?

I'll admit that I put my kids, nieces, nephews on YouTube all the time. And I'm not worried. Why? Because, according to Wikipedia, there are over 77 million videos available for viewing on YouTube. I figure the chances that my baby son's music video is going to become another Charlie, or even be viewed by my friends or family, is pretty slim.

There are precaution available to you if you are still concerned about sharing your videos on YouTube. When you first upload your file to YouTube, you will be asked to select from Broadcast Options – Public or Private. By choosing Private you will restrict your video so that it can only be viewed by you and up to 25 other people).

But then your son won't get to be as famous as Charlie… :-)

Filed Under: Video Editing Software