When we first found out we were going to have a little one, I made a list of projects that I wanted to complete before the baby was born.  It had the obvious ones like setup the baby room.  But the list also had one slightly daunting task – copy all the VHS tapes to DVD.  There are 6 tapes total of most of my ballet performances throughout the years, including one with the Joffrey that I am NOT willing to lose!

After a little digging, Mark’s first idea was to use a video camera between the VCR and the computer to get the video into a digital format.  We were lucky enough that my dad still had a VCR and a video camera that had a line in and digital out.  We quickly discovered though that (at least with the camera available to us) these can’t be done simultaneously.  We could record onto a tape on the camera and then record into the computer, but that is much more time consuming than we anticipated and we don’t have a 6 hour blank tape for the camera.

Next idea, use other resources available to us through the University.  First up was the library, but we’d have to sit at the library while these tapes record in real-time.  These are 6 hour dance recitals…we quickly ruled this option out.  Next up was the digital media studio in Mark’s office, but that would cost us lots of dollars.

Our last idea has been to get a piece of hardware that connects between the VCR and iMac to convert the output into a digital feed for iMovie.  We’re a fan of this idea.  We’re not a fan of the cost of this idea though.  We found the Pinnacle Video Capture device on the Apple website for $100 with mixed reviews.  The Canopus ADVC110 is $250.

And so I ask for help…do you have any ideas?  Is it worth it to try the $100 device?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.