5 replies to this topic

[new2thisstuff]

Hello all,

I am very new to this. I have the Roxio VHS to DVD Converter Software and I am trying to transfer all of our home movies to DVD. I want the best quality I can get from my VHS tapes. I have already started my project but I am running into a problem with it taking up a lot of space on my hard drive. I have a 250GB external hard drive I am using to put my converted video on but I am using the highest quality setting so I don't loss any quality. The only problem is I am running out of hard drive space and I have much more video I need to convert before I make my DVDs. I want to be able to have all of my video on DVDs but I will be making some edited dvds that will contain some of the most watched parts cutting out the long drawn out boring stuff.

Is there a conversion that will take up a lot less space and have the same quality? And if so can I convert what I already have converted into that format without losing any quality?

I really don't want to buy another or a bigger hard drive if I don't have to. I know this question has probably been answered many times but I am having trouble finding the answers I am looking for. Any help would be greatly appreciated. [/size][size="2"]

[tsantee]

I'm guessing but I'd expect over 100 hours of video to fit on a 250 GB hard drive at the high quality setting. Lowering the recording quality will fit over 150 hours. You can use Toast's Data window to burn the saved MPEG video files to DVD without creating a video DVD if you like. This way you can move some of the video off the hard drive.

Toast has a built-in editor where you can easily trim out any parts of a video you want to exclude from a video DVD. Add the video to the Toast Video window with DVD video selected as the format. Click the Edit button that appears next to the video title. This launches the Toast Video Player. Go to a place you want to start an edit (to remove content from the final video DVD) and click the triangle at the middle bottom. Drag have of that triangle to mark the area you want excluded. You can place multiple markers. Choose Save when done and go back to Toast. Toast now will exclude any marked portions when it authors the video DVD. Note: This editor does not change the source video file in any way so your original file is unchanged.

If you want to do fancier editing such as in iMovie you'll need to convert the video to H.264 MPEG 4 or to DV for high quality import to iMovie. Toast 9 Basic doesn't have the convert window active. You need the full version for that or else you need to do that conversion when prompted at the time you complete a video capture.

Please feel free to ask more questions. I may have gone on a tangent and didn't provide the answer you're needing.

Edited by tsantee, 28 February 2010 - 11:08 PM.

[new2thisstuff]

Thank you for the information. However I don't have the Toast Software. I just have the Roxio VHS to DVD Software. On the quality setting I am using it is 178MB per minute.

Also I realized today after looking up my topic I put it in the VHS to DVD for Mac. The Software I have is for Windows. Moderators can we move this to just the VHS to DVD thread so we don't have any confussion?

[Jim_Hardin]

Thank you for the information. However I don't have the Toast Software. I just have the Roxio VHS to DVD Software. On the quality setting I am using it is 178MB per minute.

Also I realized today after looking up my topic I put it in the VHS to DVD for Mac. The Software I have is for Windows. Moderators can we move this to just the VHS to DVD thread so we don't have any confussion?

You have heard of the Rock and Hard Place…

You can't have it both ways! Quality requires big files.

Capture at high quality (DV setting) uses about 13 GB per hour.

You might be able to capture at DV HQ which uses about 3.45 GB per hour. One time render should be OK as far as quality, but big projects really put a strain on the PC when editing…

Yes you can use VideoWave (Edit) to convert your existing AVI's into mpeg but… Now you have made one Render to the file and when you burn it to disc, you will be making another, so there may be some loses…

You should get a disc or 2 of DVD RW and use that to try some things before you paint yourself into a corner!

You may have to break it into segments. Doing enough capture to cover a certain period, edit and burn then delete from the HDD to free up space to do another…

Keep in mind though that with digital there are no 'negatives' to fall back on… I have some early 8mm movies (1960) that were converted to VHS and the movies are now gone. I am converting these into DVD/BD and you can bet they will be on multiple HDD's and extra copies made and distributed!

[new2thisstuff]

Thank you, that is some great info. I need to buy some DVDs so I will add some DVD RWs to the list as well and try that. I probably won't even bother with converting before so I don't really get myself into a mess.

Sounds like I really need to invest in a bigger external hard drive anyway. I think it will make things much easier so I can get all my video on one source and categorize them.

Looks like I am back to square one then. I just wanted to make sure I was not doing it the hard way and hoping I could easily convert to smaller size without losing quality.

[Jim_Hardin]

Thank you, that is some great info. I need to buy some DVDs so I will add some DVD RWs to the list as well and try that. I probably won't even bother with converting before so I don't really get myself into a mess.

Sounds like I really need to invest in a bigger external hard drive anyway. I think it will make things much easier so I can get all my video on one source and categorize them.

Looks like I am back to square one then. I just wanted to make sure I was not doing it the hard way and hoping I could easily convert to smaller size without losing quality.

Sounds like a plan!!!

Keep us informed how you make out, and don't wait until you frustrated to pop in here.