Vhs To Dvd For Mac - Some Basic Questions, Plz Reply!

[canyonheathmom]

I have a lot of Hi-8 analog camcorder tapes (and VHS tapes) that I want to convert to DVD. I want to be able to play them on various DVD Players that are in various rooms of my house (Phillips, LG, Toshiba). But, I also want to be able to store them on a hard drive for longer-term archival storage. I might want to export a few of of them to YouTube eventually.

 

I recently found out about Easy VHS to DVD for Mac and it looks really interesting. I am trying to decide between doing my video conversion project THIS way, or using a Toshiba DVR620KU VHS/DVD recorder. I am new to this and don't know all of the hardware or software that would be involved in the process!

 

I need to know the following:

 

1. Can I use this the Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac on a Macbook Air with a SuperDrive? Or, does it work best only on a Mac desktop machine? What sort of storage do I need to have free on my computer for the Roxio software to work properly?

 

2. If I create a DVD using the Easy VHS to DVD, will it play on my various DVD players (Phillips, LG, Toshiba)? Or, does it need to be converted somehow (and what does that entail?)

 

3. Which type of recordable DVD should I use? I have become aware that some DVD players and some computers are not compatible with some types of DVD's (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, or DVD+RW ???)

 

4. My camcorder is an old Sony Handicam, model CCD-TVR128. It has an "AV out" hole which connects to a cord that has a single "headphone sized jack" on one end and the 3 RCA-type outputs on the other end (audio LR and video - please see attached photos). It also has an S Video output. Will any of that be a problem???

 

5. Are there any drawbacks or common problems I should be aware of in the process of converting videos to digital media?

 

I appreciate your help with my basic questions. This has been really confusing.

[tsantee]

Personally I would use the standalone DVD recorder. That way you end up with a video DVD. The Easy VHS to DVD for Mac captures video in MPEG 4 format which is great for playing on computers or uploading to YouTube, but is not the format used with DVDs. Therefore, after the capture you'd need to use Toast or some other DVD authoring application to encode the video to MPEG 2 and create a playable video DVD. When you make a DVD with the standalone recorder (and finalize the disc) it will be playable on other DVD players and will play on the Mac using the DVD Player application. However, its video will need to be converted to MPEG 4 (preferably h.264, mpeg-4) for sharing on YouTube, streaming to smart TVs or conveniently storing on computer hard drives.

 

You also may have a problem with the Easy VHS to DVD for Mac because I think it only captures to the internal hard drive. You can copy it elsewhere after capture but otherwise it won't be long before you run out of space.

 

Oddly, the Easy VHS to DVD for Mac does not include software to make a DVD. Rather misleading.

[canyonheathmom]

Thank you for your candor! I appreciate it!