recover old home movies

[Ken Veal]

I think I need some clarification here, in the latest Corel Video Tips at

http://corelvideotips.com/recover-your-old-footage/
It says

“Old home movies can be easily recovered by hooking up the camera to a DVD player with a recording function and copying them. After the video has been recorded to DVD it can be imported into VideoStudio for editing.”

1 What do they mean by “old home movies”- what type of media
2 What sort of DVD players can you record to from a camera
3 Is an imported DVD ideal for editing

[canuck]

1) I would think they are referring to VHS camcorders
2) DVD players that also have the option to record videos, hence the name DVD Recorders (do a google search).
3) The video on any proper video DVD can be imported into VS and can then be edited.

[Ken Berry]

1) I agree that they probably mean VHS camcorders (or even Betamax???) But they could also be referring to "old" movies filmed on mini DV tapes/camcorders or even the Sony range of Video 8/Hi8 camcorders. The two latter (DV and Digital 8 ) would connect via Firewire, and wouldn't need to record to a DVD recorder as long as you have a Firewire connection. But the older analogue types would need probably an AV-out cable from the camera end and RCA connectors at the other end.

2) Ditto to Canuck's response. Before DVD Recorders got hard disks, they would record to a normal DVD disk.

3) For the analogue-type camcorders, a DVD recording would be probably as ideal as anything else, and easy to import from. Connecting an analogue camcorder or VHS player to a Digital 8 or mini DV camcorder which is then connected to your computer via Firewire would, however, IMHO give you notionally better quality captured via the lossless DV/AVI format which is also easy to edit.

[BrianCee]

1) well they have got to mean old Video Movies - I have never come across a film camera which had any sort of electrical output - so basically they are talking any old video camera - as far as I remember all of them - including the latest ones have a means of outputting an analogue (or lately an HDMI) line signal which you could/can connect to a TV - therefore it can be connected to a DVD recorder.

2) All three DVD recorders that I own have phono or scart input sockets on the back to allow recording of analogue signals - have'nt looked at a new DVD recorder for a while but I think most of them still have input sockets - if they don't your only option would be to record the RF signal from your local TV transmitter - so I am saying all DVD recorders - as opposed to DV recorders have the option to record video over cables.

In fact one of the DVD recorders I own also has a VHS slot and allows direct transfer of VHS to DVD within the machine

3) VideoStudio will import a DVD direct as mpeg2 which is therefore every bit as good as the old VHS tapes where - so yes the imported DVD is ideal for editing.