Digitizing Old Movies and VHS (and Other Format) Tapes

It seems like half the battle in making family memory movies is figuring out how to import old films and VHS or other videotapes into your computer. in the following sections cover a variety of techniques that help you digitize this material so you can edit it into your movie.

Digitizing Films

Old film footage is often the most difficult material to figure out how to digitize.

Many people opt to have it digitized by a professional service. You can find a supplier online or by asking your local photo shop for recommendations.

A homemade method for importing old films is fairly simple, and the cost is free, but the quality may not be as good as you would get by sending it out to a professional service.

If you want to digitize your old films at home and you have a film projector that can project the old films (it needs to be the same format as your film), you can simply shoot the movies with a digital camcorder. You project the film onto a screen or white wall, set up your tripod, and shoot the film with your video camcorder. You need to make sure to align the edges of the film with the frame of your camcorder shot so the outer edges of the film footage don't show in the digitized version.

Using Historical Photos from the Web

You can use the power of image searches on the Internet to add material to your family memory movies.

Don't have a photo of a place that is important in your family history? For example, is Great Aunt Bertha talking about how your family emigrated from Berlin in 1895? Searching the Internet for historical photos can turn up some wonderful and surprising finds that you can import into your family memory movie. To test this, I went to Google and searched for "Berlin 1895 photo"; up popped a French site with photos. I followed another link from that site and arrived at someone's AOL page, which provided beautiful scans of vintage postcards of old Berlin, including some from 1895.

You can use an image search at your favorite search engine to narrow the results and preview many photos onscreen. And you can save any uncopyrighted photos to your computer and import them into your Movie Maker collection. If a photo is copyrighted, you should contact the copyright owner for permission to use it.

Although you should respect copyrights on any photos you find on the Web, many old photos are not copyrighted.

Digitizing VHS (and Other Format) Tapes

There are a potentially bewildering array of methods for importing VHS and other older media formats into a PC. To keep it simple, the following sections cover importing VHS tapes into a PC by using a miniDV camcorder.

VHS is an analog video, not digital, format. In order to edit it on a computer, analog video needs to be digitized.

Using a Camcorder to Digitize Your VHS Tapes

The process of digitizing VHS footage by using a VHS player and a miniDV camcorder is fairly simple. Basically, you make a copy ("dub") of your VHS tape onto your miniDV camcorder, and then you import the miniDV footage as you normally would onto your computer.

If you have S-VHS or Hi8 tapes, the method is the same: You just substitute S-VHS or Hi8 every time you see VHS in the following instructions.

Note

Some newer camcorders have a special passthrough feature that allows you to simply pass the video from your VHS player through your camcorder directly to your PC. This feature eliminates the step of recording VHS video to a miniDV tape. Read your camcorder manual to find out whether your camera has this feature.

Here's what the two-step process looks like using your miniDV camcorder:

Step 1.	VHS tape VHS player (camcorder or VCR) or TV MiniDV camcorder
Step 2.	MiniDV camcorder PC

Although it may seem complicated, this is actually pretty easy to do. Here's what you do:

1. Connect your miniDV camcorder to a VHS VCR or VHS camcorder.

2. Record the VHS video onto your miniDV camcorder (using external jacks on both devices).

3. Using the appropriate cables, connect either your VHS player or TV (connected to your VHS player) to the camcorder. (If you need help identifying what kinds of jacks you have, consult your VCR and camcorder manuals.)

4. Push Play on the VHS source and at the same time push Record on your miniDV camcorder.

5. After you have the VHS material recorded onto a miniDV cassette, connect your camcorder to a computer and import the miniDV footage as you normally would.

6. Edit your VHS footage, which has been digitized (by your miniDV camcorder) and is now on your PC.

Note

If you don't have a VHS player, you can buy an analog capture card for your PC to import your tapes. A few of the most popular brands are Dazzle, ATI, and Hauppauge. But it's better to borrow or rent a VHS player and use your miniDV camcorder to import your video because the results will be better quality than you get with analog video capture cards. It is also more expensive to buy an analog capture card than to borrow or rent a VHS player.

Archiving VHS Footage Directly to DVD

If your only goal is getting your VHS footage onto DVDssay, for archiving or viewing purposesand you don't need or want to edit the footage, you can consider buying a VHS/DVD combo recorder. These cost about $250+ new, and you can find them for $200 or less on eBay.

If you don't want to invest the money permanently, you could still consider buying a combo recorder, converting all your old VHS footage, and then selling the combo player (on eBay?) after your project is finished, if you don't have an ongoing need for transferring VHS tapes.

A number of manufacturers, including Panasonic, RCA, GoVideo, and JVC, make VHS/DVD combo recorders.

Note

While the convenience of these combo players is tempting, if you want to edit your video, using your camcorder to import it from a VHS player is a better choice. The camcorder process will give you higher-quality video compared to importing DVD footage.

Other Methods for Digitizing VHS Tapes

Having trouble importing old tape formats into your camcorder or computer? All is not lost.

If you cannot play your old videos on a player and connect either the player or an S-VHS cable from your TV to your camcorder (and record it), as a last resort, you can play the older tapes on your TV and shoot them with your digital video camcorder. It's inelegant and results in a loss of quality, but it works.

When you shoot, you need to set up your tripod and make sure to align the edges of your camera's frame so the shot doesn't show the edges of your TV.

Tip

If there's a geek in the family who wants to check out the myriad other methods for getting VHS tapes onto your PC, or if you want more details yourself, consult the popular PapaJohn Movie Maker website, at www.eicsoftware.com/PapaJohn/MM2/MM2.html.