I recently bought a Sony Camcorder and have done tonnes of recording on Tapes. So far all I have been doing is to convert selected parts into VHS tapes using my VCR.
Next month I am visiting India, I am taking some of the recordings and since those VHS tapes wont work in India, I am thinking of copying them back on my Camcorder tapes, but Now I also want to do little bit of Audio mixing and some other editing.
Have any of you guys done that ?? What do I need to do for that ??
Most VCR's sold in US are only NTSC, but typically most VCR's and TV's sold in Pakistan are multi-system and easily playback NTSC VHS tapes. I am not sure about India, but you might wanna check from your family back there, if their VCR is multi-system or not. Chances are, it will be.
If thats the case, then you can just take back the VHS tapes after doing all sorts of Audio mixing etc. And don't have to transfer stuff back to the camcorder tapes.
Forget what everyone else says...and go the easy way. Get a A/V input from ur local computer store. Copy all ur tapes to ur computer and edit them there. Put in ur fancy music, transitions..whatever you want. When ur done make VCDs out of them ( we all know how popular vcds are in pak). It will cost about half a buck each (compared to a camcorder tape which costs 10bucks per)
Lets do some math according to your plan.
Lets do some math. How many tapes you taking? By the sound of it you said you have tonnes of recording. According to me tonnes is 30tapes.And you want to copy em to ur camcorder tapes?? thats 30 cam corder tapes.
30camcorder tapes x 10bucks = 300bucks canadian!
and at the end of it all you wont even need these extra tapes.
Now lets do some calculations with the digital solution.
A good A.V input costs = 80bucks
30 70min cds cost = 15bucks ( i bet u can get em for cheaper)
and a dvd player (optional) for your fam in pak to watch their vids on tv: you can get a decent one with vcd capability for 170bucks.
Math : 80 + 15 + 170 = 265bucks...35 bucks less than ur way.
Plus with this way, your fam will get a dvd player, and you'll get a a/v input to edit future movies with ease!. I hope you appreciate my help and go the digital way!
You dont have to buy a DVD player from here to view VCD's in India/Pakistan. VCD players are plenty there, and not so expensive either.
Asif_k, I had assumed you knew how to do audio mixing/editing and were just wondering whether to take VHS tapes or camcorder tapes.
Anyway, what hskhan is saying makes sense, if you have no equipment for editing/audio miixing. Just a couple of suggestions:
Check if your camcorder (and PC) already has firewire. Then you can move movies from camcorder to computer directly without buying any new hardware. Typically if you have to buy a Firewire card for your PC, it comes with video editing software. The card will cost you about $40-50. CD-R's are darn cheap. Just remember that the quality of VCD's is generally poor compared to regular VHS tapes.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
Just remember that the quality of VCD's is generally poor compared to regular VHS tapes.
[/QUOTE]
Nice to see someone agreess. But Faisal Bhai thats not necessarily true...about the quality. It all depends on your card and the compression you use while editing. Ive made many VCDs which turn out as good, if not better than VHS..Caus also remember VHS loose their quality fast...but VCDs just need a case and they'll be safe for decades to come.
Not to mention making copies is a breeze. If ur fam want a copy just pop in ur old vcd and hit copy. And boom u got a copy in 2 mins flat for pennies!
Another thing i guess faisal bhai is right...as a dvd player in pak is useless caus noone is so keen on piracy issues there. Im guessing a vcd player from pak would cost 100bucks canadian..(right faisal bhai?). im not sure abt vcd player prices caus i havent seen any vcd player in canada.