Hi,

As a new dad, I bought myself a ZR-85 digital camcorder.  I have recorded a
few cassettes (those small ones).  I can view them on TV by connecting the
camcorder to it.  I can view it on the camcorder also.  Now what I do with
these cassettes?  Do I store them away? Or do I convert them to DVD?    How
do I do convert them to DVD?   Also, would I loose information (time/date
stamp of recording) when I convert to DVD?

I would appreciate any help in the matter.  I am a complete novice in these
matters, so please explain me what I should do.

Thanks.

-s

it would be right for you to convert them to DVD,I think,and quite many
ways out there to do this for you,
I know a program called "Video Edit Magic",which can capture the
capture video footage onto the editing timeline,them you can enjoying
your happy editing,if you need some tutorials to help,check this site:
http://www.mediasoftzone.com/Video-Edit-Magic.html
it offers a trial downloading as well!

have fun

Always save your original rushes - tapes are cheap, and you'll never
regret it in later years.

<bernard.newn***@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
That is what I want to do, but was worried if experts would call it a
foolish thing.  Right now, being a new Dad and all, I have no time or energy
to edit and make it nice.  Maybe in a year or two I might.  Till then, I
just want to store the video without loss of any info.  Any possibility of
tape deteriorating?  Would tape last a few years?  Also, salesmen have
scared me and said if your camera breaks down, you will have those tapes
which cannot play anywhere, hence you better convert it to DVD real fast.
Is that correct?

Thanks.
s

Surinder Singh wrote:
Show quoteHide quoteThe salesmen only want your money. Converting to DVD is not a good way
to preserve your videos. Tape tends to last longer, and DV tapes have
better video quality than DVDs.

I like to make a DVD when I finish editing something. But that is for
viewing only. I also make a copy on DV tape for my archives.

You are probably ok if you store your original tapes properly. You can
provide some insurance by dubbing a copy to another DV tape and storing
it in a different location. That requires a separate DV camera and a
FireWire cable.

Show quoteHide quote

Show quote Hide quote Salesmen are the worst source of information about technology.

Properly stored tape should last for many years.  I have beta tapes that I
recorded 25 years ago that play back just fine.  Of course, these were
analog, not digital, but I'd expect similar performance from properly stored
digital tapes as well.  I've been shooting miniDV for about 6 years.  My
tapes shot 6 years ago play just as well when first shot.

MiniDV recorded in SP mode will play on ANY miniDV camcorder.  There is some
concern when you record at LP mode -- the data is packed more densely so
head alignment is more critical.  However, as long as you shoot at SP mode
AND your camera is aligned to spec, you won't have any problem playing the
tapes on other camcorders.

Tell the salesman that lying to customers isn't the way to win repeat
business.


Show quoteHide quote

Surinder Singh wrote:
I own a ZR-85 myself, and the process of converting to DVD on a
computer is pretty simple.  Besides the camera, you need a "FireWire"
cable, a "FireWire" input on your computer, a DVD burner, and some
software to capture and edit your movies.

The software I use is called ArcSoft ShowBiz, it came bundled with my
DVD burner.  $99 if you need to buy it.  You fire up the software, plug
in the camera in playback mode, and tell the software to capture the
digital video.  Make sure you have plenty of free disk space, the
captured video runs something like 1GB per 5 minutes of video, IIRC.

Then, in edit mode you can slice and dice, cut out stuff you don't
want, add titles, fade-ins, fade-outs, transitions, etc.

When it comes time to create the DVD, you can add a basic menu that
will let you go to different points in the movie using your DVD remote.

I have liked it enough that I have not wanted to try anything else for
my simple home movie needs.

The downside to the above is time.  The video from the camera is
captured in real time.  Add in the time to edit your video, add titles
and a menu, render the video to DVD format, and burn it to DVD, and I
spend maybe 3-4 hours to make a DVD with 1 hour of video.

The other option, which I have not tried and know nothing about, is to
buy a stand-alone DVD recorder and plug your camera's analog video
output into the video input of the recorder.  Sounds a lot simpler if
you don't want to do any editing of your video.  I'm sure somebody who
has done this can advise you about this option.

Finally, as another poster in this thread stated, save your source
tapes.  If a DVD with your baby pictures gets scratched, and you still
have the original tape, you can always make another DVD.

Hope this helps,
Jerry

<jerry_ma***@hotmail.com> wrote in message
The tape, I notice, has info on time etc. which I can turn off/on when I
watch it on TV.  Will I loose such information when I convert it to DVD?
Will all the other information be preserved?

You know, at this point I just want to preserve my videos and not edit them.
Should I still save it in DVD format?   Also, the DV tape, I am told, is
already digital, so why do I need to convert to DVD.  Conversion, I
understand, is needed only when converting from analog tapes.   Am I missing
something?


What would better preserve my data? DVD or tapes?

Thanks.
-s

Surinder Singh wrote:

The time information is part of the DV signal, and is lost when
converting to DVD.

Show quoteHide quoteTapes.

Show quoteHide quote

On 9/1/2005, Surinder Singh managed to type:
<SNIP>
Yes. There are many digital formats. Many different ways to encode the
same (originally analog) data.

DV format (on the tapes) is compressed in space only to about 20% of
the original signal captured inside the camera.

DVD format is further compressed in space AND in time.

It is probable that the representation of the data itself is different
as well. The same RGB data can be represented by very different sets of
bits in different schemes.

And we haven't even started to talk about the audio here!

HTH
Gino

Surinder Singh wrote:

Not or, it is and. Put them on DVD *and* store the original tapes.

More important is that you will lose image quality, which is why you
should keep the originals.

Dave

For all the flaws of converting to DVDR, especially the amount of time
it takes to create the DVDR in real time, DVDRs have the great
advantage of taking up little space.  That, and almost everyone has a
DVD player to play them.  If you decide to use DVDRs, I recommend Taiyo
Yuden DVDRs.  What the longevity will be, no one can say with
certainty.  Having seen what age has done to 15 year old VHS tapes
recorded at the EP speed, I would not guarantee the playability of any
old tape, even properly stored.
The easiest way to convert to DVDR is to input the signal into a DVDR
standalone recorder with a hard drive for editing.

DVDs take up only slightly less space than miniDV tapes, which is the format
the OP asked about in the first place.  His follow-up inquiry made it clear
that, several years from now he would want to edit his video, and he was
concerned about long-term storage on miniDV.  You, evidently, have just
bought a stand-alone DVD burner and like it alot.  That's nice, but your
standalone DVD burner isn't the answer to everything, and you persist in
giving advice that is just plain wrong.

This is a perfect example of your just-plain-wrong advice.  Properly stored
tapes will last for decades.  I have 3/4", 1/2" (VHS and Beta), Hi8 and
miniDV that range in age from 6 years to 30 years.  The only ones that have
had any problems are some old Betas that were recorded on no-name bargain
tape.

This isn't the slightest issue for miniDV tapes, which will last many many
times past the "several years" mentioned by the OP in his qusetion.  DVD-Rs,
on the other hand, that are dependent on dyes rather than magnetic
particles, are an unknown quantity -- dyes are a notoriously volatile
medium.  Moreover, DVD-Rs from standalone burners transcode video to mpeg2
using on-the-fly single-pass hardware-based transcoders.

The OP wants to EDIT his archived video.   Unless all he wants to do is
simple cuts editing, mpeg is NOT an appropriate medium for video editing.
Adding transitions, titles, color correction, effects etc., is difficult to
impossible using mpeg, which is designed as a DELIVERY medium.

Storing his miniDV tapes for a few years is obviously a far, far superior
solution to the OP's problem.  MiniDV tapes store well and maintain the
video in DV-25 format, which doesn't use temporal compression, and doesn't
compress anywhere near as much as DVD-compliant mpeg.

And, once again, the "easiest" is not necessarily the best.

It's fine that you're all excited about your new standalone DVD player.
However, please don't advise others about video questions in areas which you
obviously don't understand.

Show quoteHide quote

PTravel wrote:

Based on the volume of a DVD Jewel Box, the Cassett takes up about
twice the space. But the cassette is 13 GBytes rather than 4.7, so for
archiving maximum data, tape still comes out ahead.

Dave

PTravel wrote:

Based on the volume of a DVD Jewel Box, the Cassett takes up about
twice the space. But the cassette is 13 GBytes rather than 4.7, so for
archiving maximum data, tape still comes out ahead.

Dave

Thanks to everyone for helping me with this problem.  I read all the
replies.  This is what I have decided:  I will keep the tapes.  If I can, I
will make them into DVD's also, but not delete the tapes.  I am so glad that
I asked the question here to the experts.  For instance, I was not aware
that DV tapes have higher level of info than DVD's.  Thanks again, fellas.

-s

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