Re: [ARSCLIST] Digital Audio/Video

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree with Mike for video, particularly if it's just simple one- or
two-tapes per DVD and you don't need to do sophisticated authoring
(splitting into chapters, adding other multimedia, etc). Mike made a really
key point, too -- spring for a unit with a hard drive. I have a JVC unit
that doesn't have a hard drive and it's less than convenient for making
anything except off-air recordings or straight dubs with no chapter splits
of video tapes. That said, for those straight dubs, it's a client's best
friend because the time is real-time plus 5 minutes setup and disc-closing
per disc. There's a little bit more rig-a-marole with a hard drive unit but
the authoring options are much more robust and you're not at the mercy of
how compatible the media you happen to be using is (this JVC unit is
somewhat picky about DVD-R media and it seems to take until nearly the end
of a dub to decide it can't work with dics it doesn't like). To do really
sophisticated (ie Hollywood-grade) authoring, I think your best bet is to
spring for a decent-horsepower Mac and a decent-horsepower firewire video
capture box and a full-fledged copy of Final Cut Pro. I do not know a more
flexible or easier-to-use video-production program. I personally have a
Windows setup and use Pinnacle Studio but it's a bit of a garbage program
and if I get more video-authoring business to justify the cost, I will
switch to Sony Vegas.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Richter" <mrichter@xxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 9:41 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Digital Audio/Video


> David Lynx wrote:
> > We now have 10,000 images online, and are going to start working on
> > transferring reel-to-reel, VHS, audio casette, and 16mm to digital.
Most of
> > the finished products will be accessible in-house, as I think they
finished
> > digital files will probably be too big to be accessible online.  We are
> > looking at creating transcripts for the material, and possibly offering
> > samples online.
> >
> > What I am curious about is what software and hardware everyone is using
for
> > transferring their analog material to digital, and what
problems/successes
> > everyone has had doing this.
> >
> > Thanks for your help
> > David Lynx
>
> Again, I am not an archivist or librarian; just an individual with large
> libraries which need preservation for personal use.
>
> For videotape, I strongly recommend a standalone DVD recorder. While
> computer operation is more flexible, it is vastly more time-consuming
> and more susceptible to failure. In addition, once the image is captured
> in digital form, it can be brought into the computer at negligible loss
> when time and budget are sufficient for more elaborate processing.
>
> My own choice is a Panasonic recorder with hard drive; there is
> information about it in the primer on the CD-R side of my WWW site.
>
> Others will surely have recommendations quite different from my
> operations on audio and on film conversion.
>
> Mike
> -- 
> mrichter@xxxxxxx
> http://www.mrichter.com/