Hey gang,

I know this topic has been brought up previously on other boards, but I'd like to get a current opinion.

While dubbing tapes for a recent trade, I noticed that on some of my old tapes (tapes that are between 10 and 20 years old) there are occasional glitches, or dropouts. On one six hour tape I might have noticed about four of five through the course of the tape.

Tapes don't last forever, but I'm unsure of the best way of handling this. If I dub them to another tape I lose a generation. If I wait until I can transfer them to DVD it might still be a few more years.

I'm wondering - once you start noticing things like this - how much longer would the tape probably last in playable condition? Or, would it still be OK for several more years but I'd have to put up with the dropouts?

Any opinions on this?

Thanks,
Ian

Several thoughts:

If you're only getting four or five through the course of a six-hour tape, that's not really all that bad. Isolated dropouts, especially so few, are not necessarily an indication that the whole tape is about to go on you.

You absolutely don't want to dub the contents of a tape recorded in EP to another tape recorded in EP. By that point, you've already lost it. If quality is a concern for you in the first place, I'm curious why you're using the EP speed to record on VHS. I know all about getting more time on the tape, but quality (and permanency) suffers as a result.

Stand-alone DVD recorders are working their way down to the $300 range within another year or so. Blanks are going to be comparable to the cost of a blank VHS. Again, how important is it to you? If it's an issue, start saving your pennies.

It sounds like this is a big deal. (If not, why bring it up?) So my recommendation is to look toward a DVD recorder as soon as possible. Then it becomes a matter of priority. At last count, you have more than 800 hours worth of game shows to watch. How many of those are truly going to be important to you twenty years from now?

QUOTE

At last count, you have more than 800 hours worth of game shows to watch. How many of those are truly going to be important to you twenty years from now?

Well...that is a good point, but that's probably another question we could throw out to the group. I like the idea of having a library of them, especially if networks like GSN never run certain episodes again.

As for the EP speed, I've always used it and never really had too many problems with it. The quality on most of my tapes looks fine, and if I did save everything in SP I don't know what I'd do with all the extra tapes. Storage space is a bit of an issue.

QUOTE

Stand-alone DVD recorders are working their way down to the $300 range within another year or so.

Part of the problem with that is that (as far as I know), they're still trying to work out a standard system. It's a lot like when VHS and Beta first started, and VHS won out. A friend of mine explained to me that, if you go with one system/speed, etc. and years from now have to replace your DVD player, it's possible that the DVDs won't play on the new player, unless they're recorded in a format that's going to be the standard and they're still making that standard when it comes time to replace the DVD player. I'd rather wait a few years until they come up with a standard that won't go away.

Am I right about that?

The simple answer is that your friend is wrong about that - DVDs have a single standard, and will be playable on all future DVD players, including the new HD-DVD players that will be out in a few years.

The longer answer is that some older players have problems reading some of the writable DVD formats (DVD-RW or DVD+RW), especially with the erasable versions of those formats, but even with the write-once versions. A recent study showed that DVD-R is readable by 95% of all DVD players to date, while DVD+R is readable by 89%. Note, though, that most of the incompatibility comes with older players from a few years ago; all of the more recent models, and all the future ones, are designed specifically to be able to handle both formats. So you can buy a DVD recorder today, and be confident that the DVDs you create on it will be readable on DVD players in the future.

Along these same lines, how versatile are these DVD recorders? I would love to transfer my collection over to DVD, but most of the episodes have commercials. Plus, there aren't a lot of shows back to back on my tapes. That is, "Match Game" is followed by "Password Plus," which is followed by "Super Password."

One of the things I love about my Mini Disc recorder is that I can digitally splice out entire sections of music and either delete them from the disc entirely or move them elsewhere on the disc. Following that principle, it would be great if I could record an entire tape to a DVD, edit out the commercials (for USA and GSN reruns; I might keep commercials from the original broadcasts), and then move all the episodes back to back on the new DVD -- MG with MG, SPW with SPW, and so on. Is this feasible with today's DVD recorders? And if so, is it affordable? If so, I can't get to the store fast enough!


Brendan

I use a DVD-R / RAM stand alone DVD recorder. I have yet to have any incapatibility issues with newer DVD players. Some older DVD players were not able to play them but overall I have had few problems.

As far as editing, I am still a novice. I paid $349 for a Panasonic a couple of months ago. It works great for me. As far as editing goes, I have not done any extensive editing on the recorder yet. But I may just edit on my seperate digital video editor and transfer to DVD. I am very comfortable with the digital editor and I will probably prefer just to use that method. Right now on the DVD recorder, I just record either entire programs or cut the program into segments. That is as far as I have gotten.

I use two hours per disk in SP mode and the quality is great. DVDs are also a lot easier for storage.

Good luck!
Tim :-)

I'd keep in the commercials. Twenty years from now you will want to see them.

If you're just starting out with editing stuff and transferring it over to DVD, I'd recommend Pinnacle Studio. If you have some experience already, and are willing to make the monetary and learning/time investment, I'd think about getting Adobe Premiere.

There are other free and cheap programs you can use if you already have a capture card ready to go; programs like AVISynth and Virtualdub are nice starts and additions to your editing toolbox.

- J

QUOTE (Brakus @ Aug 9 2003, 07:27 AM)

If you're just starting out with editing stuff and transferring it over to DVD, I'd recommend Pinnacle Studio. If you have some experience already, and are willing to make the monetary and learning/time investment, I'd think about getting Adobe Premiere. There are other free and cheap programs you can use if you already have a capture card ready to go; programs like AVISynth and Virtualdub are nice starts and additions to your editing toolbox. - J

This is if your DVD player is attached to your computer. If you are using a stand alone recorder this may not apply. Pinnacle is a good program for computer authoring.

Tim :-)

QUOTE (Jimmy Owen @ Aug 9 2003, 05:44 AM)

I'd keep in the commercials. Twenty years from now you will want to see them.

I totally agree. When I transferred my WWTBAM show to DVD I left in the commercials for that reason. I know whenever I go to the Museum of Television and Radio part of the fun is watching the original commercials.

Tim :-)

QUOTE

I'd keep in the commercials. Twenty years from now you will want to see them.

A philosophy I've used since 1996. :-)

Chuck Donegan (The Insightful "Chuckie Baby")