Hardware required to transfer home videos to archival DVDs?
 

How's it going... my name is Tom and I've been lurking these forums for a few months gathering all the info I could mostly from your posts. Firstly my goal is to transfer my family's home videos to archival dvds. But- with all the equipment laying around I would like to have a small business on the side eventually. I guess I just have a lot of questions. What hardware is required? I plan on purchasing a jvc and a panasonic vcr (you recommened to have at least 2), a good tbc, a proc amp, one computer with a capture card and windows xp... What else? For playback purposes am I simply looking at how it looks on my computer?

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Hi Tom, welcome to the site. :)

Also: My apologies for the slow reply, but your message was buried in my inbox. That sometimes happens when tech questions are asked in PMs/emails instead of on the forum. Keep that in mind for future questions. Thanks.

I've not yet written the fourth article of my editorial series on Video Hobby vs. Video Professional -- which is long overdue -- and then there's also some upgrades scheduled for the Good Methods to Create DVDs (Workflows) guide. Both of those will cover your question in depth, when finished.

To briefly go over it, you need several tiers of hardware -- it's not just computer, just video, etc.

• Power conditioning / safety: UPS
• Quality monitoring: reference/near-reference speakers, IPS panel computer LCD, quality CRT or video LCD
• Audio / Video: capture card or external recorders, VCRs, TBCs, proc amps, optional detailers, audio mixers
• Software: mix of freeware and payware, for both audio and video, including format specific software (DVD authoring, Blu-ray, etc)

It really comes back to this: Are you prepared to spend at least $5,000 on this? (minimum)

If not, then you'll be more in "hobby" mode, cutting out tools that are optimal for lower-end consumer gear. And that's fine.