Digitized Memories

Your videotape collection is full of fine films and memorable events, and they're all fading away. Through gradual weakening of the magnetic patterns on the tape, the quality of your videos is declining. Every time you play a tape, a bit of the coating rubs off. The tapes you most enjoy watching will be quickest to degrade.

You can stop the process and save your precious footage by converting those analog recordings into digital form and burning them onto optical media. CDs and DVDs don't degrade with use, and they have shelf lives of decades. They're also easier to share with friends and family.

Depending on your plans for the digital footage (e-mailing, Web posting, playing back on PCs or DVD players), you can choose among many hardware and software packages to suit your technological comfort level and your budget. Whichever you choose, the steps are the same. First, capture the signal from your source and save it on your PC in some digital form. You'll probably have to buy some additional hardware and software to do this. Second, edit the video and possibly render it into a different format. Third, store the video in the proper form for its purpose.

Video Vocabulary

Depending on the video file format you choose, your clips may be viewed on PCs only or burned onto CD-R discs for playback on a computer or DVD player. The most difficult part of the process may be deciphering the terminology, so here's a quick primer on digital video file formats.

A codec (coder/decoder) is an algorithm that can convert audio or video signals between analog and digital (or between digital formats), often compressing digital information. Many codecs can create files in AVI (Audio Video Interleave) format, one of the most common for multimedia. To play a multimedia file, you need the same codec that created the file. DivX, a common codec, and XVid are both used for high-quality video and are compatible with PCs but not standalone DVD players. MPEG-1, the earliest video compression method, offers VHS quality but also works with standalone players.

MPEG-1 default resolution is 352 by 240 pixels at around 30 frames per second, and the files it creates are smaller than those of the other popular codecs. A blank CD-R holds about 70 minutes of MPEG-1 audio and video.

VCD (Video CD) is a multimedia file structure that uses MPEG-1. You can burn such files to CD-R media, and many DVD players will play them. VCD is restricted to a fixed bit rate of 1.15 megabits per second. This means slow scenes are easier to compress, but the quick changes in fast-action sequences require more bits, so VCD doesn't handle fast action perfectly.

SVCD (Super VCD) lets you put higher-quality video on standard CD. It uses MPEG-2 and supports a variable bit rate up to around 3 Mbps. This lets a CD-R hold about 30 to 40 minutes of high-quality video. You can choose settings that reflect your preferred balance between storage space and quality. SVCD is encoded at 480-by-480 resolution, also at around 30 fps, and can support more than one sound track (for other languages) and subtitles.

DVD format, which also uses MPEG-2, offers the highest resolution (720-by-480) and the most flexibility in bit rate (up to 8 Mbps). DVD video consumes the most disc space; you'll get 20 minutes or less on a CD. Blank DVD discs, which hold 4.7GB, are the medium of choice at this level.

Uncomplicated Capture

High-quality video requires substantial hard drive space, but several simple, inexpensive solutions let you avoid investing in more storage. The Pinnacle Linx USB Video Input Cable ($50 street, www.pinnaclesys.com) and the Dazzle Digital Video Creator series ($50 to $200, www.dazzle.com) are easy-to-use options that plug into your USB ports. Connect the three-plug end of the cable to the video, audio left, and audio right outputs of your source (such as a VCR or camcorder), and plug the other end into the capture device.

Entry-level devices typically capture video in AVI or MPEG-1 format and offer several codecs. Many of these products also let you create files in RealVideo, Windows Streaming Media, or QuickTime format for streaming over the Internet.

There are some trade-offs at this level. You can burn VCD discs or play the movies on a PC. (The Dazzle lets you rerecord to VHS tape, too.) But the visual quality may not be as high as you'd like. The highest resolution in this range is typically 352-by-240. Software may let you render clips at higher qualities, but it can't compensate completely for the lack of quality in the original capture. These products are fine for Internet video sharing, but you may not consider the quality sufficient for archiving movies.

Intermediate Images

At this level, the hardware is a little more expensive (around $300) but also more sophisticated. In addition to composite-video input, which transfers data via one wire, some products offer S-Video input (which has separate pins for color and other visual data) for better quality from satellite and other digital sources. More important, the hardware will capture your movies in better formats like MPEG-2, the basis of DVD movies and digital television.

The ADS USB Instant DVD renders MPEG-2 video and sends it to your computer via USB. The Hauppauge WinTV Personal Video Recorder, available in USB and internal PCI card varieties, includes a TV tuner, so you can watch your favorite shows and capture broadcasts live. Even with the USB connection, you can capture video at DVD's top resolution and rate.

At this level, your capture options are generally VCD, SVCD, and DVD at 2 to 6 Mbps. Capturing at the resolution and speed you want for the final product makes the rendering process quicker. Check the specifications on devices; some advertise DVD quality (abbreviated as D1) but actually capture at lower resolutions like half-D1 or two-thirds–D1. These products fill in the additional resolution through software, but the quality isn't the same as that of a full DVD capture.

These midtier products are more than sufficient for archiving video from TV, VHS tapes, and standard camcorders. But once you've captured a movie, you may want to improve it. Software like TMPGEnc (free download, www.tmpgenc.net) and VirtualDub (free download, www.virtualdub.org) lets you enhance picture and sound quality. You can use filters to reduce noise and sharpen edges in degraded pictures. Programs like Pinnacle Studio Version 7 ($99 list) and Ulead VideoStudio ($99.95, www.ulead.com) let you rearrange scenes in your movie, cut out unwanted sections, and add transitions between scenes. You can also add titles and musical scores.

For rendering the final product, SVCD is a popular choice, because you don't need a DVD burner and you get reasonably high resolution. Even though 45 minutes per disc is the average, you can modify the bit rate to fit most feature movies on two discs each. Both VCD and SVCD formats let you define chapters (like audio tracks) and create a starting menu showing their starting points.

If you don't mind limiting yourself to computer playback, you can get good quality on a single disc by rendering a movie in DivX format. Software like FlaskMPEG (free download, www.flaskmpeg.net) converts the file created by your editing program into any of several different formats.

Many editing programs include CD-burning software, but full-featured burning titles like Ahead Software's Nero Burning ROM ($49 direct, www.nero.com) simplify VCD and SVCD burning, so they're a better bet for smooth production.

Hard Core, High End

For highest-quality video, forget analog signals. Digital video (Digital8 or Minidv) camcorders are more expensive, but they give about 25 percent better resolution than Super VHS or Hi8 camera formats.

You'll also want a DV capture device like the Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge ($299 list) or the Canopus DVRaptor-RT ($599, www.canopus.com). These connect to your computer's FireWire (IEEE 1394) port, which transfers at much higher speeds than USB 1.x.

Digital video-editing software, such as Dazzle's DVD Complete ($100 direct) and Canopus's EZEdit (included with the DVRaptor-RT), lets you create DVD projects with extra features—stylized introductory videos that lead viewers to special menus, for example. You can also define menus that let viewers select from supporting clips, still pictures, and more.

Most DV capture devices (at every level) can convert from digital to analog. This lets you copy your DV project to a standard VCR. But to take advantage of high-quality video, you'll probably want to render your output in DVD format. Good DV programs let you output your edited work back to a DV camcorder or to a digital videotape machine, or render it in MPEG-2 for a DVD player or computer.

You'll probably want to store your footage on a 4.7GB DVD disc rather than a standard CD. DVD burners cost less than $400, and the blank discs cost around $4 each. If your movie is short enough—around 20 minutes or less—you can burn it on a regular CD and view it on any computer with a CD-ROM drive. Some DV-editing programs let you burn a small application onto a CD along with your clips; the app enables your computer to play DVD-format movies at full quality.

Archiving your videos ensures that they'll be around for many years, and optical discs are far more convenient to store, share, and ship than videotapes.