Digitising old VHS tapes (possibly for upload to internet)

Pancho10

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Hi, I have recently been digitising some old VHS tapes by connecting an old video recorder to my DVD recorder, and have a few questions about what to do next with the recordings;

1. At the moment, the recordings are stored on my DVD recorder hard drive. If I copy these on to DVD (for possible uploading online at a later date), will they lose anything in quality? The recordings are football clips/highlights etc. that I recorded from TV in the late 80s and early 90s and I'd like to share them online if possible (see below question about copyright). The recordings are of mixed quality - some have survived quite well whereas others aren't so well preserved (the machine refuses to play/rewind/fast forward some of them and sometimes chews up the tape). I suppose I'm wondering whether having a number of stages in the process (VHS-DVR hard drive-DVD-laptop-upload online) will lessen the quality, and if so, whether there is a more direct method, perhaps by connecting my DVR (Panasonic DMR EX79) to my laptop in some way.

2. How worried should I be about copyright? I'd like to share these videos online as I think they'll be of interest to some - is this possible without risking legal problems? Was thinking of setting up a youtube channel but would be happy to send to a licenced hosting/archive site if such a thing exists and they are interested.

Many thanks for reading.
 
1. At the moment, the recordings are stored on my DVD recorder hard drive. If I copy these on to DVD (for possible uploading online at a later date), will they lose anything in quality?

Whether they lose any quality will depend on how you copy to disk.
If you high speed copy, the process is lossless.
If you real-time copy, then the material is re-encoded and there is a consequent loss.
2. How worried should I be about copyright?

Probably not at all. Youtube is full of such 'dubious' material.
It is their problem to deal with. If someone complains it can be taken down.


Your main issue is that material on DVD recorders and DVD disks is in the MPEG2 format which is not supported by Youtube.

You will need to use some conversion software before it can be uploaded ( probably to MPEG4)
There are plenty of video converters around.
Members may have their own recommendations.

Have a look at these two Youtube help pages for more information.
Here and Here.
 
Thanks for the advice Gavtech and links, will look into converting the file format.

One more thing about the actual VHS cassettes... I've struggled to play some of them - they will play for a few seconds but then it stops by itself, and it won't let me rewind or fast forward very far, and often when I eject the cassette the tape is caught up (and I have to turn the machine upside down to let gravity release the tape from the mechanism inside). Does anyone think I just have to accept that the cassettes have degraded too far and throw them out, or could they be salvaged by playing in a different video player, or even perhaps more simply by getting hold of a head cleaning cassette (presume they are still knocking about!)?
 
There may well be a fault in the VCR you're using.
 
Old tapes can sometimes become"sticky". You can try fast forwarding to the end and rewinding a tape before you play it to free it up a bit.
 
And condensation can settle on the VCR's video head drum causing the tape to stick to the head, hence the tape getting caught on eject.
Make sure the VCR is at room temperature before inserting a tape.
 
Thanks all for all the advice. I think I'll buy a head cleaning tape - the Maplins near me has them so will give that a try.
 

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