t61 for video work?

[Bfskinnerpunk]

For very basic video stuff...

I just found a treasury of old (analog) videos of 15 to 20 years ago... old girlfriends, past dogs, old friends before they were married and "grownup"... etc.

I was thinking of rushing out to buy a new computer to transfer this stuff to digital.

However, perhaps I can do something with my T61. It doesn't have the graphics card, but it has the T9000 series processor.

The worst part is that it doesn't have a DVD burner!

Anway, I know I'll need to get some sort of hardware that will allow me to run these analog tapes through a digitizer in order to upload the stuff onto a computer.

I want to preserve these videos before the actual tape begins breaking down and getting fragile.

So.

1. Can my thinkpad handle the load with taking ions of time?
[should I get a new computer?]

2. Any recommendations on a good quality, but basic analog-to-digital video converter?

Thanks,
Kelt

[SHoTTa35]

any system from a P2 can do that just fine. Editing video is where the CPU power is needed (some GPUs help but not all).

You'd need a USB TV card or PCI Express one (ATI makes some as well as Hauppauge). You get your VCR and just connect it up and hit play and then record on the software on the PC. You'lll probably need a good big HDD (USB HDD probably) to store the data on.

Most of them can record in AVI or MPG. MPG is if you want to edit it and probably best if you're gonna later put it on DVD. That part is also easy, some programs (WinAVI) can convert a AVI/MPG/WMV or whatever to DVD in as lil as 30mins for a normal 2hr movie. On my system, Core Duo 2.0Ghz it runs pretty fast.

The recording portion though is what will take lots of time, not cuz it's CPU intesive but because i'm sure your VHS player is anolog and not SVHS which is digital. So to record the whole thing, you'll have to play the entire tape. So if it's 2hrs long you'll need 2hrs to record it.

[Nolonemo]

An alternative would be to borrow a friends digital video camera that has "analog passthrough." Hook up the VCR to the camera via the camera's A/V cable, then connect the camera to the TP via firewire. Tnen you can set the VCR to play and the TP video application to capture, and away you go.

BTW, the T61 will have plenty of power to edit video - I've been editing SD DV on my T23 -- the only thing is that more power will make the rendering to the format you need to burn to DVD faster -- but with the T23 I just let it render overnight.

GPU power does not affect working with digital video, only 3D rendering.

[Bfskinnerpunk]

Thanks.

Man, I wish I would have ordered the thing with a DVD burner!

I suppose I can just transfer the videos to my external hard drive for safe keeping. I do have an older desktop with a DVD burner, but .. yea... maybe that'll do the trick.


I've seen the video devices that cost around $189 online made by Canopus... they enjoy an excellent reputation.

Does the Canopus do something more than the types of hardware recommended above?

Kelt

[SHoTTa35]

probably it's just a complete software suite plus it has a MPEG2 encoder in hardware which will take the work from your CPU and do it faster or something.

[Bfskinnerpunk]

It was suggested that I simply purchase one of those home DVD video copying/playing devices and merely plug in my camcorder and let it write directly to a DVD.

That sounds pretty cool. Those DVD recorders cost under $150.

So, if I take the newly recorded DVD off of one of those machines and attempt to later edit them on my computer.... is this going to be a hassle?

I mean, will the recorded format being easily recognizable by my computer.

If it used the MPEG 4 format, that would probably be immediately recognizable for editing... but I somehow doubt that they will burn in that format.

Thanks,
Kelt