Home Video Editing

I have owned a video camera since the early 1970’s.  Back then, it was a black and white camera and a reel to reel video recorder with the connection between them a two meter long cable. I have since owned a VHS camcorder, an SVHS camcorder (high definition VHS), two mini DV camcorder and now I own an SD Card camcorder. As a result I have video footage from the early years of my children and have bits of video from almost all our holidays over the years on tape spread all through the house.  Thankfully, a few years ago, I transferred most of the very old footage to digital format before I got rid of the reel to reel tape recorder. I have now transferred most of the old VHS and SVHS material as well. The mini DV tapes are nearly completed and I had to get my old camera back to do that!

So the first step in producing a home video that makes sense is to get the files into your computer. Lets begin then, with a few tips on transferring the footage to digital format…

1. Use a USB Video Converter.

The first option is to purchase a plug in unit that converts the video and sound directly to a USB port and hence into a computer file.  On eBay there are many of these but do make sure they will run on your computer. Mac software wont run on Windows and vice versa. So even though they plug into the USB port, you may not be able to record the video on your computer.  I have purchased a couple of these over the years but I’m not sure either will work now mostly because the cheap ones use interface software of dubious origin and if you have problems, you may need to buy the latest version of the software to make it work – so it may not be as cheap as it seems. The software doesn’t have to be great but it does have to work!  In addition, some of these units have the software on a mini CD which will disappear into your Mac and never be seen again. So unless you can download the software, buy one that costs more than $20! With the latest Mac operating system you cannot run software that was developed for 32bit  systems. If that doesn’t make any sense to you just make sure it runs on the version of Mac OS you are running. Your system software will probably be version 10.11.6 or something. You can check this by clicking on the Apple logo on the top left hand side of the screen then on “About this Mac”. You will get a window that gives you the name of the systems software (currently Mac OS Catalina with the version number 10.15.5.) Just make sure whatever interface you choose, will run on whatever version your computer has. If you have the latest – it probably won’t!

To use these units you also need something that plays the tape.  I purchased an SVHS video recorder a few years ago when I could see they were becoming rare and so I can use that for my VHS or SVHS tapes. If you still have the camera, you can play the tapes on the camcorder if it still works! I’ve never seen a player for mini DV tapes, so I doubt there is any other way to play mini DV tapes except on the camera.

To use these units, you simply plug the camera video cable into the yellow plug, the audio cables into the remaining red and white plugs, put the other end into a USB slot on your computer, and run the software to record the files on your computer.

3. Use a Personal Video Recorder.

Another way is to use a PVR – a unit that records television signals to a hard drive. However this is tricky because you have to find one that allows you to use a video input from the camera and not only the broadcast TV signals. Then, it has to be able to copy the hard drive recordings to a USB drive so you can transfer the recording to your computer. I have an LG recorder but it does not have a video in so I cannot play my camera and record the video using that PVR. Ive looked at Panasonic and Sony but none of them can take video inputs.

I also have an old Avedia PVR I bought on eBay a few years ago.  It has video and sound inputs and enables me to transfer a file I recorded on the hard drive to USB.  It however, has problems with files bigger than 4Gb. So a long TV recording must be recorded and transferred in two or more pieces.  I have managed to transfer a 6Gb file via Wifi but the last file took about 12 hours to transfer and it was very difficult to set up.

4. Use Your TV (maybe).

It may also be possible to use some modern TV sets for the same thing. Some TV sets have an ability to record to an external USB drive but my LG TV is complicated to use and will not let me record to the USB port from either a HDMI input or video input. In addition, it reformats the USB drive which must be bigger than 40Gb, to some proprietary format that can’t be read on a PC or a Mac.  So unless your TV set is better than mine, it’s a dead end street.

5. Use your computer

There were some camcorders that recorded to DVD directly so you may already have a DVD with your video on it. Of course some commercial operators also will copy camera tapes to DVD or USB as well. So if you have a DVD that you want to convert to a computer file you can insert the DVD into the computer DVD drive. Unfortunately the DVD material may not be easily available to your computer for editing because DVD recorders use a special format that requires some software on your computer to extract it. There are free software extractors and paid ones, and since DVD’s have been around for years the extraction software is readily available. I use Ripit by the Little App Factory and though it takes an hour or so to rip and then compress a DVD it is a great program for Mac OSX. I also have MDRP, Handbrake and Toast all of which can extract the video and sound files from a DVD and turn them into an editable file for my computer. Handbrake is available for Windows and it’s free – it may be a bit tricky to use but at the price you can’t complain too much. Another piece of Windows software that seemed to be quite good at the time of writing is “Free DVD Converter”. It also allows you to do basic trimming and editing.

• Software Installation

  All software is constantly changing and can have features or add on functionality that you don’t want, so read reviews on the software (as an example on CNET) before making a choice. Some software has sponsorship credits in the output and may prompt you to upgrade at times. Some have browser home page redirection. Always read and unselect any software options that you don’t want installed when trying software.

• Every Mac comes with iMovie available for free which gives you the ability to make you videos look good. You can cut out bad bits, change the sound quality and volume, fix some video colour issues and add titles. In the windows world there are many video editing programs. some are free, some you will have to pay for but make sure, if you can, that you only pay for something after you have tried the program. You can download VideoPad from NCH software and start there. It’s about $40 but offers a free trial.

• Software Setting

  There are quite a number of settings available when creating digital videos so you may need to set the quality, size, bitrate or other items to get the quality of video you are after. Do some test samples of the digital video produced and adjust the settings until you are happy with the result. You do not usually want to end up with a digital copy that has less quality than the original. Be aware that if you select maximum quality and bitrates the digital video will be a very large file. It is a compromise.

So, since you are retired, it’s a great way to use some time trying out things you have never done before! It can be very rewarding to enjoy the family videos you have collected over the years and you never know your blockbuster video of your kids on YouTube may go viral and you might create the next video sensation.