Corel has purchased the Roxio line of video and music editing software so I was doing a look around to see what I could find of interest.
One item that caught my eye was Roxio Easy VHS to DVD3. Not just for VHS videos, you can also transfer Video 8 and Hi-8 tape based videos to a DVD or to Apple iOS devices.
There is a Windows and Mac version. There is a lot of family histories loaded up in those old tapes so this is an affordable $70 option to help people save memories.
This is a demonstration advertisement for the product by Roxio. It comes with the conversion cable/doohickey to connect the computer with the camcorder or video player.
It software seem simple to use but just a few things I’d like to point out.
Analog Standard Definition Video
The original VHS, Video 8 and non-digital H8 video tapes recorded in 640 x 480 standard definition. Even under the best of recording conditions you are going to have traditional viewing experience. Depending on the age and condition of the tapes, that experience might head southward, as in not so good.
Not to mention that the camcorder or playback device might have a couple of years on it. My point is that you would want to make sure that all of the equipment and tapes are in the best condition possible before the transfer.
The software does have limited editing features as well as the ability to reduce or limit shaky video, add credits and color balancing. You can upload to YouTube or Facebook. From one of the screenshots, it does appear that you could save the video on the hard drive for editing later.
If the memory captured in the video is important it might not matter the condition of the retrieved video but at least be aware that it might not look as you either remember it or expect it.
System Requirements
This is going to be a resource hog. You will need 2GB for the installation and I would guess at least 10GB in reserve for the temporary storage of the transferred videos. The old pokey computer in the back room isn’t going to like this. If your system is three years or younger you shouldn’t have a problem.
The system requirements on the product page seem kinda light to me. You XP’s might be able to skate pass without a problem. I doubt it. All I can say is that I’ve done limited analog transfers at the time my system was new. It used all of the two CPUs that I had on board.
You don’t want to multitask when performing the transfer.
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