Video Tape Conversion to NTSC or PAL or SECAM

By: John Dulaney
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:23:19
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The process used to copy VHS to DVD is quite easy and simple if you know how to. There are providers for these types of conversions and they are professionals who do this for you. All that you need to do is to make a list of titles for each DVD and send the tapes with the list to the provider. The provider converts the tapes following the list, putting them on different DVDs and returns them to the owner. The time most providers take for the purpose are two days plus the shipping time if any.

The process of copying VHS is quite simple. The first step is to capture the on a large hard disk in MPEG-2 format. The video on the tapes are compressed and taken to the MPEG-2 format. After this, an automated process builds up the menus and provides titling for the stored files. The files are burned on the DVD using some tools like ‘Nero Smart’ or such DVD burners. In this way, data, earlier stored on your ordinary video tapes, are now converted into digital data having a much longer life span. Most providers convert approximately two hours of video contents into a digital form and then burn the same on a standard DVD. Chapter markers, for specific segments of the DVD, are also created through this process, by electronically scanning the video tapes. Since DVDs can not be manipulated, the data may also be stored on a hard disk allowing the viewer to edit and manage the data.

Conversion of DVD to tape might be a challenging and difficult task technically. Ordinarily a system of capturing the video tape contents in MPEG version at first and then converting the same into digital format is followed. Such converted DVDs can be easily played on a standard player or deck. To keep the safe copies of the content, a second copy is done on a computer hard disc, giving you the safety of the copy that you make. For preserving the favourite movies or programs, the most popular standard in the past was the VHS video tapes. But DVD has pushed them back from the scene. While video tapes wear out with time and may be disfigured in the process, such contingencies in case of a DVD are much less. Add to this the qualitative superiority of DVD to VHS video tapes and conversion becomes a necessity. It is easier said than done. Tape conversions, whether it is data, video or audio requires extreme quality control. The quality of the copy does not only depend upon how you do the conversion, but the software and the hardware, that you use, are the two very important aspects that has major contribution to the quality that you produce. You love your music tapes and you like those favourite video tapes that you have, and you would like to convert it on a DVD for safe keeping. It is a great way to preserve.

The best way to achieve this conversion is through analogue to digital video converter, so that you can get this in your computer for eventual transformation into a DVD. If you do not own a digital video Camcorder, this is the best way to achieve the desired conversion. A camcorder allows you to save your edited material from your video tape in a high quality digital format, which becomes your master copy. Some of these camcorders will cost you slightly more than a converter. If you possess a lot of old Hi8 or 8mm tapes, you may get hold of such a camcorder which has a "analog pass through" feature, which will allow you to view the tapes. This would mean that the analog tapes would not have to be converted first into digital video, and in any case you have the option of converting your tape too.

A word about Data Tapes

Way back in the 1970’s, you might have seen those large tape units, hooked up with the main frame huge computers. With the emergence of VDUs in the 1980’s the scenario changed altogether and open reel tapes became almost a distant past. Today, we don’t see any such units with the computers that we know Open reel data tapes have now become dying specie. But the data stored in it will not be dying and would be required for multifarious purposes in many cases unless the data also have outgrown its use. Thus there was a great deal of necessity to convert 9-track tapes into some modern media having much higher capacity. The tape conversion problem is not unique to 9-track tapes only, but such problems also persists in case of conversion of a 3480 model into a 3590 or a DC600 to Super DLT. Such tape conversion is required since it continues to be the premier computer storage medium.

The storage capacity of the tapes has been growing constantly with passage of time. An open reel tape that has been recorded at 1600 bpi can store data amounting to 35 MB whereas a DDS-4 DAT can store more than 1000MB of data. Still better are the LTO and Super DLT those can store 5 DATs. The capability of the tapes is growing day by day. Information stored on a tape drive or a cartridge are much more than other media and they are required to be preserved as they tend to worn out with the passage of time. In certain cases a straight and outright conversion is possible while maintaining the amount of data that was stored on the original tape that is being converted. It is also possible to stack the tapes by putting multiple tapes on a single LTO and it would be a good precautionary measure to have the LTO duplicated before the tapes are destroyed. By such step you overcome the risk of losing data due to a faulty LTO.

Side by side with the tapes, the standard of the computers have also gone through a series of evolutionary processes. Linux and Windows operating systems have become the favourite standards of the day. Hence the issue of tape conversion is now, for example, a case of converting IBM 3480 tapes to Super DLT under the Linux Operating systems. Catering to the needs of the user a number of service providers have arrived on the scene providing a tape conversion service.

Even though it has now become possible to electronically transfer data over the internet, the most convenient storage media for large amount data, say around 100 GB or more, is the magnetic tape. There are various types of tape drives like the DAT, DLT, IBM, and LTO. To change data on tape from one to another it requires a drive that is compatible and can read the particular type of tape. For example, one can convert a set of ICL open reel tapes to ICL 3480. Format conversion is required when the operating system used by two computers differ from each other. Storing of files on tapes may vary widely with the operating systems since each tape writing method is different and each one is not compatible to another system. An appropriate example would be reading an NT tape on a Linux platform.

Article source: Expert Articles