Sunday, June 28, 2009

Brandy

I've written previously about the beautiful Saint Bernard I took care of in the late 90's and early 00's, but now, for the first time eva, is some video of her; this was taken in June of 2000 when she was almost two years old.

7 comments:

Rocketstar said...

Nice. Are you laying these on your TV and re-video taping them or did you convert you VHS to digital?

Thomas said...

I took Tim's advice and bought a VHS to DVD convertor on Saturday. Not only will I have a digital copy of virtually everything I recorded on VHS, but having them on YouTube is yet another backup as well as a place for friends and family to access anytime if they're in the mood for a trip down memory lane.

Timothy Smith said...

How are you ripping from DVD to computer Tom? Does the converter just record raw MPEGS to the DVDs or are you converting them a second time with the computer? Mine records to standard DVD files so it requires another step to get them ready for computer use. But its kinda old.

Don't forget that unless you really have a need you can always return the unit (evil grin) after you convert everything.

Timothy Smith said...

Oh, I almost forgot. I heard one tape broke, don't throw it out! You can usually unscrew the tape and carefully tape it.

Another tip someone told me was those tapes lose tension over time so the playback can be jittery. If this happens you have to "retension" the tapes.

Just fast forward to the end and rewind the tape again before copying it.

Also, if you really want to make sure you have the stuff safe, after you are all done copy the DVDs and give a copy to family member. I did this in case my house burns down. Besides its living occupants the memories are about the only thing I cant replace.

Thomas said...

Ancient Chinese secret...

Just kidding. Once I have them on DVD, I put them through the AoA DVD ripper which can edit them down to under 10 minutes or separate portions based on subject matter. It also reduces compression or whatever so that YouTube will take them.

I am aware that I can return the unit once I've completed all the transfer work, but doubt I will do so. This machine has more than earned its keep.

Thanks for the other tips. I did scotch tape the part of the tape that busted and will work on converting it soon. Great idea to give some duplicates to family members. Thanks for letting me know of all this, my good man.

Timothy Smith said...

Its worth keeping around but I know how tough times are for everyone now so I thought I would mention it.

I works like a VCR and if you want to save the 10-20 cents a blank DVD most will use a re-writable DVD. Just remember if you are scheduling a recording of TV to format the DVD each time.

Quality of what you have put online so far looks fantastic.

Phats said...

Gorgeous Dog! I want a st bernard again, we have a bulldog right now.