OT--questions about converting VHS to a digital format

I've noticed that DVD recorders are quite cheap now. I have a bunch of
old VHS concerts and rehearsals and whatnot that I'd like to somehow
both preserve and get online, so I was thinking that maybe this is a
good way….problem is I don't know much about it. For instance, say I
transfer the VHS to DVD this way, are there east to use (maybe even
free/shareware programs to edit (cut and splice) and convert it to an
uploadable sized format suitable for uploading to say youtube or
something similar? Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.

daniel

At 01:18 PM 4/21/2006, you wrote:
>I've noticed that DVD recorders are quite cheap now. I have a bunch of
>old VHS concerts and rehearsals and whatnot that I'd like to somehow
>both preserve and get online, so I was thinking that maybe this is a
>good way….problem is I don't know much about it. For instance, say I
>transfer the VHS to DVD this way, are there east to use (maybe even
>free/shareware programs to edit (cut and splice) and convert it to an
>uploadable sized format suitable for uploading to say youtube or
>something similar? Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.
>
>daniel

One would have to buy an mpeg2 encoder. They're around $100 You
plug your VCR into it, and it into your computer via USB 2.0. Then
you wind up with an mpeg2 file, which you can burn to a DVD, and
if you do everything right it'll play in any DVD player.

But much cheaper (well, depending on the amount of material you
have to transfer) and easier would be to send your tapes to a
media conversion place. In Berkeley there's a place that'll do
it for $18 a tape. It's what I'm going to with all my VHS.

-Carl