Preserve treasured family videos on DVD
Published Monday September 8th, 2008
A few years ago I finally disconnected my VHS VCR and made the switch to DVDs. I kept all my VHS tapes with the hope that there would someday be a simple way to copy the videos off them into my computer, or, in a perfect world, onto my iPod.
The movies I bought were no big deal, they're widely available on DVD, the videos that were really precious are the ones of my 23-year old son's kindergarten graduation and high school graduation and several videos I had made during various surgical procedures I've had over the years. Sounds a little macabre, but those particular videos are really interesting to me.
I had honestly forgotten about transferring those videos because the machine and the tapes have been boxed up for quite some time and they only resurfaced recently during the "Big Spring Clean" we did in the basement. Once I rediscovered the videos I started thinking again about how I could possibly keep them in a more convenient format.
Pinnacle Systems has come to the rescue with their terrific new Pinnacle Video Transfer Device.
A little larger and about twice as thick as my iPod Touch, the Pinnacle Video Transfer Device is a computer-free device, the sole purpose of which is to transfer videos from a video source - like your VHS player or TV - to a storage device, like a memory stick, hard drive, PSP or iPod. That's as complex as it gets.
Files are encoded on the device into h.264, which is the same as MPEG 4, part 10. I'm not 100 per cent sure exactly what that means, but what it means to me is that those files can be loaded onto my iPod and played. They can also be played on computers, PSPs and stored on USB devices.
The device has four inputs on the top - one S-video and three component video inputs. The bottom has a place to plug the power adapter into and a USB2 port. There is another port on the bottom that looks like a USB printer port that's reserved for future development.
The controls are also very simple.
There's a dial, with an aluminum finish that has Mode and Rec printed on it. Press the Mode part of the button to turn the device on and off, and set the recording quality to Good, Better or Best - similar to what you use on your VCR. Once you plug your USB storage device into the Pinnacle Video Transfer Device, you turn the device on, start up the VCR (if that's what you're recording from) and press Rec.
To record onto a hard drive, you'll need a cable with the flat USB end on both ends.
I used a USB thumb drive (flash drive) to transfer my files and will probably either purchase a cable or get a large capacity thumb drive to transfer all my videos.
The three modes it records in have a resolution of: Good - 320 x 240, Better - 640 x 480 dpi, or Best - 720 x 480 dpi. Good will let you record up to 11 hours onto a 4GB flash drive. Better will let you record five hours on that same drive, and Best will allow you to record three hours. The recording is saved as a Standard Video file, not High Definition - however, looking at it on a large monitor is absolutely no problem.
Although I used my trial device to copy VHS tapes from VCR to thumb drive and then onto my hard drive and iPod, you can actually copy files from game consoles or TV programs - whatever source that has the suitable outputs for the Pinnacle Video transfer Device, so the limit is really your imagination.
One caveat is that the software on your iPod needs to be updated to the newest release, and if you're recording directly onto the iPod it needs to be a PC-formatted iPod. If your iPod is formatted on a Mac, the process won't work - when recording directly onto the iPod. Put the file on a flash drive and you won't have any format worries with regard to putting files on the iPod.
The Pinnacle Video Transfer Device is available in Canada at Best Buy or Future Shop for under $150 and is well worth it.
PROS: Very easy to use, good quality image at the end of the day and above all it lets you take those precious memories and save them onto a device you'll be able to look at them again.
CONS: When loading files directly onto an iPod or PSP, you have to download the latest software onto the device and the iPod must be PC-formatted.
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