I am new to this so be gentle and don't use too much tech language, please! I have about 40 VHS home movie tapes that I want to copy to DVD. The main priority is to preserve the material which is sentimental to me but I would also like the ability to do simple editing, create a menu page with thumbnail frames, add titles, add music or voice under/over, maybe even add still pictures in montage, but I have no experience with this process. What kind of machine do I need to shop for? I have a 4 year old Toshiba laptop PC 256 MEGS of RAM, P3 processor, 2 Gigs HD(nothing special), a VHS player, and a DVD player but that's about all. I wont be copying anything that's copy protected and some of the video is not great quality to begin with (dark lighting, unsteady camerawork, focusing issues) so I will want to edit without too much of a process. Thanks!
One more thing I forgot to mention; I also have home movies on Hi8mm tapes that are newer but still should be put onto DVD for posterity. (I now have a camcorder that records direct to mini DVD so this won't be a problem going forward.) Thank you in advance for your help!
Marty I am in the same boat. I know next to nothing about electronics. I want to do the same thing you want to do. If you get any information on transferring analog VCR tapes to DVD, I would sure appreciate if you would pass on the information to me. Thank you