Using the Macintosh Workstation in the T3 Faculty Studio to Digitize Video

How Do I Digitize Video from a VHS Tape?

1. Login to the Macintosh computer and insert your VHS tape into the VHS/DVD combo player. A program named EyeTV will launch automatically on the computer. It allows you to control the VHS player and it is also the program you use to digitize the video.
2. Rewind the tape to the beginning (or the desired beginning) and then click the Play button and then the Record button on the EyeTV program controller. The tape will begin playing and computer will begin recording it.
3. If the content of the tape is 30 minutes in duration, you'll need to wait 30 minutes for it to complete. When the tape has finished playing you'll need to click the Record button a final time to end the recording.
4. After you stop the recording the tape will finish compacting/compressing into a digital file (it will have a .eyetv suffix on the filename). This version of your file is NOT the final version. Instead, it is a high quality digital version that you can (1) export into a smaller size for the web or (2) into a high quality version for a DVD. Each of these options are explained below.

How Do I Convert a Video from EyeTV into a Web Format or a DVD Format?

1. Once you've created your .eyetv version of the video it will appear in the EyeTV Programs window on your computer with the name Live Recording and the date/time of when it was created. Just double-click the file to open it.
2. From the File menu choose Export. A new dialogue window will appear prompting you to name the file and choose the location for where you want it saved. Choose the Desktop and then move it to your own portable drive later. Another option in this windows is the filetype and WMV is the default option. This option is fine, but I prefer the Internet standard MPEG-4 filetype for distributing your video on the web (it will be 640 x 480 in size). Once you've named the file, chosen the location to save it and the filetype then click SAVE.
3. The EyeTV program will then begin compressing your video file and you'll need to monitor the progress bar in the EyeTV Program window to see when it is completed.
4. If you wanted a DVD format instead of a web format, choose iDVD in Step 2 as the filetype. Once the file is created iDVD will launch automatically. You have lots of options within the iDVD program to customize your DVD. Choose a Theme and preview your video until you're satisfied with it. One nice feature is to choose from the Projects menu the option to Autofill Drop Zones. Then just click the Burn button and you'll be prompted to insert a blank DVD. The recording will occur automatically.