ColorBurst is a provider of mid-range video post-production services - editing, titling, sound-sweetening, motion graphics, and so on. Thank you for visiting.
Host Rich Bonaduce rolls us through a quick list of the Top Ten Video Editing Software Programs from TopTenReviews.com.
Now you don't have to call in a favor from a friend to make your movies shine. With video editing software, you can produce your own professional looking videos and share them with friends and family.
First the video, with an explanation to follow.
As you may have noticed here, I've mentioned Star Wars a number of times before. If there is one single film in history that has more actively fueled the fire of fan-made films --and by relation, all home video-- then I'd be very surprised. Some of these homages are funny parody, some are just practice and some approach the level of real art. I love them all.
The video linked above uses only footage from the original film, with a very specific filter (I'd assume) that gives it the right silent film look. I don't know all the technical details, but the appearance is spot on. It's in black-and-white, but also has a layer of scratches, muting and noise added to give it old style film resonance. Additionally, the frame speed was slightly sped up in most of the action sequences, giving it a much more herky-jerky movement (technical term, ahem) to the actors. Stylized dialog cards are added for each spoken line. I like that these have the Imperial logo at the bottom and that there are a few misspellings, perhaps purposeful.
The best possible detail used to give this video an authentic silent film theme is the soundtrack, played on an old-fashioned grand piano by itself. If you listen at the right moment as Luke plummets down the ventilation shaft, a descending chromatic scale plays exactly where it is most expected. The entire package comes together perfectly with the scratchiness of the video and audio in sync. It's funny and beautiful at the same time; a very good job.
This is a good quick demonstration of what is possible and a reminder that what you see is not always the truth.
Each time slot this morning has at least 7 different sessions to choose from. I picked David Ziser's How to Flash, an Extended Video session, and one on Color Correction.
I'll keep you posted on this afternoon's choices.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
This is "Part 1 of a fantastic documentary about movie editing." The other parts of this are also possibly available on YouTube. This documentary gives the history of and an emphasis on the importance of EDITING as an art form and an important piece of any film-making.
I've got an update on a recent post:
Review: Panasonic Camcorder Features 30GB Hard Drive
I admit that I didn't even know they made these yet, but it makes sense as a natural evolution of video technology.
Here is some more history on the subject:
Hard drive camcorders have actually been around since the '80s. They were first used (somewhat experimentally) by television news crews early in the electronic-news revolution. They were high-end broadcast quality cameras (high-priced) and included -removeable- hard drives. This allowed a news editor to have instant access to the footage without having to transfer from tape to computer. Of course, at that point in history, computer-video editing was in its infancy, and very high-$. Hard-drive technology was still rather fragile - imagine the typical drive bouncing around in the back of the news van speeding back from a breaking story. Video quality equivalent to your current camcorder was a challenge for these $100K+ systems. After some very costly trials, the technology was shelved waiting for more reliable and cheaper stuff.
Video is now more 'democratized' and we are starting to see numerous video formats - several different versions of HD, SD, widescreen, etc. Its not uncommon for some (upper-end) consumer camcoders to be able to switch between US, British, and French video standards, sometimes with the added choices of widescreen and high-def. Some of these choices don't easily translate to a specific tape media. At the same time the internet has eased the problem of transporting the various international television "standards" to other locations. Add to this the much lower cost of reliable drives, and you have a natural migration to consumer camcorders with built-in HDs. The only real limitation to these is the amount of video that can be contained on the drive. I also wonder how many people will be disciplined enough to regularly move the video off their camcorder before they need the space for the next event -
Let's see... do I erase Reese's kindergarten graduation, or do I not tape Livvi's first day of school...What will really be cool is when they offer a consumer version that gives you a choice of tape, HD, or maybe flash-memory card / flash-card HD. Probably late 2008 or early 2009.
This sounds like good news. I'm a bit behind the curve on the knowledge on this one, so I'm glad to get more input from the expert. Now, when will we see more common posts from said expert?
Here's a good question.
i'm planning on buying a computer system for video editing. here are the specs:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
Dual Core 2MB L2 Cache, 2.13 GHz, 1066MHz FSB- Asus P5VD2-MX VIA Motherboard
- 512MB DDR2 533 Memory Apacer
(i would add another 512mb ddr)
- 512MB Asus EN6200TC512 GeForce 6200 PCI-E 512MB Turbo Cache, TV/DVI
do you guys think that this system is fast enough to hadle tons of video editing? do u have any suggestions of a better computer system for video editing? and do u know a free video editing software that has functions similar to adobe premiere? thanks!
Read the community's answers at Tech Support Guy Forums.
If you are familiar with Adobe Premier, then you might enjoy these video interviews behind-the-scenes with the teams at Adobe.
This is for video editing geeks who might want to see what's up in Adobe's latest video editing suite.
Again, Adobe did not pay me to come over and do these interviews (Adobe has contracted with PodTech in the past to do some podcasts but that was last year and separate from these efforts). I wanted to get a look inside Adobe's latest CS3 stuff. I still have a couple of teams I want to film up in Adobe's Seattle office. I hope you enjoyed this series, I sure learned a lot doing it.
Check it out at Video editing with Adobe Premiere on Scobleizer.
TechCrunch has posted a good list of online photo editors. Since so much sharing of photos is done online or via email, it makes sense to be editing photos online as well. Most of these services work by allowing you to upload your photo to their web platform using a simple upload form. Then editing choices are made through the browser and you download the finished filed. Some of these services also work by connecting to your Flickr account in a two-way integration where you edit and reload the photo direct from your online photos that are already online.
The launch of Picnik a couple of days ago brought us yet another online photo editing tool. Like Fauxto, Picnik uses Flash, whereas most of the earlier editing tools all use Ajax for in-browser editing.
Since all computers come with basic software that rotates, resizes and crops photos, there needs to be a compelling reason to use an online service. Uploading a photo to such a service, editing it and then downloading it back to your hard drive too high of a cost. To compensate for this, most services allow you to transfer the edited photos directly to Flickr, Webshots or other online photo services, saving users the trouble of making round trips uploading and downloading.
Read the full article on TechCrunch.com.
Here is an interesting blog post debunking a recent CNET article.
I wrote a post not long ago about the rise of pro-sumer video over the last 15 years, and the impact it's making right now on the web video revolution.
Well, this CNET article fortells the coming of a second wave of pro-sumerism... and I think they totally miss the point.
They're talking about evolution of internet video editing tools like eyespot and jumpcut, and asserting that these will open up the exclusive world of video editing to 'the rest of us'...
I'm very suspect of this assertion - Editing is about choices. That takes experience and training. The tools you use to edit are pretty much irrelevant.
Read the full post at Queensbound Seven.
Jan Ozer at PC Magazine has an article on the perfect setup for video-editing.
Are you a filmmaker? Or a video enthusiast? Or the greatest thing to hit YouTube since that Star Wars kid? You've been editing video for a while, perhaps producing short films, training videos, or maybe even a wedding or two, and the only thing standing between you and an Independent Spirit award is the limitations of your current gear. It's time to jump-start your career with an upgrade.
The first step in your transformation into George Lucas is clear: You'll need a superfine digital camcorder. But once you've spent a cool thousand dollars on the latest and greatest from Sony, Samsung, or whichever manufacturer you favor, you've only just begun your journey from taking cute home movies to making great videos. That camera is only going to get you halfway. But that's why I'm here. I'll show you how to build an awesome editing station to take your video to the next level.
Read the full article at The Perfect Editing Station.
dnix71 asks:
For some as yet to be explained reason, none of my video stored on my hard drive will load into the editing software. This just began happening recently. Cannot even load sample stuff! CPU locks up and must be re-booted.
I have been using WinDVD creator for over a year without probs, tho I am aware of its shortcomings, it worked for me. I have attempted to load any video clip from my drive to Movie Maker and ShowBiz with the same results.
For the full post, please visit VideoHelp.com.
iandy16 asks:
I am in need of some new video editing software, Which is the best one out these days which is easiest use, and contains lots of effect features, and other editing stuff.
To see the full post and add your own comments, please visit Video Editing Software @ Tech Support Guy Forums.
The natural point of this site is video editing meets blogging. However, doesn't it make sense to also have some information on video-blogging? To start off with, we can at least point to a good reference on how to begin video blogging.
Comon' every web 2.0 geek has a videoblog - you should have one too! Seriously though, we know it's super simple to put videos up on YouTube and for many people (okay a kabillion people) that works just fine. The nice thing about a videoblog is it's like your own little corner of the Internet. You control how it looks, whether it has ads on it or not, what format(s) the videos are in and how long they are. Plus, because it's built on a blog it has all the advantages of a blog - it's easily found in search engines, it's automatically archived, and it's easy to subscribe to.
Do you have a blog and a webcam? Get started at Freevlog » Tutorial.
Handling video editing projects can become very confusing and difficult if the director does not plan how they are going to organize their project files. David Edmondson, a.k.a. ThreeHams, posted a detailed explanation of how he organizes his files on his computer as he's working on them.
I've noticed something isn't really talked about all that much - organization of files during a project. When you're struggling to meet a deadline at the eleventh hour, you'll realize just how worthwhile all the preparation really is - no overwriting vital files, no searching for files, no duplicate names in subfolders, no -FINAL04.max suffixes. Everything is exactly where you expect it to be, and everything (basically) works exactly the way you want.
Sounds like advice we could all use, right? He continues...
What I'd like to see is how other people organize their projects. My scheme started out much uglier and looser than this, and eventually developed over time as I learned how to fix problems I was having. It's very streamlined for the projects I do - about 14-15 minutes of rendered footage, quick rendering times on two computers, lots of external references, and 25-30 minutes with stillframes after editing. The destination is a run of CDs and DVDs.
Want more tips and discussion like this one? Visit CGTalk @ cgsociety.org.
In the interest of keeping up on articles about photography as well as bring you the latest news about video editing I wanted to post a link to an article on CNET.com that goes over fifteen of the most common picture pitfalls, how to avoid them and how to work with edit pictures that already have these flubs.
You know the feeling: you've just snapped that once-in-a-lifetime moment, and you're already thinking about how big you want to print it. It looks great on the camera's LCD, and everyone in the room wants a copy of it. When you get home, you eagerly load it up on your PC, only to discover it's too blurry to even make out the faces. We've all been there.
It will be very much worth your time to read over the full article at CNET.com - Frequent photo flubs: 15 picture pitfalls and how to avoid them. It might also improve your video too!
One of the characteristics of "real movies" is a rock-solid camera. It just doesn't move around much. And when it does move, the movements are smooth and flowing. Contrast that with most home-video movies where the camera is in constant motion - jerkily panning from side-to-side, tilting up and down, and often zooming in and out.
It makes sense - at least a little. Our home videos are usually shot with light-weight, autofocus, hand-held cameras that can be operated while standing, sitting, walking, riding, or even skateboarding. Zoom controls are right at our fingertips. When we're not shooting video, we don't keep our eyes fixed on any one item for very long; we constantly glance around the area, taking in thousands of details about our surroundings and deciding where to concentrate our attention. We start out shooting video a little bit like we use our eyes, constantly scanning the room for details. Is that something important? Zoom in to check, zoom back out when you want to see more. Tilt the camera to the side and you tilted the viewfinder at the same time. So the camera viewfinders show us an image that looks level, even though the camera is not. The awkward manner that we hold cameras scrunched up against our face quickly tires your muscles adding a tiny bit of tremor if you shoot for a long period of time. Mega-zoom lens on camcorders make matters worse because when we zoom to extreme telephoto to catch distant action, the narrow-angle of the lens makes even tiny motions large on the screen. Larger swing-out viewfinder screens can make matters even worse because we can now hold the camera out from our face, dangling it on the end of our arm.
When you are shooting video, you become part of the action. You are there with the camera held up to your face; you have the full context of whatever is occurring. Viewers of your video, on the other hand, are usually sitting in a chair, watching a screen. They can only see what you choose to show them. If you swing them around wildly, jerkily panning from side-to-side, tilting up and down, and zooming in and out, they'll just get dizzy and won't want to watch.
I have seen very few home videos that wouldn't benefit from less camera motion. (That includes my videos!) But you probably aren't going to buy a heavy-duty tripod, firmly attach your camera, and carefully level it whenever you set it up. Besides... that would negate many of the benefits of a lightweight hand-held camcorder.
So how do we stabilize our footage to keep the viewer from getting dizzy, and still remain hand-held and portable?
There are a number of things you can do to stabilize your video without toting a 12-pound tripod around Disneyland. First, get a good, comfortable grip on your camera. Spread your feet about shoulder-width apart; hold the viewfinder up to your eye, with your elbows bent. Find a comfortable way to look at the viewfinder - if your face is all "frowned-up," your video will also look unhappy. If your muscles are strained into an uncomfortable position, you will quickly tire and the minor muscle tremors will shake the video a lot. Only in rare circumstances does it make sense to hold the camera at arm's length with the view screen open - something guaranteed to tire your muscles very quickly. Adjust the diopter adjustment on the viewfinder so you can see the full image confortably. This is particularly important if your wear glasses or contacts. Decide to adjust the diopter on the viewfinder either for your corrected vision with glasses or your uncorrected vision - then always shoot the same way. This may require you to push your glasses up on your forehead to see the whole viewfinder, but your footage will look much better.
Now, are you comfortable with your camera in your hands? Are your muscles generally relaxed and not strained? Good! Now look for a place to lean against or to prop your elbows on. Even the most experienced shooters try to use some stationary object to help them steady the camera. Put your elbows on a table or railing, or lean against the wall, car or a street-sign. I have even rested the back of my right hand (the hand holding my camcorder) against the corner of two walls to help stabilize the picture.
Now that you've reduced much of the accidental shakiness, its time to decide what you want in each shot. Seems obvious, but most home video that I watch has the camera aimlessly wandering around the scene trying to follow often overlapping action. It pans to catch images of Katie feeding the ducks, jerks in a different direction when baby Mike crawls into the scene, then crash-zooms to cover the 6-year-old in the background swinging maybe just a bit too high, then zooms back out when a quacking duck gains the attention - and all in the space of ten seconds!
I'd probably like to see all of those things, but instead I get to see a tiny, shakey piece of each of those things. If you edit your videos, maybe you could edit out the junk, but then there's probably not enough of each shot remaining to keep my interest. It may be better to choose to tape 20-seconds of "Katie feeding ducks," even if it means that any images of baby Mike has to be video'd at a different time.
I once had an old camcorder that wouldn't let you zoom once you started recording - not sure it was designed that way or just so underpowered that there wasn't enough current to run the zoom motor while the tape transport was running. In any case, treat your video the same way. Frame the shot with the zoom lens, start recording, stop recording, then use the zoom to adjust framing for the next shot. As far as zooming while recording - Just Say NO!
OK - maybe you're weak and can't resist the siren-call of the zoom lever - then at least vow to use only one zoom in any shot. Zoom-in or zoom-out, but leave the tromboning for the sound track. Same goes for panning or tilting up or down - just say NO. Or at least pan only in one direction in any shot. And if you absolutely must pan to follow some action, be sure to lead. That is, stay ahead of the action, not behind it. Then at some point, stop, and let the person walk out of the frame - it looks much better than trying to follow them forever. If you pan back-and-forth, or pan to barely keep up with someone walking, you'll convince me you are still looking for something to shoot. Maybe you just didn't realize the camera was running.
Is the ultimate answer to use a steadicam or perhaps a 12-pound tripod? Maybe, but even if you can afford Steadicam prices, there is still a learning curve. Until then, relaxing, steadying against a stationary object, and carefully choosing your shots will go a long way to making your home video more appealing.
I really wanted to put an update or two on Colorburst last weekend. However, the yard and twelve or fifteen other things took priority and Colorburst fell to the bottom of the queue. But as I bagged the yard-junk from winter, I was thinking about the movie short titled "405" (See further details below).
Why is this short interesting to me? Looking at it structurally, it is a totally fabricated story of an implausible situation, incredible luck (for both main characters) and exciting special effects absolutely essential to the story. But the story was fun to watch and the technology was within reach of most people reading ColorBurst.
How do we take our home movies and make it interesting?
I haven't yet figured out how to translate the style and ideas of "405" to something already shot like "Jon's Violin Recital" or "Jimmy's Sixth Birthday" or "Linda at Scout Camp." That story kinda goes "Linda packed for Scout Camp; Linda rode to Scout Camp; Linda lived in a tent for a week; etc." Not necessarily a lot of character-development, conflict, tension, resolution, and/or interesting story-telling.
The few 'story' videos that I have done were based on fabricated stories around actual happenings - like "Thanksgiving Treasure Hunt" (which had trolls and quiz show games) - OR narrated stories of actual happenings - like "Band Video" (which followed the entire marching band season.) In both cases, the storytelling was hammered home by ME as the 'omniscent narrator,' -- not the world's most creative style! In any case, those videos required a LOT of effort to piece together a story from already-shot video.
Suppose we wanted to do an interesting video of something that we know will happen in the near future; "Mother's Day Picnic in the Park 2006". How do we build an interesting story, then shoot and eventually edit the video, all without turning the day into nothing but a major video production effort? After all, I'd like to be a participant as well as the video guy!
Here's one idea courtesy of oldest son:
OK, It might be considered a bit staged, and we'd have to have a bit of participant cooperation. Imagine a scene where all the players are sitting at the park bench after their meal is finished. The used plates and napkins ruffle lightly in the breeze to sad, somber music -- think Bataan Death March. Empty plastic soda bottle blows off the table. Maybe the day is cloudy, gray and overcast. As the camera moves in close to the picnic people's faces, they look unhappy and bored. Tapping fingernails, yawns and general slow fidgeting and sighs of boredom are evident. As the camera focuses briefly on young Olivia, she lightly slaps her hand over her eyes and forehead in boredom and sighs pitiably. Reese juts out her jaw and rolls her head from side to side. And so on .... 30 seconds or so...
Suddenly one of the moms literally jumps onto the scene from nowhere and runs right up to the picnic table with an excited grin on her face. "Hey everybody, don't look so bored!" she exclaims. "I've got an idea to rescue you from your doldrums!"
The family exchanges confused looks... What could this newcomer have brought them? They perk up and look back at the her expectantly. "What?"
"Water Balloons!" she cries jovially, pulling two engorged and dripping orbs from behind her back.
"YEEEEEAAAAHHH!!!" shout the family, as they jump up and begin handing out water balloons. The sun comes out...
[Cue fun driving light oldies rock music]Everyone takes one or more balloons gently and they leave the picnic shelter in a single file line. At first they walk then more quickly, then jog and then cradling their handheld missiles closely, they begin to skip jovially. They go from place to place around the park, hugging their water balloons closely but gently. They smile huge comical smiles and wink knowingly at each other, or just stare lovingly at their little balloons. They hold them and stare at them or through them at each other (their faces showing in vibrant color) or at the clouds in the sky. They love their little water balloons and carry them everywhere for a time, going down the slide, swiinging on the swing, etc., etc.,...
Suddenly the music stops with a scratch and one of the other Mom's shout "STOP!" and the family gathers in a semi-circle, puzzled looks on their faces.
"What?" they ask.
"Well, I'm not sure, but I don't think we are doing this right."
"Huh? So?" the family asks her.
"Well, this isn't really all that fun. And I think people are staring at us." The family looks around and then looks back confused at their balloons. They scratch their head and think. They sit in silence and ponder this new mystery.
That is when, quite suddenly breaking the silence, the six-year-old drops her water balloon on her Dad's head!
Sploosh!!
The family turns, stunned. They exchange looks, clearly shocked and puzzled. Huh? What? But their puzzlement slowly and deliberately melts away to be replaced by smug grins.... as the music starts again, this time with a drum roll and ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
[Cue heavy metal]WATER FIGHT! {this last scene writes itself and can be improvised}
Total "PRODUCTION TIME": 15-minutes.
In addition to better/more fun video, the production "gives us an excuse" to play and have a good time. Maybe that's the key.... just "give us an excuse" to play and have a good time. In 5, 10 or x-teen years, we'll have videos of us interacting and having fun and also images of what we were like at the time, how we dressed, what we did, etc.
It could be water balloons, bubbles, whatever. If the family is really adventurous, maybe a food fight. (Then again, maybe with your family you wouldn't have to stage a food-fight!) Just build a 'situation' with a trifle bit of drama/tension/whatever, then a resolution with us having a good time.
...basic storytelling 101... I should have thought of this...
I have this theory that most of us bought a camcorder so we'd have a quasi-documentary of our lives (especially the good parts.)
In 20-years, DisneyLand or Mount McKinley will just be "a place we visited." What will always be more interesting is why we went to McKinley, how we got there, what we looked like, and what else was going on during the time we traveled to McKinley.
With that in mind I always chop-out more than I keep.
Some simple rules about what I keep:
1. TELL THE STORY - tell it visually, and only allow the dialog if it adds to the story. Its not a travelogue and its not just "Vacation Video;" its the story of your time and your life. Get the images of those people/things/places close to you!
Mount McKinley will still be there 10/15/20 years from now. You could go back or you can always buy postcards. What you'll really want 10/15/20 years from now is 'the Story of Us' planning, getting ready for, packing, driving/flying, getting lost, the hotel we stayed in (with that awful green swimming pool), Suzy after getting stung by the bee, having to dial 14 digits to get an outside line, the music we listened to (and the songs we sang), those interesting paddle boats/ski lodges/fireplaces, getting homesick (then not wanting to leave when it was time to go), the turtle we found, the trip home (and getting lost again), unpacking the car, etc.
In 10/15/20 years, you'll want a visual reminder of the old VW bus or yellow-AstroVan, and you'll laugh about that awful green swimming pool. The way baby Olivia's hair went into tight curls whenever the humidity went up will be a pleasant discussion for almost everyone except Ollie (as she likes to be called now.) That strange purple hairdo worn by little Johnny (who will be 6'3" by then) will be funny and might even invoke a, "What was I thinking!?!"
The painful bee sting will have become a darling piece of nostalgia, or maybe even a family legend. And Little Suzy will be married and have a Suzy Jr by then, who can't imagine how many freckles mom used to have.
2. Maximum Seat-time is 20-minutes - The preacher used to say he'd have trouble saving souls if his sermon lasted more than 20-minutes. It's unlikely your video will be of greater importance or interest. By keeping it short, you'll have to cut out the junk. Look at the Travel Channel, or MTV for some examples of how to hit the highlights in a short time. 20-seconds of screeching and gasping by Aunt Jeanne (after she fell into the pond) will be funny - two minutes would get tedious. But a few seconds of 'audience reaction' might be fun to look at, over-and-over. Remember the travelogue is really secondary to the people and "The Story of Us."
3. LONG-SHOT, MEDIUM-SHOT, CLOSE-UPs, CLOSE-UPs, CLOSE-UPs - Television tends to be an intimate medium and you're really trying to capture personalities. The cinematic practice of an establishing shot (long-shot) to provide the setting; a medium-shot to transition; then some close-ups is a simple and fool-resistant technique. My personal thinking is that you really can't have too many closeups.
4. Embarassing? Maybe, but NO REAL PUT-DOWNs - Editing is a judgement call about rewriting history. That strange girl with Goth makeup that cousin Tom dated really was at Thanksgiving dinner, even if they had a fight later that week and he never saw her again. Whether to show "Uncle Charlie's Mooning Incident," will depend on the circumstances of the accident and how Charlie really feels about it. (Even if he can't ever go back to that same church.)
If it is likely cause real pain, its better left 'on the cutting room floor.'
Oh, and did I mention lots of closeups.....
Dear Jim,
I have a pretty large project in mind, but have not a clue where to start! I have at least 10 hours of old home movie footage on about 12 vhs video tapes. I want to 'digitally remaster' the footage after capturing into Premiere so I have the best quality footage as is possible. I then want to output to DVD. All this is in the hopes of preserving my family's archival footage for the future, on a DVD-based format that will outlast any magnetic based tape (vhs).
- Q1: Do I capture my vhs footage as mpeg2? or is this a conversion from avi after the event?
- Q2: Is there a good 'cleaning up' tool or software that would suit my needs?
- Q3: Is there a place I can go to get a tutorial - or even a book, using a particular piece of software?
I have scoured the web for a month and have looked at all manner of sites from police crime video tape to professional applications but all to no avail !!! Thanks for reading this and PLEASE respond if you think you could help with this mammoth task, thanx :: Tommy B.
Tommy,
I've been working on the same kind of project for a while - lots of planning time (thinking about) and recently, some real activity. Mine involves almost 60-hours of priceless home video. Some of the material is from the 80's using the early "home-video outfits" that consisted of a separate recorder and vidicon camera. Later versions involve VHS-C and even S-VHS camcorders. All sorts of birthdays, holidays, weddings, and other events; and numerous people who are no longer with us. Almost all of it was shot in existing light, some by a very inexperienced cameraperson (me). I started out with the goal of moving the images from the aging VHS tape to something more stable and durable. Also, I wanted to get it into the "digital domain" so that any future copies would minimize generation loss.
My opinion - it will eventually come down to how much money, time, and effort you are willing to spend to preserve your history.
Here's what I'm doing: First, I sorted the old tapes by date and divided most of the source material into 45-60minute projects. This is manageable from a hard-drive standpoint, and conveniently fits on a miniDV tape, VHS tape, and of course a DVD. I use a capture card to capture the analog audio and video to hard-drive (as an avi file).
The raw material is then opened in Adobe Premiere for clean up. I first go through and pull out all the real junk - start of the tape, low battery, crash-edits, footage (pictures of feet when someone forgot to turn off the camera), 8-minutes of the inside of the camera bag, and other distracting elements. Make this a project by itself within Premiere because you may choose to save the unedited version to DVD.
Then, you'll need to make some decisions here about how much you want to re-write history - I've been careful NOT to start editing out events and people. That boat you couldn't wait to get rid of in 1988, was the same boat you couldn't wait to buy in 1987! AND That Nehru Jacket you HAD to have might be embarassing to think about, but everyone will enjoy reminiscing about their crazy fad clothing. Save that footage of Aunt Jeanne's tumbling into the lake - someday even she will appreciate it.
Then I put some simple titles that indicate the event and date. You might want to identify any place or people that current/future generations might not know. I also put a billboard title at the beginning of the project to indicate the source of the video and any known technical information (camera, microphone, etc) and the date of this transfer.
Then, (and here is where the real time-cost exists) I tweak the video using levels and saturation controls in Premiere. This has to be carefully done on a scene-by-scene basis. There is significant time involved both in the tweaking of the controls and the rendering time, but you can greatly improve some existing-light video.
I've searched-there's no magic button, plug-in, or procedure that will make that wobbly hand-held old camcorder look as good as an $80K broadcast camera on a rock-solid tripod. You can purchase some plug-ins that might help here - Vixen or Video Finesse (and others) provide proc-amp type controls within Premiere. Vixen also has the ability to do some picture noise-reduction. Both tools used to have downloadable demos.
If you really want to burn some time, you could also try some audio filters and tweaks to accommodate those built-in microphones in camcorders. There's even the possibility of using a plug-in to stabilize that old hand-held video (SteadyHand?) You'll just need to strike a balance between improving the original camera footage and the amount of time it takes to finish the project. On the web and in numerous books, you can find hints and ideas to fix (or at least improve) specific problems with your footage.
Premiere allows you to output the timeline directly to DVD, but I prefer to output MPEG2 format for DVD authoring. While you're are still in Premiere, export some still-frames for your photo album and to use on the DVD case. I use Adobe Encore for authoring, but there are any number of good DVD authoring programs out there. If there is enough room on the DVD, I also store the project files, titles, and artwork used for DVD case and labels. Any notes I made during the 'production' go into a 3-ring binder.
Some of the 'major events,' like young Jon's Pinewood Derby victory, older son Jim's Boy Scout Eagle presentation, or the big Marching Band competition, can also be made into a separate program, complete with titles, graphics, music or narration.
If you want to be a real hero, you can make additional copies to hand out to some of the people involved.
One thought - Set yourself a reasonable timeframe to complete each DVD. Otherwise you might tweak your footage endlessly. One other thought - look at this as a long-term labor-of-love where you'll also learn a lot about shooting, editing, and enhancing your skills. It'll be a lot more fun!
