AVI to VHS tape for grade school class project

[nobody special]

I don't know if Rob G knows much about video, but he's absolutely right
about parenting.

3rd-grade kid or corporate client, you have to learn to face the
consequences of your mistakes, so as to get your S@#$% together for
life. Ultimately, this is way more important, and you will be a real
hero by not indulging the son with this rescue fantasy of yours. And
to show I walk it like I talk it, I had my 9-year old daughter pull
this on me the other day, off from school 4 days and a weekend for the
holidays, forgot her project was due first day back. Tough darts, I
told her, school is your only job, and you have to be responsible. I
let her be late a day, told her I'd help her with the make-up work if
she got her head screwed on straight, took her lumps at school, and
brought home all the materials and did the groundwork on her own.
Ultimately, she respects her work and herself more if you don't do it
all for her. Without learning these coping skills early, our kids will
be easy prey to all manner of future problems.


Oh, video wise, each of those still cams tends to only recognize it's
own naming conventions for files, so if you want to transfer something,
save it with the same name as an existing file in the target machine.
That has worked for me.

 

[Anthony Susa]

I've just found the specs for your laptop- it has video out: both composite
and S-video! just hook it up to your VCR , get the laptop playing the video
full screen, hit record on the VCR ......
no need to bother with firewire at all

Hi Gripper,

Thank you very much for this solution. I handled the problem before 6 am
this morning using a dastardly workaround (as noted in another post). That
had solved the immediate 8 am delivery schedule but didn't really
technically resolve the issue for the next person to follow in our esteemed
footsteps.

So, to benefit all of us (bearing in mind the usenet record is permanent),
today I drove about and after a few stores, I was able to pick up the
suitable output wires for the IBM A31p laptop.

Now it's a cinch to save AVI files to VHS using an IBM A321p laptop!

After hooking to the green and blue composite output (pink is an input), I
can play the AVI files, as you noted, set the display to full screen, and
then press the RECORD button on the VCR. Voila! Instant VHS!

Thank you for being positive and for taking the time to contribute to the
knowledge level of the group as a whole. The great news is that people will
use this post to solve their similar problems given similar equipment and
constraings. To that end, you, Mr. Gripper, have benefited mankind!

Thank you,
Tony Susa

 

[Anthony Susa]

Have you succeeded yet?
I had an idea - analyse the videos produced by your Canon with say AVIcodec.
Then do your best to convert the Nikon video to the same format that the
Canon produces and of course - plays back....
http://avicodec.duby.info/

Hi Martin,

Thank you for your caring, concern, and advice. You are not like the many
others who have nothing to say and even less to offer (yet they blabber
about nonetheless).

Yes, I succeeded. Thanks to you. Within the alotted time frame too! Again,
thanks to none other than you. First, necessity being the mother of
workarounds, I simply played the AVI on the IBM laptop and recorded that
session with the Canon PowerShot set on a tripod facing the laptop.

Obviously quality suffers but the end result was good enough for a 4th
grade presentation. But, even though I was successful in solving the
immediate problem, I was unhappy with having to resort to a healthy dose of
duct-tape ingenuity.

So, taking a lesson from the fact that IrfanView lossless-rotated JPEG
files were unusable in the Canon camera yet the original files were just
fine ... I converted the original AVI to a variety of formats and then back
to AVI. After saving a dozen or more of these converted files, I slid them
all onto the compact flash card, taking care to name each one sequentially
and taking care not to have any conflicting prefix names even though there
were no corresponding suffix names.

For example, if there was an OOO1 JPEG, then the next file was an 0002 AVI
even though there was no conflicting 0001 AVI on the compact flash card.

The good news is that of the dozen or so converted AVI files written to the
compact flash card, a good handful worked just fine! Whatever loss of
quality resulted was not discernable by me at the time. Once the Canon
camea recognized the foreign (multiply converted) AVI file, the rest was a
cinch.

I just played out the Canon camera AV analog port into the analog VHS RCA
inputs (mono + video).

Thank you again, Martin, for stepping above the rabble to provide not only
help and advice, but encouragement. It's so easy for those who provide
nothing to banter aimlessly in a charade of contribution - but it's a true
master technologist who provides the key that unlocks the technological
solution.

Thank you Martin for rising above the rabble!
Tony Susa

 

[Anthony Susa]

It would be nice if laptop had s-video or composite TV Out.
The Studio MovieBox DV should output s-video or composite TV Out.
You probably have to play video within Studio MovieBox DV software
to output MovieBox DV s-video or composite TV Out, you'd think.
Probably settings somewhere.
VCR set to "line in" ?
Good Luck

Thanks you JimK for you advice,

By now, it can been seen that the laptop DOES have composite output and, as
can be seen by the record, this works quite nicely to save the AVI file to
VHS for the purpose of furthering the education of a child and anyone who
may follow in our footsteps here and for the future googlers with this
problem.

One very interesting tidbit I learned while analyzing why the Canon camea
didn't at first recognize the AVI file was that little matter of the THM
files. It turns out, these THM files are JPG files of another extension.
They apparently are merely a frame of the corresponding AVI file saved with
a THM extension explicitly for the Canon camera to display.

When I changed the extension from THM to JPG, each of the THM files showed
up just fine as a JPEG on the laptop. Likewise when they were transferred
to the compact flash card in the PCMCIA slot of the PC and then to the
Canon PowerShot A95 camea.

As a matter of fact, I used these THM (thumbnail) JPEG files in the
resulting video ... by playing each one before the AVI so as to set the
mood for 5 seconds before and 5 seconds after the AVI.

Thank you JimK for the wonderful advice. The Internet record will show you
rise above the others in providing helpful detail and sage admonitions,

Tony Susa

 

[Anthony Susa]

Do you still have the Nikon that the original AVI was recorded with?
Does the Canon AV lead not work with the Nikon's AV output?
Have you got access to a PC with a TV output (composite video) which you
could record directly to VHS?

Hi Martin,

I answered a later post from you but your kind advice and sincere
suggestions deserve a detailed reply, especially since those with this same
situation in the future deserve as detailed a response as possible.

As can be seen from the record, multiple workarounds were discovered:

1. Play the AVI on the laptop and record it optically onto the camera; then
play the AVI out the camera analog AV outputs into the VHS analog line in.

2. Play the AVI on the laptop in full-screen mode and output to the analog
composite out jacks into the analog VHS analog line in.

3. Successfully move the AVI onto the compact flash card such that the
stand-in camera recognizes it; then play the AVI out the camera analog AV
outputs into the VHS analog line in.

4. Successfully move the AVI onto the compact flash card such that the
original camera recognizes it; then play the AVI out the original camera
analog AV outputs into the VHS analog line in.

5. Interestingly, no successful method was tested of playing the AVI out
the firewire digital output into the Pinnacle MovieDV box digital to analog
conversion and into the VHS line in analog input. Presumably this step
requires Studio 9 software to perform the commands to output the digital
AVI out the digital firewire port of the IBM A31p laptop.

If I missed any solutions, please let us know so that the concerned
individuals with a similar problem in the future are apprised of all the
possible solutions before they embark on this wonderful technological
journey.

Tony Susa

 

[Anthony Susa]

I would look at other output options than firewire.
Could you burn the video to DVD; then copy from dvd player to vhs tape?
Does your laptop have a TV out port ?
I would question why your kid has this as a task. I would not expect
many households to have the equipment to record video to vhs tape.

Hi Marks,

This is an interesting observation. Previously I had noted 5 different
solutions which arose before the sun did. Your astute suggestion makes a
wonderful sixth solution eminantly possible.

a) Convert the AVI file to MPEG2
b) Render the MPEG2 file to DVD format
c) Compile a DVD of that rendered DVD-format file set

Then, once we have the DVD ...
a) Play that DVD on the DVD player
b) Hook the DVD player analog out to the VHS analog line in
c) Press "RECORD" and voila! AVI to VHS complete!

Yes, this should work just fine! I googled and found many posts explaining
how to convert the AVI to DVD so I won't go into those details here as they
appear to be common knowledge amongst you video afficianados.

Regarding the laptop video output port, this was covered elsewhere so I'll
just restate that the composite out exists and is a viable solution (given
the daylight hours to purchase suitable cables which has been performed).

On the topic of fourth grade videos, I'm not sure what anyone else's
situation is, but here in the valley, nearly everyone has a laptop, a PDA
cell phone, digital still camera with video, digital camcorder, and one of
those old-fashioned VHS VCR machines.

In my case, the camcorder was stolen and I never replaced it since all the
handheld digital cameras nowadays come with decent video capabilities. So,
in essence, I'm likely to be the only household within fifty miles sans a
camcorder!

Thanks for you wonderful advice. You (and a few others) added nicely to the
body of knowledge that others in the future will mine for intelligent
ideas!

Tony Susa

 

[Anthony Susa]

3rd-grade kid or corporate client, you have to learn to face the
consequences of your mistakes, so as to get your S@#$% together for
life.
Each of those still cams tends to only recognize it's own naming conventions
for files, so if you want to transfer something, save it with the same name
as an existing file in the target machine. That has worked for me.

On the AVI transfer from camera 1 to laptop to camera 2, this advice
worked. I don't know if it was the naming conventions or the fact I
converted the AVI to multiple formats and then back to AVI ... but the end
result was that, with perseverence, the Canon PowerShot finally recognized
the AVI in time and the technical problem was resolved.

One thing we must teach our children is to persevere and to ask questions
and to return results courteously back to the respondents (and to ignore
the blathering idiots who have nothing to contribute but who still feel the
urgency to advertise their presence).

Another thing, I've learned from experience, is that distributing parenting
is a lot like distibuting toothpaste. Those who press too hard on their
subjects eventually lose them and it is very difficult to get that
toothpaste back into the tube once you lose the kid. Therefore, you can't
press too hard - yet - you can't press too lightly either. If you leave it
alone, all to its own devices, nothing comes out the tube. It takes a bit
of feedback to know what amount to press - and - as any parent knows -
every child is baked differently - so the only one who knows exactly how
hard to press that delicate tube of toothpaste is the parent or someone
very close to the child. Anyone else may certainly offer advice but they
must realize their tube of toothpaste has almost nothing in common with
your tube of toothpaste in so much as personalities & temperaments are
wholly different from child to child and from parent to parent.

Thank you for the advice - and - good luck in both your parenting and
technology skills!

Tony Susa

 

[KDE]

| On 5 Dec 2005 14:25:05 -0800, (e-mail address removed) wrote:
| > I would look at other output options than firewire.
| > Could you burn the video to DVD; then copy from dvd player to vhs tape?
| > Does your laptop have a TV out port ?
| > I would question why your kid has this as a task. I would not expect
| > many households to have the equipment to record video to vhs tape.
|
| Hi Marks,
|
| This is an interesting observation. Previously I had noted 5 different
| solutions which arose before the sun did. Your astute suggestion makes a
| wonderful sixth solution eminantly possible.
|
| a) Convert the AVI file to MPEG2
| b) Render the MPEG2 file to DVD format
| c) Compile a DVD of that rendered DVD-format file set
|
| Then, once we have the DVD ...
| a) Play that DVD on the DVD player
| b) Hook the DVD player analog out to the VHS analog line in
| c) Press "RECORD" and voila! AVI to VHS complete!
|
| Yes, this should work just fine! I googled and found many posts explaining
| how to convert the AVI to DVD so I won't go into those details here as
they
| appear to be common knowledge amongst you video afficianados.
|
| Regarding the laptop video output port, this was covered elsewhere so I'll
| just restate that the composite out exists and is a viable solution (given
| the daylight hours to purchase suitable cables which has been performed).
|
| On the topic of fourth grade videos, I'm not sure what anyone else's
| situation is, but here in the valley, nearly everyone has a laptop, a PDA
| cell phone, digital still camera with video, digital camcorder, and one of
| those old-fashioned VHS VCR machines.
|
| In my case, the camcorder was stolen and I never replaced it since all the
| handheld digital cameras nowadays come with decent video capabilities. So,
| in essence, I'm likely to be the only household within fifty miles sans a
| camcorder!
|
| Thanks for you wonderful advice. You (and a few others) added nicely to
the
| body of knowledge that others in the future will mine for intelligent
| ideas!
|
| Tony Susa

My solution when faced with a similar task, was burn my son a stinking DVD,
drive to Wal-Mart to buy a $39.00 DVD player and donated it to the class, so
none of the parents had to mess with 80's technology anymore. Plus, I got a
good night sleep the night before the project was due.

 

[Alpha]

The problem I see is:


1. What did your child learn from this (other than you are a hero???)

2. Why were you put in the position to create the project?

Poor conceptually all around.
You should have the teacher who required this explain.