• The Mac-Forums Community Guidelines (linked at the top of every forum) are very clear, we respect US law and court precedence when it comes to legality of activity.

    Therefore to clarify:
    • You may not discuss breaking DVD or BluRay encryption, copying, or "ripping" commercial, copy-protected DVDs.
    • This includes DVDs or BluRays you own. Even if you own the DVD or BluRay, it is still technically illegal under the DMCA to break the encryption. While some may argue otherwise, until the law is rewritten or the US Supreme Court strikes it down, we will adhere to the current intent of the law.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying unprotected movies or homemade DVDs.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying tools in the context that they are used for legal purposes as outlined in this post.

2.8Ghz iMac for home VHS to DVD anyone?

Joined
Oct 17, 2008
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
24" 2.8 Ghz iMac. iPod nano
Hi. I'm seriously thinking about getting the 24" 2.8Ghz iMac. There's loads of great stuff on these forums but I have a simple question: Anyone got one of these iMacs (2.8Ghz) and use it for editing home movie (family etc) stuff and then blowing to DVD using iMovie & iDVD (after capturing from VHS)?

I've read loads of stuff about whether the graphics card is better in this or the 3.06Ghz model but answers are often from gamers (which I'm not) and aere evenly split. (I will add extra RAM and external storage myself after purchase). I'm already stretching my budget so don't want to spend more on the higher spec unless really necessary. So if anyone uses a 2.8 GHz iMac for the same purposes (not professional; just editing family videos without losing quality) please could you let me know how you get on with it? Thanks.
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2007
Messages
31
Reaction score
2
Points
8
Location
SLC, UT
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro, 2.2Ghz, 4GB Memory, 120GB HDD, LCD Display, OS X Tiger
The card is plenty. I've been doing this same thing for years, on much less machines and I get excellent results. I do have the exact machine you are considering (base 24", 2.8Ghz, 4GB memory, etc) and it's an excellent machine. You will be pleased with it I am certain.
 
OP
J
Joined
Oct 17, 2008
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
24" 2.8 Ghz iMac. iPod nano
Thanks for the help supergper. Are you from the school of thought that says "buy a VHS to DVD recorder, do the copy on there and then do the editing in iMovie (or similar app)" or from the other approach I've seen here that suggests getting a converter box with Firewire (e.g. Canopus ADVC110) and putting that between the VHS player/camcorder (mine is old analogue only) to to do A/D conversion?
I appreciate your input (& anyone elses) as I just want to know what really works in real life for the tasks that I need. Thanks
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2007
Messages
31
Reaction score
2
Points
8
Location
SLC, UT
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro, 2.2Ghz, 4GB Memory, 120GB HDD, LCD Display, OS X Tiger
I've done limited VHS->Digital, most of the stuff I do is Camcorder -> Digital and I use iMovie to import it usually. The limited VHS stuff I've done, I bought a converter for that just records to a file and then I can import that file into iMovie.
 
Joined
Sep 29, 2008
Messages
60
Reaction score
0
Points
6
I found that the easiest way is using the EyeTV to record and then VisualHub to make it an mp4 file :D
 
OP
J
Joined
Oct 17, 2008
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
UK
Your Mac's Specs
24" 2.8 Ghz iMac. iPod nano
Grateful for your help guys. I took the plunge today and got my iMac. Your input helped, so thanks.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top