Transferring Video to DVD

 My friend Marie bought this Roxio system and transferred all her videos to DVD.  What an inspiration!  My family has been harassing me to do this for years.  It became quite the sore subject.  I didn't know where to begin and it was going to be really expensive to transfer them all.  It was overwhelming.  Then Marie told me how easy it was with this Roxio software.  She bought a VCR and the software and began to transfer all her tapes - then she was done - Viola!  Easy Peasy.  So last week I borrowed all her stuff.  I set it up - super easy.  I began the transfer process - super easy, but time consuming.

This is the task I have before me.  So far I have 4 hours transferred to disc.  Some of it is totally boring, so of it is hilarious.  I wish I would have sat down and watched these videos a long time ago.  I could have got some "what not to do" tips on videoing.  I'm going to tell you right up front that we are horrible videographers.  I'm the worst.  Here are some of my problems and things you should avoid.

1. Make sure your subject is in the center of the screen, or here's an idea, you can see their face. (I have so many frames where my kids are way off to the side  and I'm looking at furniture or their head is cut off!

2.  Make sure you turn the video camera off.  Seriously, I have minutes of footage with nothing but the ground or the side of my body.

3.  When on vacation, don't spend so much time just getting the scenery and none of the family.  This is   some of the most boring footage.  I live for that 3 seconds that I see a shot of my kids.  Who cares about the scenery if no ones in it.  I might as well be watching TV.

4.  During sports, zoom in on your child.  Who cares about the big picture later, I was searching desperately to find my kid in that far away, big picture shot.  

5.  Let everyone be in the scene.  When Delaney was learning to walk, I kept trying to get the other girls out of the shot and focus on her.  I should have just let them be.  

I have several more hours of transferring to do and while I love looking at my family, I hate seeing and hearing myself.  

This system is really easy to set up and use.  I'm doing just a direct transfer, but if you are creative, you can use your imovie (I have a Mac) to edit.  I'm just not there yet.