digitazing VHS tapes

[Brian MacWhinney]

Dear Darinka,

  I'm glad you are thinking of working with digital video for your project.
I think you will find it quite interesting.  Did you have a chance to take a
look at the recommendations on working with digital video from the CHILDES
home page.  Actually, the link on the CHILDES page takes you to
http://talkbank.org/dv/ where there is a full discussion of these issues.
DivX MPEG4 is probably not a good option for now, because the size of MPEG-2
and MPEG-4 files is still far too big.  This may change in the near future.
Right now, I recommend Sorenson 3 QuickTime compression.  I further
recommend Macintosh OSX using iMovie3 for capture and Cleaner 6 for
compression.  The new Mac G5 machines would help a lot in the compression
process.  If you prefer Windows, I recommend Visual Studio 6.  I discuss the
use of both platforms on these pages.
  Regarding the role of DVD, you definitely do not want to produce DVD
format.  Instead, you want to use the new DVD disks just as big CD-ROMS.
You can now purchase DVD disks for $3 each, but admittedly CD-ROM is still a
bit cheaper.  In any case, you only need this as a storage medium for the
QuickTime files.  Please also read my recommendations about archiving first
to mini-DV.  You can now purchase mini-DV cassettes also for $3 each.  I was
able to get these prices from MacWarehouse/PCWarehouse.  I don't know about
prices in Croatia.
  If you create a video database, try also to clarify with your subjects the
principles regarding sharing of data.  In particular, can you share
transcripts, audio, and video and is any anonymization required?

--Brian MacWhinney