Thanks Bob. Kinda what I thought. But the mystery is why VLC refused to play those images. That is how I found out; I was playing successive images until it started failing. I will test some more.

I am now trying to organize all of the files that I did back in the early part of this decade. I am finding some DVD image folders that can't be opened by VLC and have a folder structure with a video_ts folder but also has an OpenDVD folder. I don't remember what OpenDVD was, except that it might be...

Thanks Sidd, good info!

Chuck, I understand. It's a matter of usability by my wife. Her Nikon DSLR gathers dust as it is too complicated for her to use. Also, price is a factor, being an old man now on fixed income! Thanks!

Sorry, Chuck, I asked the wrong question. I have DSLRs sitting in the closet unused. I was thinking of just a mid-$500 video camera for family use. Thanks...

I am done scanning in the old tapes. 19 tapes and 220 GB (times 3 counting backups). Phase 2 is reorganization of all video files.

I am considering getting a camera as the old tape/FireWire units obviously can't be used any more.

Recommendations?

The bottom line: always copy your stuff to the latest media format ASAP. ...and back it up. Remember Schofield's First and Second Laws: https://www.zdnet.com/article/follow-schofields-three-laws-of-computing-and-avoid-disasters/ always do! I am a fanatic about that. I even have a 6TB HD loaded up a...

G O O D N E W S ! The older 8mm camcorder DOES work! The problem was that the a/c socket I plugged it into on a power strip was BAD. Problem solved and now I can read (again) the old 8mm and Hi8 tapes. And I have finished scanning the miniDV tapes, 108GB later! Next step is to go through my spreadsh...

Hi Twosheds!

Thanks for the comments guys. I agree that my Vimeo account should have reverted to free status, so I am not sure what is going on. I tried to access my account from my Apple TV and that also failed. I did request a password reset, but they said my email was unknown. I need to think about it and per...

Thanks Sidd, and I am not sure I am back in the saddle yet, just sizing up the horses in the corral! My goal for now is to just make sure the tape content is available as editable files and all is documented as much as I can. I am hoping that some day one of my children or grandchildren will pick up...

I am making good progress. I am well into the copying of the remaining miniDV tapes, and have also found my three spreadsheets that contained all of my video tape information, content, what was produced on DVDs, what was on shorter .mov files, etc. I haven't gotten around to looking further at the o...

Thanks for the info Chuck. Yes, all going well. I am scanning in the first tape as we speak. BTW, HDVSplit creates .m2t files - I assume the format is OK for the latest Premiere Elements if I buy it. I see that the last version I had (10) seems to accept the files OK. Just want to make sure before s...

Peru, I think you are right. I should do the work myself, even if I have to get another camera or deck. For now, I am going to connect the HV30 into the old PC (that has Firewire) and just scan in all ten tapes that have not yet been done. I don't have to do a project, just get them scanned in for n...

Hi Bob - thanks for replying! Well, I think the situation is worse than I thought. I am trying to recreate where I was in the family video situation when I stopped doing the work. I never did my family DVDs in any particular order and bounced around from older to newer as the mood struck me, unless ...

HI Peru and Steve and Sidd and Dave and Chuck - thanks for welcoming me back! Yeah, I was afraid that was the answer. Well I can still keep the old PC around for as long as I need it, but it is a big hulking monster and I was hoping to get rid of it for good. I can make a concerted effort to read th...