I'm thinking about making a short movie.

[Photon440]

Well, you have to include someone breaking off a left hand nut...

 

[Kern Dog]

I need some help, maybe someone out there has an eye for technology of about 15-20 years ago?
I have about 20 of these mini DVDs.....

The content is mostly cars and car shows where I'd love to convert to an external hard drive and thumb drives too. The problem is that I'm not sure what DVD players are capable of playing these small DVDs.
These discs were recorded with this:

As you can tell, it is a bit beat up. I bought it sometime around 2005-2006.

I took the battery out It may not even hold a charge, it is really old.

It has an AC port though.

Without power to it, I can't open the disc door. There may be something in it.

Here are the other access ports. I'll look around but I'm not sure that I have the cables to attach this to anything modern.

I stopped using this maybe 10 or so years ago when I bought another camera that uses a memory card. Those can fit into a thumb drive to plug right into the computer. My laptop has no disc drive.

I want to copy all of these mini DVDs to be able to share with family members and friends that have abandoned the video cassette tapes and DVD tech.
I'm a borderline dinosaur that only upgrades when the old stuff is impossible to keep using!
Mary bought a kit to convert Tapes and DVDs to digital drives but I don't think my mini DVDs will work in this player.
I'm going to do an online search. I'll report back if I find a way....
Thanks!

 

[Photon440]

You shouldn't have trouble in recovering any old discs, unless they're damaged. While most of us are familiar with regular sized 120mm or 5 inch DVDs, the smaller 80mm (3 inch) sizes are also part of the standard. Almost every DVD player that plugs into a computer will have two centering depressions when the drawer is open, holding each size. If you don't have an optical drive on your computer as they're getting obsolete, you can pick one up cheaply on Amazon www.amazon.ca/External-Rewriter-Burner-Portable-Desktop/dp/B096SQK922/ref=sr_1_5?crid=32O973BJTZYEY&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.OLsm-VSHa7leaTLSMldA3EwkBB7z7aPQFTg5UlPE0wRuVEixPVZoG5FMEoOVayiwJC22ekXO5FruJNxttZT5LEVjzDaAUJxQt9AGH9HFeTAOnwZBAHIxyHbuGQUEXA7eUcu1uKTjfeuV8fPsoArIUrY8FLMuJRfw8Scx7tlJT2TvQruRB4s-xT7a83w-GXugRjr-icfb1xGv-X1kKEMBevK787c041Mutg4G1siV7cn_Z6bzm433DRSdKnPjQUCfikUYBtpCSUP60BBIKuXNnLxqQraOqnpSOz2c-kSi5LIVzfnP4suz2od83KQdnWZ3bJlbzSFv8phbvaVkuX6lclh4frOin4y9zy8Ql6FTb94UruCDjUBdZtPdLOHnCGKO0t3fljpLkXKVTbHWslGDYKJssmt0mrpJV6p6TGhwouiSDcdMtoe_JxTE7ZED0VbP.SXBbu2NPTM1e4DWLXIdW0EiGcENeiQsbPtrtuKM_gXE&dib_tag=se&keywords=usb%2Bdv%2Bdrive%2Bexternal&qid=1734683962&sprefix=usb%2Bdvd%2Bdrive%2Bexternal%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-5&th=1
You can also pick up a new power adapter for your camera:www.amazon.ca/UpBright-New-7-9V-Panasonic-LSJA0288-1/dp/B00EM5PGBM/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1T9Y5NB4AZ228&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.IuxTmTk6Tuwa5YRNqzqVuCitX5ZB9KQRN6UZnmtFo43r4cU5kccqZp4VnccBkO8oBvpygeIarsvJ78moeh-Qe_4Age006HH5wVzRc1LeFcYlX75KAx-WCNJhKXiSQm_pLA6QolQgWo3Ywg5JI1iHTJQrYilVWO3meN4pIz0uFHhlcsCHnwlcS8hbygwazZ40YSyGrCpE0qijHzoz1enjIO4H5eq3rMMMYGWcsjf8IdmNdBMw7RASIMwyJShTDgn-BDqXf70TOrB57Al1qO4n6ZJurk7P2LnNMBkMMD2zYyikFyqdFgXJOpZpxTwnx8W5zq_CoAJtrAchOlTZ_vqCnYinzjEEUogKEblDy2B48lO9SNxoupUdei4LfXzc7HGKmNfiTS_nFUEww-28g3QjzeD9e6FWIVFqHlO5bLCo9e0L7ntmS8WZhO9_vxzGWSAD.jDZR9D30DMVXovOxNPfc9c2h8uoq5CiY2Jvey_QmE3I&dib_tag=se&keywords=7.9+vdc+adapter&qid=1734683433&sprefix=7+9+vdc+adapt,aps,163&sr=8-6

 

[Kern Dog]

It turns out, the Sony DVD player that I have does accept the smaller discs. SCORE!
Now I need to get a few thumb drives to transfer these discs to.

 

[Don Frelier]

Look for something like this an external solid state drive.
They come in very large data storage sizes so you can put movies and store pictures all in one place.
This one is a 2 Terabyte drive. (USB-C)

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

Look for something like this an external solid state drive.
They come in very large data storage sizes so you can put movies and store pictures all in one place.
This one is a 2 Terabyte drive. (USB-C)
View attachment 1776002

how physically large are those compared to a thumb flash drive? Still fit in your pocket?

 

[Don Frelier]

Banana for scale

 

[Photon440]

I don't know anything about that particular video camera, but if any of the discs play in the camera but NOT on another drive, it's possible that they have to be "finalized" in the camera. This will prevent further recording on the disc and make it compatible with standard drives. Do you still have the camera's user manual?

To estimate how much room you'll need when you transfer, one of those discs when full will hold 1.4G if it is a single layer disc, and 2.7G for double layer. If all you get is half an hour of recording time on a disc, it will be the 1.4G size.

 

[Kern Dog]

I don't know anything about that particular video camera, but if any of the discs play in the camera but NOT on another drive, it's possible that they have to be "finalized" in the camera. This will prevent further recording on the disc and make it compatible with standard drives. Do you still have the camera's user manual?

To estimate how much room you'll need when you transfer, one of those discs when full will hold 1.4G if it is a single layer disc, and 2.7G for double layer. If all you get is half an hour of recording time on a disc, it will be the 1.4G size.

I am so behind the times with technology.
VHS made sense to me. I grew up with audio cassettes. Heck, I still have hundreds of audio tapes! Video tape was an easy thing for me to understand.
I made two home movies in the late 90s using video tape cameras. They were bulky but they worked fine. I loved the making of the home movies with the cars and stunts but once I bought my first Charger, I got distracted. By 2003 I was looking to buy a house with some property so in 2004 we moved to where we are now. In between working on the house and yard to get it that way I wanted, I bought the Panasonic DVD camera around 2005-2006. I never recorded any movie type content, only family, the pets, car projects and car shows. I used that camera until 2016 or so when it just quit working.
The "Finalize" thing always annoyed me. To add, I'd often record almost an entire disc only to get DISC ERROR when I went to finalize it, meaning the entire disc was useless. This **** never happened with video tape cameras. In this case, technology sucked.
I did a little research and found that the memory card type cameras were pretty reliable so I bought one.
It is a bit weird using a camera that is so tiny. The heft of the old style video cameras naturally caused the operator to get a fairly steady shot with hardly any shaky recordings. These new, small cameras are so light, it can be hard to get smooth shots without using a tripod or some other thing.
Today I bought a new memory card for the video camera and a 5 pack of 16 gb thumb drives. I did find that a 1 hour 45 minute recording took up 3.5 GB of storage. If this is linear, then doing the math....120 minutes should be around 4 gb of storage. I have numerous VHS tapes recorded on the 2 hour setting so I might be able to get 4 VHS tapes per thumb drive.

 

[68 Sport Satellite]

get yourself a gimbal stick to mount the camera to. It negates the wobble by use of gravity.

 

[chargervert]

Banana for scale

View attachment 1776020

Is that a banana in your pocket,or are you happy to see us!

 

[DeltaV]

we'll settle for an old meth head broad

I live in Methingham County Georgia. They take payment in the form of Nyquil. A case per day.

 

[Kern Dog]

In 1996-2000, I made a couple of home VHS video movies featuring some Mopars. I named the movies Love, Sweat and Gears 1 and 2.

I was just able to get some of the VHS tapes transferred to digital and load some of the raw footage on the computer.
Here are a few screen-shots....

This 75 Dart was abused but kept running.
It was "stolen" in the movie by the bad guy that I was trying to apprehend. In the course of the movie, the car was jumped maybe 10 times but only 4 times by using a short jump ramp. That picture above is after several jumps. You can see the bent bumper and LH fender from chassis twist.

That one was at too low of a speed to get much air. The underside of the car was no more than 4 feet off the ground.

The car was a slant six/904. The soft torsion bars didn't give much lift when hitting the jump ramp. The landing after the above picture is what tweaked the front bumper.
Here is the first jump using a ramp:

Notice the negative camber on the right wheel. The car still drove straight after these jumps and you'll think I'm lying but the steering knuckles from THIS car are now in THIS car:

....AND the car aligns perfectly.
I'll post some pictures of screen shots of jumps with other cars we used including a 78 Celica and an early 90s Geo Prizm. Oh yeah, a few jumps with my General Lee 2 stunt car but for now, here are a few shots of a fake rollover scene I did using a $20 car!

I'll explain more tomorrow!

 

[SteveSS]

When I think of inexpensive successful movies, I think The Blair Witch Project. It's what you don't see that's scary. Now found footage has been done to death.

 

[Kern Dog]

This movie was not expensive and was also not made for commercial appeal.
Almost ALL expenses were spared in the interest of making this movie. I used full sized VHS cameras and edited it using 3 VCRs connected together. It was a very crude and primitive process that took way too long.
I was given some cars to wreck, I bought a few cars cheap, jump ramps were built using wood that I got from work. My whole family and a few friends played characters in it.
I did enjoy doing it. The car stuff was the most fun...the off road sliding in the dirt, the crashes, the jumps was all just an unreal amount of fun.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

This movie was not expensive and was also not made for commercial appeal.
Almost ALL expenses were spared in the interest of making this movie. I used full sized VHS cameras and edited it using 3 VCRs connected together. It was a very crude and primitive process that took way too long.
I was given some cars to wreck, I bought a few cars cheap, jump ramps were built using wood that I got from work. My whole family and a few friends played characters in it.
I did enjoy doing it. The car stuff was the most fun...the off road sliding in the dirt, the crashes, the jumps was all just an unreal amount of fun.

Which completely explains Frieberger & Roadkill... Paid to have a whole lotta fun....

 

[Kern Dog]

The white Dart shown above was just a basic 4 door sedan with a 225 slant six. Loose traction when on dirt made even a 6 cylinder car a blast to drive.
Finnegan once mentioned how much fun it is to drift on dirt. I absolutely agree. The Dukes of Hazzard inspired me to drive cars off road. When you're out in the open with no cars or people to hit, you can slide, spin, drift, skid and have a heck of a good time without hurting anything.
These cars are surprisingly durable too. My Stunt "Duster" was a totaled 74 Dart Sport 360 that I bought for $450 in 1996 or so. It had a replacement 318 but the interior was nice...This was 28 years ago! THAT just boggles my mind how much time has passed since I first got knee-deep into this project.

 

[Kern Dog]

Here are a few shots of the orange car in the air....
First jump was 65 feet long.

I hit the ramp at 40-42 mph.

The ramp isn't very tall. Basic physics guided me....

The ramp was maybe 19" high and 12 feet long.

The Dukes of Hazzard did jumps as long as 140 feet...my budget and complete lack of safety equipment had me playing it as safe as a ballsy 28-29 year old guy could do.

This jump ended with a rollover...

When I landed, the RH lower control arm bent, causing extreme toe in and positive camber. I turned left to avoid a camera man and the right front tire just took a hard bite on the ground and I softly rolled onto the roof. The 318 was still running as I was upside down!
This next jump was a bust. The approach to the ramp was a low spot and the ramp was on a slight uphill slope. This resulted in a "pancake" landing...

Pancake is when the car lands either on all four tires at once or barely on the rear tires first. Pancake landings are easier on the car but harder on the driver. I felt fine but it did bend the leaf springs...

 

[Kern Dog]

I had to jack the car up and then put a floor jack under the end of the spring:

At home....

The RH side had a bit of an alignment issue....

The upper control arm mounts were pushed in. Later at home I welded in extensions to move the UCA back out toward the fender to restore some camber. I also cut the bent sections of the springs.

The impact from hitting the jump ramp and then hitting the ground takes a toll on the unibody. Abuse separated the spot welds where the fender aprons attach to the firewall....so I did a bullshit weld job using an arc welder since I didn't have a MIG.

I started off with 450 lbs of concrete in the trunk to balance the car in the air. I took redi-mix bags and mixed it in a wheel barrel, then poured it in the spare tire recess of the trunk. Later for the biggest jump, I filled 5 gallon buckets with concrete and strapped it to the trunk floor.
Note the buckled quarter panel. This isn't from contact with anything, these dents are from flex and distortion from the chassis moving around upon impact.

If I get time tomorrow, I'll get some screen shots of the final jump. I did 6 jumps in all. The last was the tallest and the longest. The chassis was really far gone though so I am lucky that it worked out well.
Here is how it looked after the final jump...

The steering actually felt pretty good despite how bad the car looked.

Note the extreme bulge in the fender apron. The crappy arc welds of mine actually held together...everything else was destroyed though.

The apron was pulled away from the UCA mount. The rails were tweaked, the floorboards were buckled. The pinch weld where the firewall meets the floorpan had pulled apart enough to see light through the gaps.

 

[Kern Dog]

The arch of the K member was almost flattened. The frame rails were further apart than stock due to the impact.

Knowing what the car went through, it doesn't look as bad underneath as you'd expect. If I were doing this today, I'd be tempted to take measurements just to know how far stuff moved around after the impacts.
Here is a wild one...
The engine had been creeping UP since the first jump. The steering coupler hit the fender apron. A section of the shifter linkage rubbed the fender apron too.
The distributor cap hit the firewall causing the rotor to break the tip off. That caused a misfire that was unexpected.
I had KD linkage but it was so bent, it didn't matter.
Note how close the valve cover is to the brake booster...

The booster actually made contact and dented the valve cover. I don't recall how much room you normally have between the booster and valve cover but the jumps closed up that space by a LOT.