Hey there folks,
I know there’s some cluey people here and I hope they may be able to help .
I have a 6 minute video clip that I want to put up on facebook..
It was transfered from VHS to DVD and I’ve been told that it is too big a file to post online..
Is this the case ? … Is there any way to do this ?
I apologise if this is out of line to ask this question here and to the moderators,feel free to delete this post if this is so ..
Thanks all ..
If you have a YouTube account, you can upload it there (even make it private except for those who have the link, so it doesn’t show on searches), then post the link to your Wall, or Share with others on Facebook.
Thanks Kevin,but how to I get it from the disc onto the computer…
I 've had a couple of goes at it (poor computer skills here) and got a RAR (?) file that said it was 430 MB .I tried to email it to myself and was told that the computer didn’t have enough memory.
Well, that is going to depend on how much computer power you can throw at it. Assuming you have a DVD drive in your computer, then you can use HANDBRAKE, a free software tool that can extract the video & audio from your DVD and transcode it into a digital video file on to your computer’s hard drive. The slower the computer, the longer that task is going to take. I’m testing a 34-minute video on my XP system with an old Pentium 4, and it says it will take 3.5 hours. On an Intel Core i7, apparently 3.5 minutes.
Oh, I’m also assuming it’s a video DVD, such as one would get dubbing on a dual-deck VHS/DVD recorder. If it’s a data disc that someone has already processed on their computer, it might already be in a digital file format, such as .MP4 . It’s the resulting .MP4 or similar file that you would upload to YouTube. I think Handbrake can be used to down-convert during extraction to a different video size (lower-quality resolution) for a smaller file size (thus a smaller file to upload on your internet connection).
Yes that’s it Kev,someone recorded it off the TV and from there to a dual deck VHS/DVD recorder and onto a disc…and that’s the state of play at the moment.
I’ll have to sign off for now as other family members need the computer..
Thanks for your labours,I’ll come back tomorrow and check..
Cheers mate…
Handbrake, then. It’s free, and available for Windows (XP & up), Macintosh and Linux. A 6-minute clip isn’t going to be difficult. If your computer does not have at least a DVD-ROM (play) drive, then you’re hosed.
RAR is a compressed (archive) file format.
You will need to get the video out of the RAR file first.
I use 7zip (www.7-zip.org) to open rar files.
After you have it, uploading to youtube seems to fix all manner of file format issues. If it’s big, it might take a long time to upload, but the limits on youtube are pretty big.
I sure am a powerfully useless computer chap 
I cant even find that RAR thingo now…
I’m now back to scratch with just the disc..
OK… what to do now ? Our computer is on Windows 7 system,when insert I the disc into the drive it doesn’t reallly give me an option of what to do ..
Thanks for your patience ..
It sounds like what you need to do is first go to 7-zip.org and download and install the software.
Then double click on “computer” on your desktop (or go to start menu, computer). You will see Hard Disc Drives listed first, then Devices with Removable Media. Your CD drive will be listed there. Double click on that to open it and you will see the RAR. Since you installed 7-zip, you should be able to double click the RAR like it’s a folder and see what’s inside. Hopefully it’s something like an mpg file that won’t need some strange conversion, and you can just double click it to watch it, or upload it to youtube, FB or where ever.
Turns out that this is a TS file 
and I have to go to a site that will convert it to an AVI file and from there upload it to Youtube ..
There’s a couple of free sites out there so I’ll soldier on and keep you posted..thanks again..
Regards from OZ… Charlie.
Handbrake would have brought that in fine.
If it’s a clip recorded off the TV, then it’s likely to be copyright to somebody. In the UK, 90 seconds is as much as you can record or replay of copyrighted stock without needing to pay. It’s probably similar in the US. It’s possible no-one will care, but it’s also possible you will end up with a cease-and-desist notice and the video removed from Youtube.
Just giving you fair warning.
Things have changed somewhat.
Youtube (i.e. Google) has negotiated content contracts with a lot of the big copyright owners. They no longer ask for cease and desist because Google is paying them royalties. They actually want people to rip things off their programs and put them on google. Not all though – just those with contracts…