VHS to DVD

drwho

I have some old TV programs on VHS tape that I would very much like to transfer to DVD. What kind of hardware and or software would I need to accomplish this? I would like to use my computer as the transfer medium, of course.



drwho

CDsDontBurn

try searching for this thing called DVD Xpress. i think you can get it on new egg. i know that my work sells them, but i don't think you have any PC Clubs out in your area

g35x

get a tv tuner that has an input for the VCR play the video while recording on the comp with the tv tuner software then use nero to convert from avi or mpeg to dvd......thats what i'd do since i have a tv tuner

drwho

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I've been talking with a friend of mine and he suggested this . Would do you think of this?



drwho

pr0digal jenius

that'll do the job, but I'd reccomend shying away from the USB solutions.

While that, and others [the one I alwasy reccomended at work was called Zazzle, I believe], are great, your best bet is to go with one of the ones made by Pinnacle that comes with a PCI card with special connectors and adapters on it, as you'll get far better performance, and only be out an extra $25 or so

Robert McClelland

I used power director 3 thats works very well well for recording to dvd

drwho

You must know something I don't, pj. I've tried two different USB viseo capture solutions and they have been nothing but trouble. They are Plextor Convert X PX-AV100 and the Pinnacle Dazzle 90 . I've had nothing but problems with these two setups and I don't partically feel like trying to troubleshoot them all that much. Can anyone recommend one of the Pinnacle products that comes with a PCI card?



drwho

pr0digal jenius

Pinnacle Studio 500 v10 PCI Edition

$79, and no USB to bother with

drwho

Thanks, pj. I will definately look into it.



drwho

drwho

I went out this afternoon and returned the Dazzle 90 video editing I bought yesterday and while I was out, I looked at the Pinnacle Studio 500 v10 at a local CompUSA. With the help of a CompUSA employee who let me look inside the box and inspect the PCI card. The card has two phono-jack type video cards both in and out and the s-video connectors both in and out I'm assuming. The VCR I'm using for playing the videos has two type of connectors, co-axial and the phono-jack audio and video connectors. So on the PCI card, how do I hook up the sound from the VCR to my computer? I apologise if this is a stupid question, but I can't figure it out.



drwho

peterosesbookie

The issues that may arise.

1. Macrovision can be a big problem with recording beta/vhs to dvd. Reason one is that newer models of vhs players have the hardware to make the picture fade to black to extreme color. This happens with retail copied versions. You need to have a vhs recorder that will record on the fly (meaning changes audio or video during playback). Also a hardware demacrovision converter for input. You can always change the output from a computer but it is very hard to do input because on most tuner cards macrovision is hardwired.

2. Audio and video may become out of sink with certain encoding codecs. I have had this issue in the past with my old setup with the line input with the all-in-wonder series of ATi. Everything is fixed now though since upgrading to my all-in-wonder 9800 from my all-in-wonder 8500. I had to use picvideo codecs and register them in order to get things to work correctly with the old multimedia center.

3. The next issue is that vhs tapes are in 320x240 mostly with recording. There can be a possiblity of pixelation with the conversion to 720X480. Incoding in avi gives a maximum of 710X480 unless forced to due 740x480.

4. Need a pretty fast computer between these componets. cpu, harddrive, sound, ram and in the whole system bus. These are all key factors.

Good luck with your conversion.

later

pete

ROBSCIX

if he's recording his own tapes then macrovision shouldn't be a issue...just for argument sake you can always put a VCR in line with the cable to a TV capture card and capture that way..cheapest and helps with the macrovision issue..so I have been told..hopew that helps.

stamvas

I've used a USB capture device but put it away as it was causing troubles all the time. From then on I use my camcorder's AV input (for connecting the VCR) and the 1394 output of the camcorder to the firewire port of my computer. The captured video has very good resolution and it can be done by many software applications. I have used Nero vision xpress, power director, and Sony Vegas, but Windows movie maker can do the job too.