VHS to DVD info please....

[horseman]

Hi,
I am considering dubbing some of my older VHS tapes to DVD,
and do not yet have a video capture card in my PC.

I am seeking advice so I can decide which card to get, which
s/w to use, and to be educated about which method is both
good and easy for real time video capture and compression.

Please educate me, I am a newbie !!

Thanks,

oldnewbie

[rsquirell]

The reason people are reluctant in responding is a lot of us picked up cards or external devices a year or more ago...and while they work fine...new innovations have come up that may indicate that had we to do it all over again we might go a different route. A decent card or external device is going to cost around $200...and they're going to have idiosycracies endemic to each device...none of them are fool proof, and each requires a good deal of trial and error to master. Recently prices on DV cameras have dropped to the point where for $500 you can get a Sony DV camera with analog inputs that allow you to feed VHS from VCR to camera which acts as a pass-through to the PC via the firewire 1394 port...and any editing software will recognize and receive DV-AVI from the firewire. The large DV-AVI files can be captured directly into MPEG2 format with ULead Video Studio7. If you were thinking of upgrading your VidCam in the near future this could be a better solution than a card.

[horseman]

Thanks for the info Rsquirrel, but I must say - Ouch !
I was hoping to get some kind of card and have it
work for under a c-note - the 5C price is well beyond
my means.
I guess I will have to wait and see if prices drop further.

I would still like to hear from folks that do it as I would
like to - especially to hear the specific h/w used.

Thanks.

[ormonde]

"Ouch ! I was hoping to get some kind of card and have it
work for under a c-note"

As rsquirell accurately stated, you are not going to get any "Decent" capturing capability without spending at least $200.00, unless you get a device that captures via USB 1, which will produce dismal results in the quality of your output.

[horseman]

OK, I'm beat - so 2C$ it is - but please, what is this mysterious
thing I would be aiming for ?
I have not so much as a clue towards what make/model may
be decent, at any price.

Thanks.

[rsquirell]

You can search this forum...some people use the highend Snazzi card, the ALL-IN-WONDER card....Happauge card. I have an external device...the DVC-150 which is a USB2 MPEG2 device which I'm pleased with...in fact I'm capturing right now as I'm posting this reply.

[ormonde]

"I have not so much as a clue towards what make/model may
be decent, at any price."

Again, as rsquirell stated, there are a myriad of options you can choose from, and he probably knows more about this particular end of it than I do, but you have to ask yourself how much are you willing to spend versus the quality you want to achieve, and what is the source quality of your VHS tapes that you are going to digitize. If the general quality is fair to poor, then it logically stands that you might invest in a lower priced device in order to digitally catalog your VHS collection, but if your tapes are of higher video and audio quality, you would want to spend more on a better capture device. But also, what would you want to accomplish in the future with a particular capture device. Many things to ponder. I would do a "Google" search on the topic in order to educate yourself more.

[rsquirell]

I, personally, can't understand doing a digital conversion unless the quality is at least as good as the source. The idea is to transfer from the bulky VHS tape to a DVD disc to save space ( I have 100 plus tapes converted into DVDs that fit in a folder I can carry like a small briefcase.) If they weren't as good as source I wouldn't feel comfortable getting rid of the bulky tapes (which I did).

[ormonde]

To rsquirell:

I am looking into getting a good solution for capturing from Cable TV sources. I looked at Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe, and the more robust Pinnacle ShowCenter. They both look pretty good and certainly ShowCenter seems to have all the "Bells and Whistles", but at a $400 plus pricetag I'm somewhat reluctant. I'm wondering if I should just purchase a decent standalone DVD recorder at around $250-$300.

[rsquirell]

Geeze, ormonde...that stuff all came out in the last six months or so...and since I mastered the DVC-150 (which is a pretty good solution) over a year ago I haven't been interested in following newer innovations to do the same thing (especially since I've already invested in a proven technology.) If I were to do anything it would be to upgrade to a digital camera with analog inputs (killing two birds with one stone...for slightly more than technologies you cite.) Nothing's easier or more fool-proof than feeding video in from a DV camera...unless a DVD recorder or the PCTV gives you significantly better resolution than a standard VHS VCR.

[ormonde]

"Geeze, ormonde...that stuff all came out in the last six months or so"

Well, I'm not too far behind the times, only a little.........

"Nothing's easier or more fool-proof than feeding video in from a DV camera...unless a DVD recorder or the PCTV gives you significantly better resolution than a standard VHS VCR."

I agree with that, but do you mean digital camera or digital camcorder? From a qualitative standpoint, I know running a digital camcorder through the firewire port will give you the highest video quality, but I'm not much of a "Home Movie" buff so I'm not so sure that would be the solution for me. I have already digitized over half of my VHS collection (tapes vary in quality). I have an Adaptec VideOh (AVC 2210) external capture device which is USB II based and has produced satisfactory mpeg 2 captures (although I hate the Sony MyDVD software interface). I'd like to have programmable capability if I’m going to be capturing from TV.

[rsquirell]

As you know, everyone has their own personal needs...and the PCTV thingie might be perfect for what you want. Pinnacle has a good rep...but I don't know the device. Good luck.