S-VHS archiving to DVD

[bertie]

I have several old video tapes and have hung on to an S-VHS VCR for years, waiting for an opportunity to archive them to DVD. There appear to be all kinds of standards around but I'm looking for the one that goes something like: this hardware / software records S-VHS quality and writes to DVD at S-VHS quality and is then viewable on aunty's domestic DVD player (region 2 PAL) at S-VHS quality.
At some point in the future I will probably want to edit the digitised video on the computer and output it again to DVD.
Am I looking at high end solutions?
Any pointers much appreciated.

[dr_ml422]

ok. first you have to get a dvd recorder that'll be able to record those s-vhs tapes. are they also in pal format? if so then the recorder has to support them

2nd. if they're not in pal format, just buy yourself, or your auntie a generic dvd stand alone player. they will play just about anything, even pal. Insignia, best buy's own model is great.
on sale right now.

3rd. your auntie or yourself has to have a tv which supports pal. i would think that's the case.

4th. if not here, then you could try AfterDawn.com. they'll have a thread on how to convert pal to ntsc. vice versa i don't know. but it's a mood point if the player plays all formats anyway.

region 2 is pretty tough. where is it anyway?

[dr_ml422]

p.s. my recorder is a Toshiba model D-RW2SU. works like a charm.

[bertie]

I'm in the UK and am looking for a PC based solution so I can play around with compilations in the future.

[dr_ml422]

I'm in the UK and am looking for a PC based solution so I can play around with compilations in the future.

well then if you're in the uk, then i would hope you purchased your pc from the uk, and that it plays pal format by default or as a complementary addition to your video card.

if it does play pal then what you need to get is a video tuner which you would hook up to your vcr and that way transfer the s-vhs straight to your pc. then you could play w/it all you want.

check this out though. you'll be able to copy w/e you want on your pc. back it up also w/the appropriate software once you convert it to dvd. your vcr should play pal so there's no reason why you wouldn't be able to transfer it using a dvr that accepts pal also. if you're in the uk then any digital media hardware like a vcr or dvr automatically should play pal.

either way, whether going directly to your pc via a video tuner, or rather a tv tuner, would do the job. bottom line is there's no way to make the process faster. you're dealing w/real time transfer here. you won't be able to get out of that.

reauthoring and editing once it's in your pc is a cinch. plenty of software for that. free too. wish there was a faster way, but there isn't. i transferred about 70 vhs movies to dvd. it took me about a month. more or less. after that though i burned them like there was no tomorrow.