Vhs To Pc

[eboyjones]

Have never used any video capturing devices. My wife wants to burn all her VHS tapes on DVD. I have done a lot of (Googleing-is there such a word?) and found different ways to capture video,(USB, PCI, Video Camera etc) but I would like to hear from ones that have done VHS to PC and what setup you recommend. I have a P4 3.0ghz desktop and a laptop with a Celeron 2.2ghz both have WinXP sp2. Both have DVD burners with Nero 7. I want something with good audio and video. So your input would be appreciated.

[BOB IROC]

Well if your computer supports USB 2.0 a device like this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...430&CatId=1428 should work for you. It should be easy enough to capture Analog sources and let you output to DVD. The pinnacle software that comes with it is pretty powerful for a consumer level and we use a similar device here at the school I work for.

The only problem you may have is capturing video from copyrighted video tapes such as store bought movies. Many of them feature Macrovision protection or something similar that helps stop it from being routed through any other source than a TV/Monitor. Also with that you have to respect the copyright laws. I am pretty sure the "Fair Use Copyright Act" states you can make back-ups of movies/music you own, but I am not sure what it says about changing the medium it is on (VHS to DVD)

The other way is to get a PCI Tuner/Capture card but I do not think this will give you any better quality and the nice thing about the external one is you can share it with your computer and your laptop.

[slgrieb]

Eboy, my advice is to get something cheap. That way, when your wife realizes what a royal pain in the tush the transfer is and chucks the whole idea, you won't be out much cash.

I'd go with one of the many USB 2.0 devices out there. They can all deliver video and audio quality that exceeds VHS. Transferring each tape to the PC takes, of course, just as many minutes as viewing the tape, so consider that in the planning.

Once the video is captured, you need to know what you are going to do with it. If you want to view it on a standalone DVD player, the video will have to be converted into DVD file format using something like Nero Vision Express and then burned to disk. Depending on the speed of your computer, size of file, etc. this whole process might take as much as 2-3 hours.

Of course, new DVD players are increasingly able to handle MPEG 4 (DivX) format, and this conversion is quicker that the DVD file conversion. But again the majority of DVD players can't cope.

Finally, if the files are going to be played only on a computer, you could just leave them as captured (usually an AVI file), and burn the movie to DVD.

OK, if you're not sufficiently discouraged, you might check out this link for a bit more in-depth info: http://genealogy.about.com/od/digita...videotapes.htm

Frankly, if you aren't trying to copy copyrighted material, you really should consider something like a DVD/VCR recorder (something like a Samsung DVD-VR330 at around $200) and just forget the PC.

[Richard1]

I use a Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 DVD Creator, I had the previous version of it for years and when it broke I went out and got the newer one. It comes with decent software and it will take most video sources from either an RCA jack or S-Video. It has three RCA jacks (one for video and two for audio) and an S-Video. I like it and it's very portable. Good luck.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=144533

[eboyjones]

As for my wife giving up on a idea, "forget about it", that won't happen. My life will be focussed on this problem because my wife won't let me,"forget about it". And since I am retired it gives me a new type of project to experiment with. I did the copy all the cassettes to CD 2 years ago.

I kinda decided on the USB approach since I can use it on all my PC's. I have Nero 7 with DVD support. A lot of the vhs tapes are things she has recorded over the years and will not part with. As for the copywrited tapes I believe I can make a backup copy. As for changing the media format I am not sure, but we do copy our WinXP CD to our hard drive, so I guess that is changing the media format to. But anyway thank you for your quick input.

I would have used the kissing smiley's, but we won't go there.

[slgrieb]

Hi! Eboy! If you're committed to the project, and want something USB, you might look at Pinnacle Systems Dazzle DVD Recorder at $50 or so. A couple of caveats, though. Their software sounds good, but is really buggy. Use what you already have. Also Pinnacle support is some of the worst I've ever encountered. Setting up a video capture and editing system for the county once, I spent something like 14 hours on the phone, put 3 different mainboards in the computer (it was getting an internal card), and still didn't work until Pinnacle shipped a newer hardware revision of the card. Again, the Dazzle really does work pretty well, just don't expect Pinnacle to be there if you need help.

I would personally suggest an Adaptec VideOh! at around $149. They do a better job of conversion and have much better support. I've set up several of these without any major problems other than a few gripes with the earliest drivers. Again, not too keen on the software. They come with Sonic MyDVD, and it is pretty lame compared to Nero or newer versions of Easy Media Creator (used to be Roxio, now owned by Sonic).

If all your computers have 6-pin Firewire ports (you can use 4-pin ports with an adapter), or you are willing to add them, I would take a close look at the Canopus ADVC110. It has a really good converter chip that will handle any analog format up to Hi8 without loss. No complaints about software here. Ain't none! Around $220.

[Atodini]

eboy,

I've been through this here at Atodini Towers, trying various different methods. The direct connection methods (S-VHS, Scart etc) caused problems with older VHS tapes as I had problems picking up the sound (this was analogue in the early days, recorded along the edge of the tape).

For these, a TV card connected and tuned to the aerial output socket of the VCR worked fine with a surprisingly high level of quality.

After "herself" brought down another huge box of videos from the loft I decided to cut the PC out of the loop completely and bought an under TV VCR / DVD recorder combo unit, in my case a Panasonic. These are now getting very affordable - I paid under £300 for this one on e-bay (saving about 50% on the new price). This one also has a 200gb hard drive and allows me to record / pause live TV etc. Also uses plus or minus DVD's and DVD RAM. I bought this one 9 months ago and a quick google suggests that they've dropped in price a lot since then.

If you've loads of videos to transfer then this might be a better way!

Worth it all for the acute embarrassment caused to my son when "nan" showed my grandchildren DVD's of their dad at their age though.

John