Which is 'best' of 4 Alternatives, VCR to PC ?

[netmation]

There is so much information out here concerning converting VHS tapes to a PC I am overwhelmed. Could anyone give anythoughts as to what path would provide me the best quality. Would like to get my VHS tapes converted to AVI files on the PC.

1. VHS recorder to a Video Card with a VIVO connection.
2. VHS recorder to a hardware capture card such as Winnov or Hauppage.
3. VHS recorder to a Digital 8 Tape, then to a PC with a Firewire connection.
4. VHS recorder connected to Sony TRV480, the pass through to PC, all in one step.

Or would all processes end up with about the same low quality as output by the VCR player?

[pepegot1]

Why AVI and not MPG? I use my JVC recorder to capture the VHS tapes with a stabilizer to take care of Microvision. The JVC improves the quality of the tape by reducing noise. Now, with the DVD-RW disc, I can copy to my PC by ripping and converting to mpg. This method improves quality and reduces file size. Don't need AVI.

[netmation]

Guess it is my ignorance. I thought AVI was the best uncompressed format to capture in to allow for easy editing later on? Not sure what Microvision is, something I need to read up on?

[dphirschler]

I recommend VHS --> capture card. But it's useless unless you have good encoder software. But VHS -->DV -- >PC via fireware might be better for what you want. DV is a good archival format.


Darryl

[lordsmurf]

Why AVI and not MPG? I use my JVC recorder to capture the VHS tapes with a stabilizer to take care of Microvision. The JVC improves the quality of the tape by reducing noise. Now, with the DVD-RW disc, I can copy to my PC by ripping and converting to mpg. This method improves quality and reduces file size. Don't need AVI.

I primarily do this too. I leave AVI for advanced needs.

[Richard_G]

If you are going to do any editing later, transfer as AVI, if you ar simply going to author and burn to DVD, go straight to MPG.

Of your original options, there will be no difference at all in the latter 2. You can take an analogue video source and let your camcorder encode it to DV AVI. It can then either record that data stream to a tape and subsequently output it over the Firewire port, or just output it to the Firewire port. As the Firewire transfer is a straight data copy, it makes no difference whether the data is stored on a tape or not. The only difference is one method takes twice as long as the other.

[Jeremiah58]

3. VHS recorder to a Digital 8 Tape, then to a PC with a Firewire connection.
4. VHS recorder connected to Sony TRV480, the pass through to PC, all in one step.

I used to work that way. Results were excellent. That way you would be able to convert even commercial VHS tapes.
But since I have bought first DVD recorder, a couple of years back, I've never used PC for that job.

[davideck]

When capturing to AVI, I use my camcorder analog pass through to 1394 because of its amazing TBC performance. Your Sony TRV480 may be similar.

When capturing to MPEG, I usually capture to my Toshiba HDD/DVD Recorder. It has excellent TBC performance as well, and also provides quick and easy editing and authoring capabilities. For something more sophisticated, I use the Toshiba as an external TBC/Frame Synchronizer/Proc Amp and capture to the PC with a Hauppauge 250.

All of these methods provide excellent results.

[MOVIEGEEK]

My vote is #4,I get great results transfering DV via firewire.
If you don't need to edit the video then a DVD recorder is your best bet.
BTW:it's Macrovision not Microvision,Macrovision is used to scramble the video and Microvision makes electronic devices.

[FulciLives]

Step #4 would be best if you think you need to do a lot of extensive editing. Extensive editing would be cutting it completely different like moving scenes around etc. also doing transitions or text overlays etc.

Step #2 would be best if you need little to no editing. Little editing would be simple "cut" editing where you trim the start and end points and cut out TV ads etc.

For Step #2 I would use a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250 or WinTV PVR 350 or the WinTV PVR USB2 ... all of these do hardware MPEG encoding which means the strain is on the capture card (which has the proper hardware) instead of the strain being on the computer's CPU (which generally is bad for realtime MPEG capture).

Another alternative to Step #2 is to use a stand alone DVD recorder. You can always RIP the DVD to your computer (in this case record onto a DVD-RW or DVD+RW with DVD-RW being the better choice) and then edit on the computer.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[tinker]

I would vote for method #4. If you have the stuff already why bother with other device in PC.
I use this method myself and have good results, I mean as good as you can get from VHS tape.