left wondering ... which capture device ?

[hydra3333]

With all the good info here, I'm still left wondering what to economical device to buy for a moderate result ... Hence seeking advice -

I have circa 90 Aus PAL home VHS tapes and am seeking to transer them to DVD. Reasonable quality acceptable, not unduly picky about it.

I already have a lot good video editing and burning s/w (and the usual freebies including virtualdub) and do NOT want to install any more s/w - especially the likes of ULEAD or Cyberlink etc. Is there an external USB/1394 device or something which you'd recommend to easily capture to AVI or whatever, without needing to install the usual horrible s/w that comes with these things ? Or even an external device to capture/convert and then download the result to PC ?

Alternatively a standalone box of some kind maybe ?

Thanks

[lordsmurf]

DVD recorder, no computer required.
Reviews: http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-recorders.htm
Buy: http://dstore.com.au/electronics/dvd-players-and-recorders/12017570,0,0,00.html

[hydra3333]

Fantastic !

[ZQX]

There's not a lot in the way of DVD recorders on the Australian market any more.

http://www.jbhifi.com.au/home-theatre/video-recorders/

I don't read much good things about the LG. But then all that is left are the ~AU$1000 Panasonic models - and if you look at that link, the Panasonic Blu-Ray recorders have dropped almost to the price range of these Pana DVD recorders.

An alternative would be something like the Canopus ADVC55 (~AU$230), or a camcorder with analog-to-digital passthrough, and capture to your computer via firewire.

[Endzone]

I used a good quality VCR (JVC HR-S9600U) with a Canopus ADVC-110 to convert to DV/AVI. I used a simple program, Roxio Easy Media Creator 9.1, to capture and then edit and either convert to .wmv files to email or output as DV/AVI to burn DVDs. I used Adobe Premiere Elements 4 to convert the DV/AVI to MPEG-2 to burn the DVDs because I thought for some reason it did a better job. I would be very happy to send you a short 30 second .wmv file of the results. My tapes were 1989-1993 VHS tapes. The file is about 5.2MB though. Pass along your email address if interested.