Fellow Australians - VHS to DVD conversion...please assist?!

[stunt_show]

Hi there,

Not sure if this is the right area of the forum to post to, but here goes...

I am looking to upgrade or buy a new computer. My primary goal (other than getting a better system than what I have now - specs listed towards bottom of post) is to:

Get a system that allows me to capture VHS tapes onto the computer (in MPEG2 format, I assume) and then convert this onto DVD format - preferably that can be played back via the computer AND stand alone.

I have an extensive collection of American Basketball (NBA) games on videotape - I want to preserve the quality of these tapes and at the same time reduce the size of the necessary physical storage (which you can imagine is many full packing boxes worth)...

Capturing these games onto computer then onto DVD would be excellent.

Please, can someone suggest the best way for me to do this? Should I buy a whole new system with the necessary 'extras', or upgrade (and possibly save some money)?

Currently I have the following (not complete, but most major specs listed) system:

Athlon XP 1700+
ABIT KR7A-Raid Motherboard
256MB RAM
LiteOn CD Burner
40 GB Maxtor Hard Drive
Pioneer DVD Rom Drive

...

I obviously need to get a DVD-Burner (Writer) and would prefer at least 80GB Hard Drive and 512MB RAM at a minimum.

I've read that Intel processors are best for Multimedia Performance, but are more costly than AMD - I have had absolutely no problems with my AMD Processor since I got the computer over 18 months ago.

Do I pay extra and get a video editing software package that comes complete with the Video Card necessary to perform what I want to do?

If anyone reading this (and I thank you in advance) has experience with doing something similar, I would welcome any suggestions.

I am in Australia and would prefer Australians to reply, but I am not fussy

Kindest regards,

stunt_show

[pb]

I have an Athlon 2400XP and a P4 2.8Ghz 800Mhz FSB PC, both atre more than adequate for what you want to do. I had the Athlon first. The P4 has a speed advantage in encoding to mpeg 2 with the applications I use, but otherwise all is pretty much equal. I had a P4 2.4Ghz 533Mhz FSB PC and it was slightly slower than the XP, so I would not dwell on this issue too much. I would go for the P4 with the 800Mhz FSB, they start at 2.4Ghz I think, just check some online PC stores in what ever state your in. You say that you need a DVD burner, larger hard drive etc, you could get those and try to see if your system works OK, if not just replace the motherboard, RAM and cpu, you will already have the other bits. I started out on a P3 800, and had no problems with any of the hardware or software I now use. Faster PC means less time encoding, thats about all.

I would not capture to mpeg 2 from the VHS tapes, from what I ahve tried, the quality is less and file size larger than using software to encode off line. I have a DV camcorder, so I started out trying to convert my DV footage. I have a Canopus ADVC100 to capture analogue video from tape, TV etc. It saves as a DV file that I edit in Vegas Video 4, also convert to mpeg 2 in Vegas. It also allows any editing in a non destructive manner, even if its as simple as cutting out noise before and after the tape, any bad sections or repairing audio. Editing mpeg 2 can be troublesome, audio sync issues etc, the ADVC100 has locked audio. There is also little cpu loading with the ADVC100 as it does the converting in hardware, all you need is firewire card/port(on board most new motherboards). You can use any editing program that supports DV files. The ADVC 100 and Vegas are expensive, but there is cheaper software (Ulead Video Studio, Sonicfoundry Video Factory(they make Vegas), Pinnacle studio (never liked it).

I use Ulead DVD Moviefactory 2 to make/burn DVD's, its cheap and simple but effective, accepts the perfectly compliant mpeg 2 files from Vegas.