VHS tapes to DVD - opinions ??

[Mallorca]

I'm in the UK...what is the best, beats everything, external USB2 or Firewire, card for taking VHS tapes into the PC for transfer to DVD.
Opinions please.

[Harold7]

I use the Data Video DAC-100 bi-directional converter to capture my VHS to DVD conversions.

This is a firewire device and I use the firewire connection on my Audigy sound card... I tried the motherboard firewire connection, but ended up getting really crappy sound... with the Audigy firewire port I get perfect sound.

I use iuVCR (the huffyuv 2.1.1 codec) to capture .avi files and always get audio and video in sync with no dropped frames, the picture quality I get is excellent... whatever the video looks like on the tape is what I get in captures with no color inconsistencies between tape and final DVD product.

For the best reults use the highest quality video/audio cables and try to keep the cable length to 6 ft or less.

[spiderman2k1]

The two best thing you can do to take VHS to DVD is get a high end JVC VCR that has noise reduction. This will clean up the video. They go for about $300.00 dollars in the USA do not buy in the USA there NTSC you need a PAL model. And if you have a good DVD recorder Panasinic or JVC you can keep the closed caption subtitles.

They other way witch is almost as good and alot cheepper is to use a ATI AIW card you can get one for about $33.00 dollars at www.pricewatch.com There the best I have tried for VHS to DVD. ATI has Video soap that clean's the video just like the high end JVC VCR's do. The reason ATI AIW some are very keep there also gaming card's for video game's new card's come out every year and the old one's go down in price. Even the newer card's use the same video chip that the new one's use for video capture. It's the gaming chip that you pay for. That's there Radeon chip. Those card's can cost up to $500.00 dollars. but in two years there down to $200.00 or lower.