From Vhs to dvd (or cd)

[karib]

I do not own yet a dvd recorder and i would like to know if it is possible something.

I have lot of vhs tapes and I want to trasfer them to digital media.
It is not perfect quality so I want to just have them on cd or dvd without better quality.
I also want to save up dvds(mainly) or cds.


One solution would be, the recorder to be able to write to cd the format of svcd and do so.
This solution supposes that the unit will write to cd, and also can do svcd recording.
Question No1: Is this possible to some models?



The other solution is select in the recorder menu svcd recording or mpeg2 but at lower quality.
Question No2:
Can I select svcd or vcd recording or lower setting recording in order to write for example 3 movies/tapes of 2hours each, in a single dvd-r?

[yoda313]

Hello,
First things first, do you have a video capture card yet? This is what you need to get your sources on to the computer. Yes, a dvd burner will write to cd. Yes, a dvd burner will make vcd and svcd discs.

The length of video on a dvd all depends on file size and bitrate. You can get vcd and svcd on to dvd to increase length at cost of quality (though I haven't persoally done this yet I know others have). Also, you could do divx or xvid and transfer to dvd.

The capture cards select the quality you want. You can record from vcd all the way up to dvd standard quality (some models go higher but take up way more space). You can pretty much record any length you want and then convert that file to your format of choice.

Check out the capture card guides here and the conversion guides to get a feel for what's involved. You can get very good results. I have a wintv pvr 250 tv card and a dvd burner and I get great burns from tape at dvd long play settings (a special, lower quality setting - better than vcd and svcd though).

Take some time and you'll get what you need. A Dvd burner (dual format + and - r would be an excellent all in one soulution). They've also gotten a lot cheaper recently. Good luck.
Kevin

[lordsmurf]

Go reads guides.

[karib]

Because of doing this post to this section of dvd recorder I think it was comprehensible that I am talking of doing these things not in pc but with a commercial-desktop dvd recorder.

So I would like to have your opinions about commercial units' capabilities. Just forget pc.

[FulciLives]

Look around and you will see that many people like the JVC DVD recorder which is a stand alone model and can be bought on-line for as cheap as $300 plus shipping.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[karib]

Can anyone told me about the questions I wrote in my first post?

[FulciLives]

Can anyone told me about the questions I wrote in my first post?

Yes.

Forget using VCD or SVCD on a stand alone DVD recorder. I only know of one model that can do this and it doesn't do a very good job of it.

DVD discs are fairly cheap now so no reason to mess around with CD formats like VCD or SVCD etc.

Again read the DVD RECORDER forum here and you will find that most people are having very positive results with it.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[karib]

You mean that I can record a dvd with lower settings/resolution that can hold about 3 movies of 2hours each one, in a single dvd?

[FulciLives]

You mean that I can record a dvd with lower settings/resolution that can hold about 3 movies of 2hours each one, in a single dvd?

Sure if you want it to look like shit.

Stop being silly now.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[secstate]

VHS tapes have a lot of analog noise in them and that noise can make MPEG compression algorithims have fits. Unless you have a high tolerance for low quality pictures and your source tapes are relatively noise free for VHS, I would expect about 2.5-3 hours max of decent quality video from VHS to a standalone recorder. And that is for machines that have flexible recording, e.g, they allow you to set the time you want and allocate bandwidth accordingly.

Standalone is really your best option for converting large amounts of tape. Yes you can do it with capture card and a computer and yes the quality will probably be better but the time it will take will be enormous.