VHS tapes to DVD

[vermilion]

I want to put a few of my VHS movies on DVD, and I was looking at capturing them to DV and then encoding to MPEG-2 for the DVD. I have been doing some reading and I'm looking at the Canopus Digital Video Converter "ADVC100" or the PLEXTOR ConvertX PX-M402U. I haven't read but one view for the Plextor convert seemed ok, and it's pretty cheap. The ADVC100 seems to be one of the best things to use for this but it's about $250. I was wondering is the ADVC really worth $250? Once I capture my movie to DV using an AV cable(VCR doesn't have S-Video) at 720x480 will the quilty of the movie be almost near the quilty of a DVD movie? Or should I just take the cheap way out and get the Plextor, it's about $79 and it's USB 2.0 and not Fireware. I really want a good product so spending the $250 for the Canopus isn't a problem, just wondering if it's needed

[yoda313]

Hello,

I would suggest a dedicated capture card like the ATI all in wonder series or a hauppauge wintv pvr card. It's much easier to have the input go straight to a capture card then fooling around with double transfers.

You'll get near dvd quality if the original tape was very good. If it was warped at all (wavy images) then that's what you'll capture unless you use a svhs vcr with tbc (a traction control device).

Kevin

[vermilion]

svhs vcr with tbc

Can i have more info on that, maybe a link or two

[yoda313]

Hello,

Here's one:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1019312&highlight=svhs+tbc#1019312

Also, just go to any electronics website and do a search for svhs tbc. That should help.

I just use a regular vcr but people here say the tbc helps correct older tapes.

Kevin

[vermilion]

nevermind, they cost to much

[Manokat]

I want to put a few of my VHS movies on DVD, and I was looking at capturing them to DV and then encoding to MPEG-2 for the DVD. I have been doing some reading and I'm looking at the Canopus Digital Video Converter "ADVC100" or the PLEXTOR ConvertX PX-M402U. I haven't read but one view for the Plextor convert seemed ok, and it's pretty cheap. The ADVC100 seems to be one of the best things to use for this but it's about $250. I was wondering is the ADVC really worth $250? Once I capture my movie to DV using an AV cable(VCR doesn't have S-Video) at 720x480 will the quilty of the movie be almost near the quilty of a DVD movie? Or should I just take the cheap way out and get the Plextor, it's about $79 and it's USB 2.0 and not Fireware. I really want a good product so spending the $250 for the Canopus isn't a problem, just wondering if it's needed

I use both. About 80% of the vhs tapes I have, I used M402U to convert them. For really old and bad quality tapes I use ADVC100 and a tbc.

Time is always the factor in converting. If you have lots of time then start from AVI or DV. If you don't then convert straight to MPEG2.

[iantri]

A time base corrector is only needed if the source VHS tapes are in poor enough condition to cause frame drops; when the capture card loses vertical sync it will drop a frame. Among other things, a TBC will restore vertical sync.

Commercially produced VHS tapes should be OK, but home made tapes will depend on the quality of the recorder.

BTW, I am concerned by your impression that a good capture card will give you "DVD-quality". Let me emphasize that no matter what capture card you use, quality always drops with every analog transfer or conversion, a signal can never better than the original source. This means that the very act of capturing VHS video reduces the quality, but with a half decent card it will be imperceptable. Filters can make something look a little better, but generally at the cost of blurryness.

VHS video though, will STILL look exactly like VHS video when transferred to DVD. It will not magically look like a brand-new commercial DVD.