video from vcr to computer on an old computer.

[richie_r1ch]

hey, I'm trying to transfer some of my vhs videos to my computer so that i can create vcd's.

The problem is, I have an old computer. "don't laugh now" I have a Pentium 233mhz with MMX, 80ram, 20gb, Riva TNT 16mb graphics card.

Is there any way to get good quality video from my vcr on to my system?
I don't care if it takes hours to process, just as long as it gets to my harddrive, and looks good.

I dont have a video in card yet, any recommendations?

Thanks

[macleod]

Well, the news that several other people that looked at your post didn't give you. It is EXTREMELY unlikely your computer would give you captures, etc. that would be anywhere close to worthwhile for what you are wanting to do (VHS to VCD). You'rer going to get massive frame drops, etc. If you were doing DVD rips or something where the video was already on your computer, you could do something (although it would take a long time).

A cheap alternative to getting to where you want to be:

buy an emachine (1.2 gig are $400 now after rebate)
buy a cheap capture card ($50)
buy powervcrII (on ebay for $10.00 + $5 shipping)
lose plenty of sleep reading all the guides and forums
blow through about 100 pack of CD's ($2.00 after rebate) before you get your settings right)
Buy a apex 1100w dvd player with "firmware upgrade" for macrovision and region codes for $60 at wallyworld.

I've been serious into this for about 4 months now and that is the quick laundry list of stuff I bought....

I've done the vcr to computer thing. If you want anything worthwhile, get a good, fast computer and a card that can pull 3.5'ish bit rate to do the conversion.

[crystaldon]

I'm not sure about this but I think the ProVideo pv231 is a hardware mgeg1 capture card. Doing the capture in hardware reduces the need for horsepower, but I don't know if it will reduce it that much! Good luck.

ps - I agreed with the other posts, just get an upgrade, you'll save allot of time and aggrevation.

[gll99]

Don't worry that anybody will laugh.

Although I now have P4 1.6 512 cache and ram 512 DDR 333 with plenty of HD space and 64mb video ge force2 mx400, I had a similar config as you for a long time. 2 systems intel 200mmx and K6 233 MMX 16mb video with similar me and HD as you.

I had and still use my avermedia TV98 to do capture.

Here's what I did:

Defrag HD it will write faster. Make sure you have DMA turned on (check in control panel, device man, hd settings)
Use Virtualdub capture with the DIVx 4.01 or 4.02 or 4.11 or 4.12
whichever works for you. I tried picvideo and Huffy (very good) but they create large files which may cause you problems unless your 20 gig is empty.
In vdub select custom size and set to 352x480 and YUY2 (4 2 2)
Use vertical resize filter (bicubic) its an option under the video menu. This will reduce it back to 240 but at a better quality.
If you drop too many frames then just go with 320x240 or better (352x240 if you intend to go with vcd later) and no vert resize. I reduced audio capture bitrate from 44.1 to 11k or 22k to gain a bit of speed if an issue but don't try to compress the audio during capture.
Divx Video Compressor choose "var bitrate" = 1 pass, "performance quality" = fastest and set ouput bitstream to 1800 or better. Higher setting will mean larger file but clearer picture and may be more cpu intensive. You will have to run tests.
Don't get mixed up between capture compatibilty and vdub default. I use VDUB default not compatibility. Other settings are mainly defaults BUT CHOOSE 29.97 FRAMERATE (ntsc) (UNLESS YOU ARE ON A 25 fps PAL SYSTEM), use direct draw if you have 8+ installed "set to both".

I won't get into other settings for now but you get the drift. Watch your cpu usage make sure your cpu has cooling or may lock up system after running too long.

If you want minimal settings try a freeware app flycap32 and the same divx codec. Its a very fast app and minimal dropped frames.

If you want to clean up things input the file back into vdub and use the filters and frameserve to tmpge to convert to VCD or svcd.

That's it in a nutshell. If you drop a few frames (even 1 every couple of hundred you won't notice it). You can also lower your capture rate to 23.97
fps. That is a valid NTSC standard but you may have to perform a 3/2 pulldown (up) to get it to 29.97 since some standalone DVD players don't like 23.97.
If you opt for an MPEG capture device make sure it has the hardware compressor built in or it will be useless.

There is an capture app called PowerVCR I and II and a demo is available. I tried it with my old systems and could only capture at lower res. But it worked and its a software capture compressor. With my current system I can go to DVD settings with no problem with that app.

Hope this helps

[richie_r1ch]

thanks for your replies. I am doing dvd ripping right now, and it's really slow, about 7hrs for 30 minutes . I would upgrade eventually.

gll99, so do you recommend me getting the card you mentioned on your post? I think i found it online for about $60 dollars. Did the video you transfered from the vcr to pc come out in good quality, or did it look worse than the vcr source?

thanks again