VHS to DVD - What Equipment Do I Need?

[Benn_Black]

VHS to DVD - What Equipment Do I Need? For wedding videos and birthday parties.

[Craig Tucker]

Well if you're planning to record your own video's forget vhs and get a DV camcorder, you then need a firewire card to transfer your DV to your hard drive, and a DVD burner to burn your discs.

As far as software goes, ulead video studio to transfer your DV, this came free with my firewire card. TMPGEnc to encode the video, and nero to burn.

Craig

[yg1968]

And probably a new hard drive as DV takes approximately 13 gig per hour. It is often a temporary file until you encode to a smaller mpeg file (4.3 gig). Nevertheless, you almost need a dedicated hard drive for video.

It is better to get a DV camcorder with a passthrough feature (for example most Sony camcorders have this feature) if you also want to transfer VHS stuff to DVD.

A cheaper (but lower quality) alternative would be to get a hardware mpeg-2 encoder in order to burn to DVD.

[Benn_Black]

I plan to record from existing VHS tapes. What hardware do I need - which capture card? And what software for titling and effects?

[Craig Tucker]

Personally I like the ati all in wonder cards, they allow you to capture from any analogue source and also have a tv tuner built in. Ulead video studio is a good editing package, allowing titles transitions, narration, music etc.

Craig

[yg1968]

In my experience with the AIW 128, it is hard to capture at DVD resolutions with the ATI card without getting dropped frames or out of sync issues (unless you have a very powerful computer).

It is a lot less trouble getting a hardware mpeg encoder such as the Dazzle DVCII or the Win-TV PVR-350. I don't own these cards. So it's hard for me to make a suggestion on this. But others have recommended them in other threads.

I use a Sony miniDV camcorder as a capturing device with very good results. That's a more expensive option but if you are considering buying a camcorder in the future, it's worth looking into.

For software, I like Ulead DVD Movie Factory and Dazzle DVD complete. They create chapter menus, encode, burn and have limited editing (such as cutting) capability. I have heard others speak highly of the Pinnacle Studio (version 8 should be out very soon) as an editing software. I believe that DVD complete is bundled with the DVCII and that Ulead DMF is bundled with the Win-TV PVR-350. For burning, I get better results with Nero 5.5.9.0 (and above) than any other program.

For a DVD burner, I like the HP 200i. Make sure that you have a burner that burns to +R (or-R, if you prefer that format). You may want to check this website: www.dvdplusrw.org for advice on +R burners.

[dphirschler]

I've had great luck capturing with a Pinnacle PCTV Pro card. It was only $29! It goes on sale from time to time at CompUSA. Anyways, my PC is fast enough, but the 60gig HD is too slow to write 30fps at 640x480 and up. My 5.7gig HD did 720x480 at 30fps with no problems.


Darryl

[snaimpally]

A PVR card does real-time mpeg2 conversion. This is a lot better than capturing to avi format (which needs lots of disc space) and then spending time to convert avi to mpeg2.

MicroCenter has the AverTV card for $35 after $10 rebate. Its a basic card - mono (not stereo) and no remote control. They also have the WinTV 250 for $99 after rebate. This includes remote control, and software for burning your cpatured video to CD or DVD.

[Craig Tucker]

You say it's a lot better, depends what you mean by better. Quicker yes, better quality, no chance.

Craig

[DBR]

For high quality capture, you can use the Canopus ADVC series (-100, -50, -1394) to capture analog video as a DV file (as if it came from a miniDV camcorder). www.canopuscorp.com I have the advc-100, works great, but ain't cheap at $300. If you don't have a firewire card yet, give serious consideration to the -1394.

[Craig Tucker]

For a little bit more money you may as well get a DV camcorder with passthrough and a firewire card. Costs a little more, but much more versatile.

Craig

[homerpez]

Just a thought here...

My question is not so much "what hardware or software to turn VHS to DVD"... but "why turn VHS to DVD"?

It seems a bit of a waste to me, because of the resolution/bitrate difference, and a simple issue of money.

VHS resolution is so low, that I wouldn't bother converting it to anything higher than VCD resolution... seems more fitting to use a VCD format and a disc that costs pennies, than to overkill the resolution and spend $$$ on DVD-R's... just my take.

Or, are you planning on using smaller size/bitrate but on a DVD-R (to get hours and hours per disc)?

Apologies if you answered any of these before, I just skimmed.