Ok, I'm ready to convert from VHS to DVD... I have the money

[thotholicious]

What capture card do I buy? I was told to get a 160 gig+ HD which i will do. I can't afford these 300 cards. I have 37 8hr tapes with my favorite show to convert to DVD. I would like to get about 6hrs per DVD which is about 8 episodes. There needs to be a menu where any of the 8 eps can be selected. What card should I buy? Money is an issue, so is time. Any suggestions?

[FOO]

Yes I have a suggestion Give up.
Results = Time x Money. You got lotsa money, send them to a duplicator
You got lotsa time, do it the hard way by learning everything you can
and just doing it..
6 hours on a DVD that's barely tolerable is hard to do.

[thotholicious]

Actually I have time, just not lots of money. Now what?

[CHAOS]

My evil side said to post to this first but then my good side said to walk away & let someone else do it LMAO!!!!!!!!!!

[qpskfec]

Assuming little or no editing, here's my preferences for getting vhs to dvd:

1) set top dvd recorder
2) DV camera with pass thru for PC capture, edit/author/burn, etc.
3) PC capture device (never used this, prefer the two above)

As another poster put it, you need to make the trade offs between convenience, quality, and $$$.

[FOO]

Yeah, well I was born in Lansing, but apparently
dont have your restraint.

[FOO]

OK I'm sorry that was mean. It's how I got my yellow pillow.

You can get a cheap capture card and capture all that stuff with
PicVideo or Huffy AVI at 352 x 480. Huffy is free.
Then IVTC the video and encode with a 2 pass encoder.
IVTC buys 20%. TMPGenc is free for a month.
Drop that into MF2 (free for a month) and burn.

[CHAOS]

Yeah, well I was born in Lansing, but apparently
dont have your restraint.

I was born in G.R. and it came from growing older & learnig control grasshopper.....
BUT THE THOUGHT WAS THERE!!!!!! & a little bit worse then your's

Oh, i would skip the capture card if you can afford a standalone dvd recorder, just watch best buy or something, i have seen a few localy go for under 300.00 when they get new models, which seems to be quite often 8) picked up my panasonic e30 for 250.00.... sold my capture card in a hot second!!!!

[FOO]

How do you sell a capture card ?. Who wants technology
more than a month old.

[MachineMan]

Buy that new standalone HP product that's coming out soon to convert VHS to DVD.

[CHAOS]

How do you sell a capture card ?. Who wants technology
more than a month old.

easy............
E-BAY!!!!!
Had it for 8 months when i upgraded & sold it for 10.00 less then what i bought it for new from compusa paid $150.00 for it. always some one on there itching to bid on something.....

[FOO]

Yeah but how do you get paid, and how do they avoid you sending them
a cat turd in a box.? ( Without paypal )

[presto]

thotholicious,
I do precisely what you want to do. Here is what I use:

Card- ATI All In Wonder 7500
Software - ATI Multimedia Center 8 (which comes with the card) and Tmpgenc DVD Author (bought).

For Home movies I capture in DVD format using MMC 8. Can one to four hours of great quality depending on the bitrate.

For TV shows - Capture in VCD format with MMC8. Tmpgenc DVD accepts these for DVDs. I get about 7 hours on one DVD and now that I have learned to use the fliters in MMC 8 the quality is great.

Tmpgenc DVD Author lets you cut out commercials or whatever you want to cut out and to make great looking menus and add chapter points. Even has moving pictures of thumbnails. You can put your home movies on a DVD and just set a chapter point every two minutes, then when you look at the menu you actually see the moving thumbnails of each scene.

Warning: It took me over a year to get to the point where I can do what I want. The good news is that was before I discoverd Tmpgenc DVD and before ATI finally fixed their drivers so you probably won't have as much trouble.

Good Luck

[Bob W]

You will get a better quality conversion using a DVD recorder than you will with a capture card (been there done that). Also the recorder will do the job in one third the time.

[FOO]

You guys know something I dont know if you are getting
7 hours on a DVD. VCD ? MPEG1 ? gimme a break

[presto]

You guys know something I dont know if you are getting
7 hours on a DVD. VCD ? MPEG1 ?

I guess so. All I can say is I've made compilations of Columbo, Charmed, Voyager etc that have seven hours. They look great to me. The audio sync is perfect, movement is smooth. The picture is a little "smoothed" but I don't think someone watching who didn't know the video source would even notice that it wasn't live TV.

[lordsmurf]

I've worked wonders with my ATI ALL IN WONDER RADEON 7200 cards. The standalone recorders are nice too, though I like the control a computer gives me over the final product (menus, etc). Plus I can either merely convert or outright edit a masterpiece with a capture card.

[CHAOS]

thotholicious,
For TV shows - Capture in VCD format with MMC8. Tmpgenc DVD accepts these for DVDs. I get about 7 hours on one DVD and now that I have learned to use the fliters in MMC 8 the quality is great.

Tmpgenc DVD Author lets you cut out commercials or whatever you want to cut out and to make great looking menus and add chapter points. Even has moving pictures of thumbnails. You can put your home movies on a DVD and just set a chapter point every two minutes, then when you look at the menu you actually see the moving thumbnails of each scene.

Warning: It took me over a year to get to the point where I can do what I want. The good news is that was before I discoverd Tmpgenc DVD and before ATI finally fixed their drivers so you probably won't have as much trouble.

Good Luck

I will agree whole heartedly on TMPGEnc DVD Author , but the vcd comment, once you go down to a certain compression, there is no comming back!! from the quality i have seen, i have been doing alot of conversions for quite a few years now and i am very picky about the quality of any vid's i do, and if you want vcd quality on a dvd..... cool.... but if i have a dvd, i want dvd quality, i'll put a vcd on a vcd. granted the dvd's to vcd's i do are a far cry above any Commercially made vcd i have seen made, it is still not dvd quality.

You guys know something I dont know if you are getting
7 hours on a DVD. VCD ? MPEG1 ? gimme a break

Never heard me say any such thing thats what i thought was amusing, i know it can be done, but why ?

You will get a better quality conversion using a DVD recorder than you will with a capture card (been there done that). Also the recorder will do the job in one third the time

YEP!!
after getting a standalone dvd recorder, capture cards don't even exist in my world anymore!!!! vcr's pretty much faded away also, but i keep a jvc s-vhs on hand for any tapes i might want to transfer

[CHAOS]

I've worked wonders with my ATI ALL IN WONDER RADEON 7200 cards. The standalone recorders are nice too, though I like the control a computer gives me over the final product (menus, etc). Plus I can either merely convert or outright edit a masterpiece with a capture card.

Ahhhh... but my lordsmurf 8) you can import the video and do any editing you want, at least as easily as with a C.C. if not easier, so the control over the final product does not really even factor in. i just use ram & i can re-write as much as i want, i can be editing, making menus, & authoring one i imported while the same dvd-ram disc is recording another lasrdeisc or whatever. i have used video capture cards for quite a few years, went through alot of diff. kinds, they worked, sometimes they were a major pain, sometimes they were not, but they were never as easy as my standalone, but what works, works
i just know i will never burden any of my pc's with one again

[CHAOS]

Okay,
see this is why i love the people here & this place!!! even if you don't agree, you still might come up with idea's
between this post and another one i read, i am going to try something.
I have the full 2nd season of dark angel in widescreen on my HD that i was converting from pal dvd's to vcd, i tried to see how many i could fit on a dvd+r using TMPGEnc DVD Author , i have 9 episodes (in vcd mpg's) one is the pilot, the pilot is about 1h 23m, the other ep's are about 41m, so i am going to author them and burn them tonight and see how good the come out when played back on my 52"

[lordsmurf]

You get more control over bitrate too using a capture card. That's another important consideration of why I opt for capture card over standalone. I plan to add a standalone as a VCR replacement someday. But I don't know that it would replace my capture card.

If you REALLY have the money, buy both.

[CHAOS]

If you REALLY have the money, buy both.

Now the man is talkin' you can never have too many toys

[thotholicious]

What the heck is a stand alone??

[CHAOS]

What the heck is a stand alone??

a dvd recorder, that sits on your tv like a vcr only it records to dvdr, dvdrw or dvd-ram

[lordsmurf]

What the heck is a stand alone??

- Panasonic DMR80
- Phillips
- Sony
- Apex

Those are "standalone" DVD recorders. They record DVDs without a computer. Quality is normally good, depending on model. But you do sacrifice some custom options such as precision bitrate control, menu creation, editing, etc... that you would get with a capture card. However, a DVD recorder does it all in one fell swoop. Even computer MPEG capturing still requires an author and burn.

The Panasonic, Sharp and Apex are all good from reviews I've read. Others not so much.

[CHAOS]

What the heck is a stand alone??

But you do sacrifice some custom options such as precision bitrate control, menu creation, editing, etc... that you would get with a capture card. However, a DVD recorder does it all in one fell swoop. Even computer MPEG capturing still requires an author and burn.
The Panasonic, Sharp and Apex are all good from reviews I've read. Others not so much.

Ahhh... you only sacrifice menu creation & editing if you choose not to import to your pc, or unless you use dvd-ram in which case you can edit.


And i'm pretty happy with that bit rate when the video is that long and only 2.73GB now i have done most of my capturing from laserdisc's with s-video, i know even with a bitrate that high if the source was from 4th generation vhs it would still be crappy!!
& don't get me wrong, i have read and absorbed from alot of your's & other's post's, even if you don't know it,
but i'm gonna fight ya on this one LOL!!!!

The apex ? now i've read & heard the apex was not that good ? i know they make pretty good dvd players for cheap but i don't know if i would spend $300.00 - $400.00 on one of their dvd recorders ?

[presto]

Lordsmurf,
Give vcd with combo 1 at 60% and sharp at 15% a try. On your guide (which is excellent) you said that you only use no filtering or heavy and that the in between settings make little or no difference. Capture a TV show with vcd settings and I think you will find the picture washed out. But add the filters I suggested above and it somehow restores the colors and makes the video look like much higher resolution. Try it.

I know the effect is a cheat. Information is lost by capturing to a low bitrate and then artificially "put back" by the filters so no one would want to use it for cinematic masterpieces but for my personal set of Gilligan's Island episodes it's great.

If you want to capture a full season of a series I think it makes sense to put 7 or 8 episodes on a disk (Do you really want a set of over 100 DVD's).

Also, in your guide you advise people not to use the crop feature in MMC 8. You may want to replace that with a note to be sure to select Mpeg-DVD rather than Mpeg especially when choosing to crop.

Thanks Again

[lordsmurf]

Lordsmurf,
Give vcd with combo 1 at 60% and sharp at 15% a try. On your guide (which is excellent) you said that you only use no filtering or heavy and that the in between settings make little or no difference. Capture a TV show with vcd settings and I think you will find the picture washed out. But add the filters I suggested above and it somehow restores the colors and makes the video look like much higher resolution. Try it.

I know the effect is a cheat. Information is lost by capturing to a low bitrate and then artificially "put back" by the filters so no one would want to use it for cinematic masterpieces but for my personal set of Gilligan's Island episodes it's great.

If you want to capture a full season of a series I think it makes sense to put 7 or 8 episodes on a disk (Do you really want a set of over 100 DVD's).

Also, in your guide you advise people not to use the crop feature in MMC 8. You may want to replace that with a note to be sure to select Mpeg-DVD rather than Mpeg especially when choosing to crop.

Thanks Again

Yeah, I'll test and add the VCD setting you mention. I already got the MPEG2-DVD setting corrected on the guides on my HD. I hope to upload a full site here in a few days. (The one-piece-at-a-time format wasn't working with me, as I have a DHTML error that I'm too lazy to fix each time I re-upload.)

Thanks for the help. I'll mention you on a page somewhere where I've thanked those that have helped along the way.

[MachineMan]

Check this forum post for info on the HP stand alone VHS to DVD unit.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=173041&highlight=

This might be the way if you have a lot of VHS tapes (I Don't) that need to be converted directly to DVD with out re-authoring.

[tvdavid]

What about trying Dazzle Digital Video Creator 80 for $65. It converts analog VHS to digital. Comes with software to capture, edit, and burn onto DVDs. I bought it but have not tried it yet. See it here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005UK8W/ref%3Dnosim/lksmsubsite-sub-ce-asin-...476669-5887012