Converting VHS to VCD or DVD...

[magic_impuls]

What equipment do I need to convert a VHS to VCD or DVD (basically, I want it on my hardrive)...

[pijetro]

VCR, Capture card (or MiniDV camcorder), DVD burner...

[bottle-necked]

Not all VCRs are created equal. Get a high quality unit.
Use HQ audio/video cables.
Capture cards are not created equal either. Realtime MPEG capture for VCD and DVD will speed up your projects.
A quality sound card like the Audigy II is always a good idea.
A fast hard drive for capture that's seperate from your system drive.
Properly configured Operating System.

[FulciLives]

What equipment do I need to convert a VHS to VCD or DVD (basically, I want it on my hardrive)...

1.) Quality VHS VCR. Unfortunately these are rather rare these days. The only brand new VHS VCR you can still buy that seems to be decent is the JVC 9000 series (I think the most current model is 9900 or something like that). Toshiba used to be the best IMHO but now, at least in the USA, they only make combo VHS/DVD machines and although I have no first hand experience with them I just can't imagine they are as good as the older models. So yeah the best now is probably the JVC 9000 series.

The idea here is the better quality you get at the start (playing back the tape)the better quality the final DVD will be. So you want to maximize your source quality by playing it back on a very good VHS VCR.

2.) You might want (though may not need) a TBC or TIME BASE CORRECTOR. This is an external box that has a video in and a video out. So your source plugs into it then out of it to your computer. The TBC basically stabilizes the video which makes it easier for the computer to digitalize and it can steady an unsteady image etc.

Often you really only need a TBC with bad quality sources such as LP or EP/SLP speed VHS recordings or old badly worn tapes with a lot of dropouts.

The cheapest TBC is the AVT-8710 Time Base Corrector but the most popular is probably the DataVideo TBC-1000 which can be found on-line at many websites that cater to high (or higher) end video needs. One place you can order it from is THE ELECTRONIC MAILBOX

3.) You of course need a capture card or external capture device. One could probably write a book (or at least a very long essay) on all the available options. I'll make it simple. If you want to capture straight to MPEG-1/MPEG-2 look into the WinTV PVR-250 or WinTV PVR-350. If you want to capture straight to MPEG-1/MPEG-2 then there are other options and these are desirable because although the process is LONGER the results tend to be better. In this catagory you should concentrate on either a PCI TV tuner type card (I recommend AverTV Studio or AverTV Stereo) or the external Canopus ADVC-100 or the nearly exact match of the Canopus which is the DataVideo DAC-100. Last but not least you have the ATI AIW cards which allow for both types of captures.

4.) A DVD burner and a fast computer. I'd recommend at least a 2.0Ghz P4 with 512MB RAM running WinXP Home or WinXP Pro. You can get away with slower if using a hardware encoder such as the aforementioned WinTV products or the Canopus/DataVideo untis.

5.) Software! Don't forget that you will need editing software and MPEG-2 encoding software and a DVD authoring program. Again soooooooo many choices and the best choice depends on your capture device.

Last but not least research some of the products I mentioned by using the SEARCH feature on the forums here and read read read ... it is the only way to learn about this all.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman