Should I get a capture device, or a standalone recorder?

[Alzarius]

Hope this is in the right forum:

Question for you guys. I've been wanting to convert A LOT of my old VHS tapes for archival purposes onto DVD. I have over 300 tapes to do, probably over 1000 hours. I know it sounds nuts, but they're of old TV shows that probably will never be on DVD, and foreign programs and sports.

For me, the most important consideration is preservation quality- I know the end result will never look as good as the source, but since the reason I want to convert to DVD is preservation, I don't want to end up with bad quality transfers. Also, I'd like to fit about 3 hours of video onto the final DVD, and I've read that standalone recorders record well at 1-2 hours of video but anything more than that will have a noticeable loss in quality. Will this problem be fixed if I capture the video first, then encode/author it to DVD?

Secondly, I won't be doing a lot of editing at all, if any. I just need to transfer the VHS to DVD- cut out some commercials, and that's it- not even fancy menus or transitions.

Third, the VHS tapes are from the 1980s and 1990s; I'm not sure if that's a big factor.

Since the price of a Canopus ADVC-100 and some of the standalone recorders (Panasonic E30) are comparable, I'm really undecided as to which to get. Portability is a plus, as I'll be doing this through my laptop. That's why I'm looking at ADVC-100 and not ADVC-50 or other capture cards. An exterior box would be nice.

I'm sure some of you are/were in the same situation I'm in right now, so any advice will be much appreciated. Thanks!

[FulciLives]

If you want excellent quality at 3 hours per DVD-R disc then you will need to use the Canopus ADVC-100 along with some form of "video noise" post production such as the filters one can find in VirtualDub or AviSynth etc.

However this WILL take a LONG time to do.

Capture will be real time but then you have to do your MPEG-2 encoding step which can take much longer than real time.

I suggest you try a video resolution of 352x480/576 for NTSC/PAL and do a video bitrate of 3000kbps with an audio bitrate of 256kbps (either MP2 or better yet AC-3).

That will give you enough room for 3 hours per DVD and leave more than enough for your DVD authoring stage.

However I suggest you consider doing a 2-pass VBR encode using the following values:

1000kbps MIN
3000kbps AVG
5000kbps MAX

And again don't forget to filter.

My favorite "video noise" filter is Convolution3D for AviSynth.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[ckdexterhn1]

Since you have so many hours of video to transfer and are not worried about fancy menus, I would take a look at a standalone DVD recorder. I use a Panasonic E50, and you can get 704x480 resolution if you keep it no more than 3 hours in flex recording mode on a single disc. I also recommend using a GOOD VCR for playback, one with digital tracking & HQ for the older tapes or even a good SVHS player.

[spiderman2k1]

I second that DVD Recorder I have the Panasonic E80 love it.

[SatStorm]

DVD standalone recorder: Realtime convertions, good quality, about 2 hour per DVD5 disc. At first, this solution is cheaper, but long term no.

PC root: Excellent quality, about 4 hours per DVD5 disc. You need plenty of time to learn about it and when you first start cost you a lot. Long term, is cheaper. Also the convertions take time.

IMHO, if you have the time, you have patience and you know about PCs, choose the PC root.

[Sam Ontario]

I would recommend any DVD recorder (+RW is preferable) unless you have a lot of time to spend (or waste) on superficials such as menus, chapters etc.

[verchad]

Look at it this way, if you just want straight to dvd recording, no editing, then get the dvd recorder. If you want to take out commercials, scenes, rearrange the order of clips, then get the dvd recorder with the harddrive or go the pc route. I have a panasonic dmr-hs2, directivo, and a pc burner. Most of my video I converted with the panasonic. For special projects, I have used the pc or pc and panasonic.

[Alzarius]

Thanks all for the suggestions and thoughts.

Well, I think I scored big. I was leaning towards a capture card (ADVC-100) until I decided to check out some stores to see if any of their older model DVD recorders were on clearance. I was aware that the Panasonic line was getting upgraded (E50 replaced by E55, and E80 by the E85) and the stepup wasn't that huge, so maybe I could get an older one that was going for cheap. So I went to Best Buy, asked the guy there if they had any E50 models leftover, and he said no, they were all gone. However, they had an E80 on display. I was a bit skeptical at this point, because I was really looking at $300 max, and there's no way he'd give me the E80 for that price, considering the E85 is $699. And it was a display model too. So while he went to check on the price of the E80, I played around with it to make sure it was working, no defects, scratches, etc. The 80GB HD was nice too. The guy came back and told me $299 !!!!! Holy cow I thought. He said it doesn't come with a manual though (no big deal, I'm downloading it right now), and no remote, no box, no RCS/S-Video cables. Only the power cable and the 1 yr manufacturer's warranty, and I can take it back to Best Buy within 30 days if I don't like it. I really wanted to get it, but the no remote thing made me reconsider. I didn't want to go home with it and not be able to use it. Then I spotted a remote control for the display model E55, right next to the E80. It wasn't exactly the right remote, but I said "How about I try this remote, and if it works for the E80, can I have it?" He said sure.... and sure enough, it works. It's only missing some minor buttons, like the Hard Disc mode, but he said I could have it, and if I wanted to, I could order a remote control for $25. So, I went home with all this for $299 + tax. Open box model, no scratches, just some dust on the top, looks great.

Not bad eh? Now I just have to make sure it works alright.

[FulciLives]

Well since you went with a stand alone DVD recorder I suggest you HIGHLY consider using nothing longer than the SP 2 HOUR MODE if you want acceptable good quality.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
If you use DVD-RAM to record on you can buy a DVD burner for the computer that also reads DVD-RAM discs and then import the DVD-RAM to your computer for more precision DVD Authoring. TMPGEnc DVD Author is great for this. Allows you to do some simple cut editing and create a nice menu without having to re-encode the video/audio.

If you already have a DVD burner on the computer that doesn't read DVD-RAM then you can buy a DVD-ROM reader that WILL for around $40 or so.

[Alzarius]

Cool, thanks. I'll probably want to get that too, since I do have a burner.

Incidentally, this is my first ever standalone DVD player also. I've never bought a DVD player or recorder before, just a burner for my computer. I thought that in itself was special.

[bbllc]

If you decide to do any of your editing on the PC, then I highly recommend this site: http://www.dvdguideuk.dsl.pipex.com/dvdguide/editing1/editing1.htm

My setup is as follows:
1. DirecTV Tivo receiver
2. Sony RDR-GX7 DVD burner.

Since the Sony does not have a hard drive I do all of the editing on the PC. I hope this helps.

[FulciLives]

If you decide to do any of your editing on the PC, then I highly recommend this site: http://www.dvdguideuk.dsl.pipex.com/dvdguide/editing1/editing1.htm

My setup is as follows:
1. DirecTV Tivo receiver
2. Sony RDR-GX7 DVD burner.

Since the Sony does not have a hard drive I do all of the editing on the PC. I hope this helps.

Interesting BUT all you REALLY need is TMPGEnc DVD Author.

The only limitation for editing (with TMPGEnc DVD Author) is that you can ONLY edit on an I frame and an I frame only happens about once every 15 frames or 1/2 second but that is usually accurate enough.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[bbllc]

I have never used TMPGEnc DVD Author, but I think that I am going to give it a try. What I have always loved about Womble Mpeg-VCR is that it is so user friendly.