less painful method VHS-C > DVD

[empathy]

Hi, just lost a loved one recently (my mum) and went to view some of my home movies (VHS-C), I noticed they are beginning to degrade, so of course I'd like to preserve what I have, (and preserve any memories I have of her), the tapes are not too bad but some are about 10 years old or over. Don’t want to backup any other tapes except for the home made VHS-C tapes.

I've read many threads over the last week, but haven't really gotten anywhere, Please what do I need to achieve a decent result in transferring to dvd?, I don’t want to spend a lot of cash unless I’m really going to achieve any improvements with these tapes.

What I have (not much!):
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* VHS-C tapes (only about 20), so of course I need the adapter cartridge which I have to play the tapes in a vcr, which some ppl don't approve of using it in a SVHS (something about being chewed up?).

* In PC - P3GHz, 1GB mem, DVD burner, WinXP, plenty of HDD space, Compro Gold capture card.

* Oh I do have an old panasonic vcr, which I don't even want to mention, too old. Need to upgrade just until I can transfer to DVD then I'll be selling the new vcr whichever I get.

Have no idea if this will cut it (actually i do they aren't the best!), but would also like to know will a SVHS vcr help these tapes OR NOT?, or is the SVHS just handy for the S-Video connection that it has?

Does anyone have a compro gold card?. if you do what software do you use for capture & what resolution do you use?, have tried virtaldub at 720x576 but it won't capture at this resolution, yet ComproPVR v2 captures OK, will stick with this at the moment, just curious?

BTW, I live in Australia and can't find any JVC HR-S9911U vcr, does anyone know where I can find one down here or maybe something remotely close?

So is this all I need – a good SVHS and a TBC-1000 (what’s wrong with a TBC-100 pc card?), or can I get away with just a good SVHS, anything else?

Anyway thanks for any assistance you guys here at videohelp.com can provide.

[nelson133]

The a-number one, least painfuk way of doing this is to get a stand alone dvd-recorder. If you have the video camers that the tapes were shot on, you may be able to play them back directly into the recorder from the camers.
Nyah Levi

[empathy]

The a-number one, least painfuk way of doing this is to get a stand alone dvd-recorder. If you have the video camers that the tapes were shot on, you may be able to play them back directly into the recorder from the camers.
Nyah Levi

So are you trying to imply that the original recorder (that being my panasonic compact vhs recorder) will do a better playback than any brand new SVHS player would? Sorry for the counter question but that sounds odd although you could be right.

thanks for your help.