Advice capturing VHS

[PaulePanter]

Hi everybody,

my first post If some of my questions have already been answered in a different post, please point me to it. And sorry for the inconvenience.


== background information ==

I also want to backup the tapes of my grandfather. He copied the material from his VHS-Camcorder to a Grundig S-VHS recorder. At my hands I have a LG RC6500 DVD-Recorder + VCR (It has a S-Video-Output, so I guess it supports S-VHS-tapes.), a Toshiba V71G VCR (VHS, very old) and a Panasonic NV-GS500 Digital Video Camera.


== Problems / Questions ==

My main concern is quality (I know, it depends on the input and normally you won't get DVD quality out of VHS quality.) There are a few ways to achieve this. Could you please rate those and please reference the number.

1. Use a DVD-VCR-Combo.

Since I want to edit and enhance the material, I'd prefer to capture directly to the computer.


2. Use a passthrough of e.g. a DV Camera.
(source: https://www.videohelp.com/dvanalog)

It would be great, if I could have some more opinions/tests for the quality of this method.


3. Use a PC capture card.

Well, no questions here.


4. Use a ADVC -- I looked at the Canopus ADVC-300.

I would prefer this solution. It costs a lot, but since I have a bunch of tapes, I guess it is worth it. Can anyone tell me his/her experience and if somebody could compare the ADVC-110 and ADVC-300 or a similar device?

@ FulciLives: I found also some places, where you can rent those, if it is too expensive to buy one.


5. For question 2, 3, 4 I have to have a great player.

You need:
A good VCR (obviously!)

see also:
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=247084&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
http://digitalfaq.com/dvdguides/capture/playback.htm

The informations are over a year old, but I think, there is not much going on anymore on this market.

They all recommend the JVC devices. Unfortunately I was not able to find those in Germany. If anyone has a suggestions how I could get one or if anyone could name alternatives, this would be much appreciated.

6. Cables

What kind of cables can you recommend? Are normal shielded ones good enough?


7. Did I miss anything?


So far, my conclusion for the setup with best quality is:
Connect the VCR to the ADVC and record over firewire.


Thanks a lot for your answers beforehand.

PaulePanter


PS: If some more experienced users think, this should be a seperate post, please say so.

[mats.hogberg]

Welcome to VideoHelp. Yes, you should have started this as a new thread. New question (even if related to the original)=new thread. Everything else is threadjacking
If you're going to edit your captures, beyond cutting out pieces here and there, capturing to DV surely is the way to go. However, it requires lots of HDD space, and time to encode to mpg before authoring as DVD.
If you're not going to edit much, a hardware DVD encoder (like the Hauppage cards) can make your life easier, as what you capture is in fact ready to be authored as DVD.

/Mats

[thecoalman]

He copied the material from his VHS-Camcorder to a Grundig S-VHS recorder.

If possible capture from the original VHS tapes.

2. Use a passthrough of e.g. a DV Camera.
(source: https://www.videohelp.com/dvanalog)

4. Use a ADVC -- I looked at the Canopus ADVC-300.

edit: add the 110 to this list

Any these options will give you similar results especially if you have good material to work with. The 300 has additional noise filters but personally I would just get the 110 and sink that extra cash into a better VCR or other analog equipment. Some DV cams differ to the options they offer, some for example have LTBC's which will help stabilize the video.... See the restoration forum for more analog filtering options: https://forum.videohelp.com/viewforum.php?f=43