SVHS to digital video

[foreleft!]

I have lots of family videos in SHVS format...thinking about using the Canopus ADVC 110 to convert and then suck all of the info into an iMac and use iMovie to edit/create new movies. This is a "hobby" project for my wife and I know it will take lots of time. Am I going down the right path? What haven't I considered? Is there better hardware/software for accomplishing this task? Appreciate insights from anyone who has "been there, done that!"

[SatStorm]

Using ADVC to transfer your SVHS tapes to your PC (Mac, whatever), it is considered the best method quality wise. It needs plenty of HDD space, a good encoder so to convert AVI to mpeg 2 (or whatever) and probably some filtering, that you can add by using additional programs.
All that needs time, some effort to learn the curve of doing it and probably you won't get it right from your first attempt.

Most people simply buy a standalone DVD Recorder to do this job. You loose a 10% of the so called "perfect result" that way, but you gain time. Much time.

The choice is yours.

[2Bdecided]

The ADVC110 needs a good signal - you'll need a TBC.

The levels on my S-VHS camcorder tapes turned out to be wrong, so I needed a proc-amp too.

You will probably need some denoising somewhere - S-VHS isn't perfect, and the chroma is no better than VHS.

Cheers,
David.

[hech54]

S-VHS to my Hauppauge PVR-350 recorded in highest quality mode (MPEG) via S-VHS cable, authored it to an oversized DVD, ran it through DVDShrink.....it looks exactly like the VHS tape.

Simple.

[lordsmurf]

....it looks exactly like the VHS tape.

That's not good enough for me. I want to remove VHS/S-VHS errors, not keep them forever. This includes grain, chroma noise, timing/sync distortions, etc.

A DVD recorder that filters tape flaws is often a better route than the DV conversion method.