Need advice on 1 capture device to convert vhs to dvd and cassettes to Cd's

[spodekmodek]

If any one has advice on what is VERY simple to use, can rest on top of tower and I can plug and unplug my cassette player and VCR...I would really appreciate it.

[RowMan]

You could try to find a Liteon LVW-5006 DVD recorder (which also does CDs).

To record copy protected VHS, you'll need to modify the original firmware found here...

http://r00.liteonit.com.tw/DC/english/download/index.asp

...with the program found here...

http://ilohacker.tripod.com/

I've backed up plenty of VHS (to DVD), vinyl records, and audio cassettes (to CD) with this unit and results have been pretty good.

[FulciLives]

Any video capture device can also be used as an audio only capture device. Now chances are it will capture to a single file with both video and audio and of course the video will simply be blank but you can easily separate the audio from it afterwards so ... really any video capture device should work.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[spodekmodek]

Thanks for the reply folks-

One last thing. When going the DVD recorder route, do any models allow for ANY minor degree of clean up or improvement of quality before recording? If I could enhance even a tiny bit before the recording it would let me forego the whole download to computer process.

Thanks again

[RowMan]

The Liteon units do not, but I believe some Panasonics do.

[FulciLives]

Thanks for the reply folks-

One last thing. When going the DVD recorder route, do any models allow for ANY minor degree of clean up or improvement of quality before recording? If I could enhance even a tiny bit before the recording it would let me forego the whole download to computer process.

Thanks again

Do you mean video or audio wise?

Some DVD recorders have settings to adjust things like contrast and brightness and color saturation and noise reduction. Many do not have this though. Then again some are known to clean up the image big time so ...

In short the LSI chipset DVD recorders do a good job. A popular model out there right now is one by Polaroid which has an 80GB HDD built-in and sells for a very reasonable price at WALMART. Ther are other models that use LSI such as JVC and some Lite-On units.

The Toshiba DVD recorders I think have a noise reduction thing built-in but I think that only applies to the more expensive HDD equipped models.

The Pioneer models have some basic controls to help with brightness and contrast and color saturation but although they have noise reduction I have found you have to be very carefull with the settings or you can muck up the picture. One nice thing though is when the noise reduction is off you do get a most excellent recording but it won't look better per se than the source.

For VHS work some people say you cannot beat the LSI chipset models.

That's just a real quick run down of things. There is a lot of old threads you should read in the DVD recorder section of the forums.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
I am not aware of any of the DVD recorders having any kind of built-in filter or "clean-up" for audio.

[spodekmodek]

Thanks Rowman and especially thanks John for taking the time to spell things out for me. Yeah, it was video cleanup that I was interested in. Its less intimidating to clean up audio on the computer.
I will check out the DVD recorders section. One can spend several lifetimes researching all this stuff. Especially since I thought about getting a TIVO like device for my TV. Now I will have to check out one unit that does EVERYTHING.

[FulciLives]

I say go with the Pioneer DVR-640H-s because it just works and works well. It has a built-in 160GB HDD which gives you a lot of added functionality vs. a DVD recorder without a built-in HDD.

Only thing is that the Pioneer really doesn't do much to "clean" the video.

For that you may want to research the Toshiba RD-XS35 which also has a built-in 160GB HDD but probably (from my understanding) cleans up the video a bit more than the Pioneer. Also my understanding is that this model works well with a lot of nice features similiar to the Pioneer. The Toshiba also has FIREWIRE input for a digital camcorder whereas the Pioneer does not. I wouldn't call that a deal breaker but for some people it is (i.e., they want FIREWIRE input).

Last but not least there is the Polaroid DRM-2001G with a built-in 80GB HDD (sold at WALMART). This model seems to have a few "quirks" that might make using it a bit less than "smooth" but the quality is very good from what I hear probably because it uses the LSI chipset which does more "cleaning" of the source than the Pioneer or Toshiba. One bad thing here though is that you are stuck using 1 hour, 2 hour, 2 1/2 hour, 3 hour etc. modes. The Pioneer and Toshiba allow for various bitrate settings so you aren't just stuck with basic modes. So for instance if you have a 90 minute movie the Pioneer and Toshiba can use a recording mode to max the quality (raise the bitrate to "just fit" the 90 minutes to a single DVD disc). With the Polaroid you would have to pick the 2 hour mode for the 90 minutes movie thus wasting 30 minutes of bitrate.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[spodekmodek]

Totally informative. THanks for pointing me in the right direction. I can now focus my research a little better. I

I will try to pay your good karhma forward!