Laserdisc to DVD?

[v.a.g]

I am looking at purchasing a new system anyway, and would like to convert my old LD collection to DVD.

How do I do that?

What would I need, what do you guys use? (Soft-/and Hardware)

Any information is appreciated...

[yg1968]

You will get a different answer from everyone on this question.

I use my Sony TRV-25 digital camcorder (which has a passthrough feature) as a capturing device and plug it in the firewire port on my computer. You can only use a digital camcorder as a capturing device if it has a video in. Ideally, you should also make sure that it also has passthrough feature. Most Sony digital camcorders have this feature (however, the TRV-140 doesn't). The Sony camcorders have the advantage of also defeating macrovision. You would need a firewire port and firewire cables. It is possible to buy both at the same time. DV uses 12-13 gig an hour. So an extra hard disk is useful.

Instead of a digital camcorder, It is also possible to also buy a capturing card. If you do so, I would suggest one that captures directly to mpeg-2.

I then burn with my DVD burner. I would suggests buying the following DVD burner: the Sony DRU-500, if you haven't yet bought a DVD burner.

Software comes with the DVD burner. However, TMPGEnc is a necessity for encoding from avi to mpeg-2 for most people.

Here is a useful link for DVD burners:

www.dvdplusrw.org

[v.a.g]

when capturing with your camcorder, how is the quality? In what format do you save the files on your PC? Do you need to convert them before burning?

[yg1968]

The quality is very good. It is hard to tell that it is not the same as the original. DV is captured in an avi file. So you must encode to mpeg-2 with TMPGEnc.

I have been told that using a good mpeg-2 capturing card gives you 5% to 10% lesser quality than using a DV camcorder with passthrough but it is much faster and cheaper. I am biased towards DV but others prefer the speed of a mpeg-2 capture card. If you go for the mpeg-2 capture card route, make sure that you get a good one. Some are better than others. I am not the right person to ask about these capture cards since I don't own one.

[v.a.g]

Thanks for the info, that already helped a lot