I need to transfer my home videos from VHS to DVD but...

[thotholicious]

the number of DVD’s has to be some how minimized. I was told by someone that I can only fit 2 hours of video onto a DVD but I need to fit between 6 and 8 hours on each DVD as that is how long the tapes are. I know this is possible because I've seen it? I have no equipment at all so I also need to be advised on what is best. I'm running windows XP with an AMD 2100, 512mb ddr233 and 40 GB. How much HD space will I need? What software will I need? What capture card or TV card will I need? If the burner and the Capture or TV tuner card is all the hardware I will have to buy I don't mind getting a good quality capture card. Main goal is to have my 300hrs of home movies on 40-50dvds with a pretty good quality (not DVD quality or anything) and also not spending to much money in the process. Anyone have any suggestions? I may have to record these DVDs for other family members so I have to be able to record them from DVD to DVD.

Thanks in advance guys, much appreciated

[rvl123]

Wow, so many questions in one go...

Anyways, as far as HD space, you will need to go out and buy a BIG HD (160 GB+).

As far as creating the DVDs itself, I cannot suggest a capture card as I don't own one, but people on a budget seem to be getting AverTV cards.

So after capturing at DVD standards (720x480), I would suggest DVDLab to author your video (at this point, don't worry about size issues).

Then take the resulting vob files and run them through DVD2One or DVDShrink or any other transcoding tool.

And voila, you're all set! The quality won't be DVD quality, but should be watchable.

[fbreve]

You can fit 8 hours video in one DVD but only with near VCD quality.

Your system is probably ok to capture, you only need another HD to your video files, 80 GB should be ok, 120 or 160 GB would be even better.

About capture cards, I don't know what to recommend to you. I have a Pinnacle DC10plus, it's a good board, give good results, but Pinnacle sucks. They don't care about writing a decent driver for Windows XP, I still have to use Windows ME for capturing.

My software sugestions are:

Virtualdub: for capturing, editing (cutting commercials, etc.) and frameserving (also consider some audio editing software if you want to improve audio quality)

TMPGEnc: for MPEG encoding. Some people claims CCE is better for MPEG-2. As this software didn't work in my machine, I really can't tell you.

BeSweet: For AC3 audio encoding

DVD-Lab: for authoring

Nero: for burning

You won't need DVD2ONE or DVD Shrink, just encode VBR at the desired file size.

[andkiich]

If you want to fit that much information on one DVD, then you might want to consider capturing and encoding in half D1(352x480 MPEG2). The low bitrate you wil need to use will be better served by the half D1. I don't think that it will look that good to begin with, but it's your video not mine. You might also want to reconsider the amount of info per disc. Even at half D1, I'd only go 4 hours per disc, otherwise you might not be happy with the results.

[Nolonemo]

I agree with andkiich, 4 hours max in half D1 format. BTW, I couldn't see any difference between D1 and half D1 at 6000kbps bitrate.

Re: the comment on "near VCD quality" - because you're starting with VHS, you're only going to get VCD quality anyway.

[edlav]

With what you have to buy(large hard drive-dvd burner-capture card-software) and the amount time you will have to put into it. I would recommend a stand alone recorder like the panasonic dmr-e50 that sells for about $350. I bought the e60 because I wanted a dv port for my digital camcorder. I am very pleased with the results. I have one home move that is 3hrs and I put it on 2 discs easily. It records in real time just like copying with a vcr.

[Bob W]

Trust me just buy a DVD recorder like the Panasonic E50 already suggested.

[fbreve]

Re: the comment on "near VCD quality" - because you're starting with VHS, you're only going to get VCD quality anyway.

Actually, by "near VCD quality" I mean MPEG-1 352x240 (it's a valid DVD format and the only one that would give him 8 hours).
Half D1 is fine for 4 hours, but I believe it would look terrible if used for 8 hours.

[Vejita-sama]

VHS and DVD are different formats. A 8hr (T160 ep mode) VHS tape has crap quaility, so a crap DVD backup might be ok. I would still plan to put each tape on 2 DVDR discs (but double cases to store them in).

You can put 8hrs on a DVDR, just make a small test file (say 2-5min) at the needed bitrate and see if that quaility is acceptable to you.

[thayne]

If you want to fit that much information on one DVD, then you might want to consider capturing and encoding in half D1(352x480 MPEG2). The low bitrate you wil need to use will be better served by the half D1. I don't think that it will look that good to begin with, but it's your video not mine. You might also want to reconsider the amount of info per disc. Even at half D1, I'd only go 4 hours per disc, otherwise you might not be happy with the results.

I agree with this. 8 hours is really pushing it, but if you go with Half D1 352X480 you can get more video onto a DVD. I would suggest not more than 4-5 hours per DVD though. If I were to do this I would capture at full D1 720X480 and then use an encoder like TMPGenc to encode and re-size the output file.

Or you can use the DVD Low Res preset in TMPGenc and get 4.5 hours of VCD quality video per DVD

[thotholicious]

thanks guys, you guys are the best. I just ordereed 200 dvd cds and will getting the the burner you guys suggested. One more quick question, what are you thoughts on the Sony DRU500A DVD-R/RW Drive ???

[lchiu7]

You can fit 8 hours video in one DVD but only with near VCD quality.

Your system is probably ok to capture, you only need another HD to your video files, 80 GB should be ok, 120 or 160 GB would be even better.

About capture cards, I don't know what to recommend to you. I have a Pinnacle DC10plus, it's a good board, give good results, but Pinnacle sucks. They don't care about writing a decent driver for Windows XP, I still have to use Windows ME for capturing.

Just another experience. I use a DC10+ all the time on a Duron 1.4Ghz under XP Pro. Works fine capturing with both Pinnacle Studio 7 and iuvcr - cpu usually runs about 5% during a capture via the s-video input from a VCR video out connection (fed by my cable box). The files are large that come out but I then transcode down to mpeg2 format (from the mjpeg format) using tmpgenc with the PicVideo mjpeg codec loaded

Larry

[fbreve]

Just another experience. I use a DC10+ all the time on a Duron 1.4Ghz under XP Pro. Works fine capturing with both Pinnacle Studio 7 and iuvcr - cpu usually runs about 5% during a capture via the s-video input from a VCR video out connection (fed by my cable box). The files are large that come out but I then transcode down to mpeg2 format (from the mjpeg format) using tmpgenc with the PicVideo mjpeg codec loaded

Larry

My DC10+ actually works in Windows XP, but XP driver doesn't have that option to disable "Check Video Signal While Capturing", and this option should be disabled to capture bad tapes, otherwise it loses too many frames. That's why I am still using XP. If you search Pinnacle forums, you'll see that a lot of people already asked Pinnacle to include this option in Windows XP driver, but they really don't care.

[likwid8]

thanks guys, you guys are the best. I just ordereed 200 dvd cds and will getting the the burner you guys suggested. One more quick question, what are you thoughts on the Sony DRU500A DVD-R/RW Drive ???

I own a Sony dru-500ax DVD Burner which is multi usable as I can choose -/+. It really works wonders for me, all my electronic gimmicks I got are either Canon or Sony. My burner never had a problem and always works flawlessly. I would comment on the VHS --> DVD but I can be typing for hours hehehe, so ill just make it quick, VHS are old, DVDS are new now, if you want to keep those precious moments on DVD I would go for the extra mile and make it as highest quality possible, sure you will need some extra DVDs, but I sure want my memorabilia to be well kept. DVDs are 1mm compared to a VHS thats like 3cm wide. You bought 50 dvdrs and thats excellent, you will probably need to go an buy another 50, but I know and you know that once your done, the final product was well worth it.

P.S. Since your new at this, I hope you didnt buy 50 DVD-Rs and a DVD+RW burner....that would really suck, hehhe, just get the sony burner, latez.

[danalmsa]

Pinnacle did not provide a driver. I ended up downloading Pinnacle Studio 7 from Kazaa , which was the only way I could get the driver.

[thotholicious]

Thnks guys, I went ahead and bought 200 dvds since my family will want copies. Hope this works.

[lchiu7]

Hmm - I can't remember if you needed to have Studio 7 before applying the XP patches for the DC10+. Certainly I bought it but actually don't use it - use iuvcr instead

Larry

[jfvan]

Here is how I do it. I use my ATI AIW Radeon 7500 and capture in VCD format. Since they are old VHS, it won't get much better. I then take these MPG's and load them into TMPGEnc DVD Author. I do not do any re-encode since the VCD MPEGS work. I then have a VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folder. I just drag them into nero and burn. Very simple, but it does the trick. Haven't had one that didn't turn out.

P.S. I use the software that came from ATI. Version 7.5. If you go to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ and delete the file ATITVO*.dll, it will disable all macrovision.

[ronnylov]

You need to capture audio with 48 kHz sampling frequency so even if VCD video is DVD compliant the audio is not because VCD use 44100 Hz audio sampling frequency. However this is easy to change in the capture settings.

Some of you say that VHS is not better than VCD quality, but this is not correct. VHS can be interlaced and the vertical resolution need to be 480 pixels NTSC or 576 pixels PAL to get the full resolution of a VHS tape. Half D1 is close to VHS resolution so I would not recommend going lower than that.

[bobinga]

About capture cards, I don't know what to recommend to you. I have a Pinnacle DC10plus, it's a good board, give good results, but Pinnacle sucks. They don't care about writing a decent driver for Windows XP, I still have to use Windows ME for capturing.

Hey Daffy, Love your Avitar...
I also have the dc10 and use Studio7 and get excellent results on my xp machine. Have you downloaded the proper update from Pinnacle.
I love the ease of editing with Pinnacle. I could not get Studio 8 to work on my computer w/o crashing though.

[fbreve]

I also have the dc10 and use Studio7 and get excellent results on my xp machine. Have you downloaded the proper update from Pinnacle.
I love the ease of editing with Pinnacle. I could not get Studio 8 to work on my computer w/o crashing though.

I wasn't clear in my statement.
The driver works. But, it sucks.
If you're capturing only good quality material it's ok.
But if you're capturing from old (and not the first generation) tapes, you need to disable the "check video signal while recording" board feature. Otherwise you'll get too much dropped frames.
Unfortunatelly, this option only exists in Windows 9x driver, it doesn't exist in Windows XP version.