MPEG to VHS Video

[everglade]

I am wanting to convert MPEG music videos to VHS video. I've been told that a Matrox G550 with TV-out would satisfy my needs with good quality output. Anyone disagree? Is it best to just plug the cable to the TV-out then into the VCR? Or do I need what they call a breakout cable? If so, what is one? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know that I will lose some quality, but I dont want to lose TOO much! Thanks

[wulf109]

Better method would be to burn the mpg's to a CDR and see if your DVD player supports raw mpg playback,if so just hook the output of the DVD to your VCR inputs.

[everglade]

I'm afraid I dont have a DVD player at the moment.

[pixel]

As its only going to a VHS cassette, just buy a cheap vid card with composite out and you will be set.

The only thing I could criticise about the DVD method is that some DVD players enable macrovision even on home made VCDs.

[everglade]

Is composite out the same as TV-out then?

[pixel]

Composite out is the yellow lead. Most VCRs have a scart lead connection so all you do is buy a scart switcher (like £2/$2) and connect the yellow lead, and white and red audio leads (connected to the output on your sound card/onboard sound) to it, then plug it in the scart socket.

TV out is usually RF out (eg. aerial cable, poor quality).

[everglade]

Thanks for that, is Composite Out the same as DVI output? Could you recommend a good video card for my needs? As I said, I've been pointed to the Matrox G550 so far.

[overloaded_ide]

My personal advice,

If you have a CD-burner, forget getting the tv out cards. Burn to disk as VCD or even a raw mpeg and buy a $50 DVD player! Unless you have other uses for tv out.

I don't know the price of the card you are looking at, or others that would do a good job, but I bet they aren't much less than $50 anyways.

Play your disk in the DVD player record on the vcr!

Unless your doing Large 90 minute ones I think this would be your best bet! Then you also have a DVD player AND your not tying up the pc everytime you need to make one.

If you buy the player at Wallmart you have either 30 or 90 days to take it back if it don't do what you want it to, so your out nothing but a little time to try it!

My Norcent DP 300 would work very well for this! I have in the past recorded mpeg to cdr and dvdr, it plays the files fine (LARGE mpegs on DVDr lockup, stay at or under 1gig each)

As for recording to VCR, I have had no problem with this player! I created an original content DVD on my computer, played the disk in the norcent, recorded on VCR! Tape worked fine!

Perhaps some models will not work as well as the Norcent DP300, if not, just take it back and get a different model!

As for the mpegs on a disk. I have put several on one disk, no menu's or anything. When played on the Norcent it gives me a screen like a menu showing whats on the disk. Shows the mpegs, just hightlight and hit enter/play or when I have a folder with files in it I can select that hit enter to open it, than see all those mpegs.
Don't kow if all players will do that, but mine does. And my Norcent reads CDRW, so no need to use alot of disks, I can use the same one over and over if all I want to do is record files to VHS.

Unless your files are way to large to fit CDr and you can't breakem, this is the way I would go!

For me it works perfect, your milage may vary!

[overloaded_ide]

Pixel,

The only thing I could criticise about the DVD method is that some DVD players enable macrovision even on home made VCDs.

That would be an excelent case to sue macrovision over! Though I am sure your correct, they have no legal rights to prevent you from making copies of your own content, as YOU and only YOU own the rights to that!

If there protection schemes prevents production of your works, get a group together and sue over it!

Of course, if you get a player that does not do what you want it to, then take it back. Don't know about your stores, but here we have lot's of stores that have easy return policies for refunds.

Wallmart, Bestbuy, and many others have a no questions asked return for refund policy for 30-90 days after purchase if you keep your reciept and all packaging. I use it OFTEN! I am a very picky shopper, and when I buy something I expect to do anything I want with it, and of course if it don't do it, it goes back!

It's also a great way to test new products! If something new is supposed to have such great higher quality, and I can't see an improvement over my old stuff, it goes back too.

[everglade]

That sounds a much better alternative, thanks. I've found a nice DVD player on e-bay, I'm just worried about this macrovision though. If I burn VCD on my PC and play these in the DVD player, will they have this on? And if so, will an Digital Image Stabilizer rectify this? Or is it best to download the software that disables the macrovision to run before burning the VCD's? Thanks

[overloaded_ide]

Not to sure I understand the last questions about macrovision.

When you make your own disks they will not have any protections on them!

What was said about the DVD player, was I beleave that some models may falsley send out the protections even when playing your own NOT protected disks. If that happened it would be because of the player not your disks or tapes. I never had that problem, but then I only used this one player so far for that purpose.

In order to make your disks, the protections (if any) have to be removed from the source, like durring ripping a dvd or capturing VHS. Protections are not recorded to your DVDs or VCDs.

[everglade]

Am I mis-understanding macrovision here? I've just contacted a seller on e-bay who has a DVD player up for auction, who says that macrovision is NOT enabled on it, so I wouldnt be able to copy from it. I thought macrovision WAS the protection and had to BE enabled? Is this seller wrong? If I burn a VCD of MPEG's on my PC, will that then play in this DVD player without the interference to VHS video? I'm confused now!

[FOO]

Macrovision NOT enabled simply outputs the video without
deliberately trashing it.

[fourthquark]

I use a Matrox G450 Dual-Head video to run my video back out to VHS and it works great. The G550 is almost the same thing. The retail version of the card comes with an adapter to convert the second VGA head to composite video. Then you can use a standard composite video cable to connect to a VCR. OEM versions of the card usually do not include the composite adapter, but it can be purchased separately from Matrox for not that much money.

The G450 (and G550) Dual-Head driver includes a mode called "DVD Max". When you use DVD-Max mode along with the connection as descibed above, ANY video that you play on your computer (no just DVD video) goes out on the composite line to VCR/TV at FULL SCREEN. All you record/see on VCR/TV is the video - you don't record/see any of the surrounding Window elements such ar title bar, menu bar, etc. Also, the Dual_Head driver allows you to make colour adjustments to fine-tune the outgoing composite video signal.

At the risk of sounding like a Matrox salesman, I must take a moment to extol the virtues of this company and their products. Matrox is one of the most under-rated video card producers. They don't have a big name and big profile like ATI and N-Vidia. They have deliberately chosen to stay out of the 3-D arms race. They make non-flashy, reliable, functional products that are widely used in OEM. Their drivers are rock solid and they provide support for their products for a long time. They were the first to offer dual-head technology in consumer-level graphics cards. They have a long history in the professional-level digital video equipment business, so they know the technology very well. I have been using Matrox products for 6 years. I have had my G450 in my computer for 2 years and it has worked flawlessly - no conflicts, no incompatibilities, no trouble.

[cooel]

I have a Hollywood decoder card fitted in my computer. This will output DVD, MPEG 1 or 2 and will even convert PAL to NTSC or NTSC to PAL, and the quality is fantastic, much much better than the composite output from my ATI video card. It outputs the sound as well. It cost me £50.00 ($75.00) and I can say is one of the best buys I have ever made for the computer. Link:

http://www.utobia.com/product.asp?m_cat=s_mpeg2dvd&cat=dvd&action=show&id=266_dvd

[FOO]

Does it kill Macrovision ?

[cooel]

The hollywood card does not kill macrovision on its own I use "DVD Region Free", which kills macrovision on this card and on Power DVD.