standalone or pc burner or both!!

[bulldog2108]

whats the best solution.......i want to back up my old vhs tapes....should i buy a standalone and record onto +rw and then use the pc dvd burner to create menus, chapters and add graphics....will a standalone recorded dvd work in most pc burners??....or should i just hook the vcr up to the pc and capture

[andkiich]

Depends.

Probably not what you want to hear, but there are a lot of factors. If the tapes are older, then in order to get them captured without a lot of dropped frames you will probably need a TBC. You will have to get a separate one if going straight to the PC, and a lot of the stand alones have them built in(but not all do).

If you really want to customize with menus, transitions and editing, then I suggest going straight to the PC and getting a PC burner. If the majority of the VHS will be straight copies, then go with the stand alone.

Even if you use the stand alone for capturing to RW, if you want that on the PC for editing, then you will still need a PC burner. I've also found that editing and manipulating uncompressed AVI is a lot easier than MPEG2, and there are a lot more/better tools(IMHO) for AVI editing than MPEG2.

[bulldog2108]

so if i make a dvd on a standalone its MPEG2?....i could then use a dvd burner and software to make fancy menus etc and reburn as a complete dvd?

[hech54]

Lets make this simpler...
1) Capturing (then encoding) on a computer to DVD format is a pain in the a$$.
2) Editing DVD's from a standalone DVD Recorder on a PC is LESS of a pain in the a$$....but still requires some studying on your part.
3) If the old VHS tapes are factory ones...you also may have a Macrovision (copy protection) issue to deal with with a standalone DVD Recorder.

Plain and simple?....there is no real EASY solution. But once your DVD is created(authored and menu'd to your liking)...a DVD "Burner" for your computer will copy it with no problems at all.