Buying NEW Hardware for VHS to DVD Projects

[SandmaN78]

Im going to buy some things this week to get motivated once again to try and transfer all my old VHS movies to DVD. My questions are:

If you had the choice, would you buy a New ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 or would you go with something like the USB 2.0 Pinnacle Video Capture Device? I have always wanted an ATI " " " " and I wanted to know which of the two would be easiest, better, faster, etc...

Also, what software would you recommend for actually capturing, etc..

Is this going to be easy?

Thanks

Dave

[Poppa_Meth]

I wouldn't really suggest a USB capture device. too much room for error. an ADVC-100 or DAC-100 through firewire would be better.

[DaveS]

have you considered a set top recorder? just wondering

[MachineMan]

A PCI card with composite(RCA) in jacks would be simple and cheap. The ATI has these inputs through a S-Video jack but I think it will cost more becuase its also a graphics card and fits in the AGP slot. Most retail software should recognize a capture card. Software: ATI, Ulead, Pinnacle........

Check the capture cards section on the left of this site. There are lots of them.

[johns0]

Get the ati 9800pro if you are into gaming.

[darkstar127]

Posted: Dec 25, 2003 01:53

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Im going to buy some things this week to get motivated once again to try and transfer all my old VHS movies to DVD. My questions are:

If you had the choice, would you buy a New ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 or would you go with something like the USB 2.0 Pinnacle Video Capture Device? I have always wanted an ATI " " " " and I wanted to know which of the two would be easiest, better, faster, etc...

Also, what software would you recommend for actually capturing, etc..

Is this going to be easy?

Thanks

Check out the Capture Cards section and see which is the top user rated. Of course its the Canopus ADVC-100 and for good reason. Check out the user comments and you will see why. Once you have bought the ADVC-100, make sure you buy a decent VHS Deck (I bought JVC VHS-S deck for around $100 or so) and some good cables. Monster cables aren't necessary just really decent gold plated cables that won't have interference and static noise. Buy a Firewire card that works with the ADVC-100, there are several listed that won't work so make sure you buy the right one. Now you are setup to capture from VHS to your hard drive. The ADVC-100 captures in DV format and you can use Ulead Videostudio or Vegas Video (what I use) to capture the video, edit, then convert to whatever format you wish (VCD, SVCD, DVD). Check out the guides listed here to find out how to do certain things. The ADVC-100 will capture all the video including the overscan areas. If you find your captures look funny or the shape isn't exact like on TV, don't despair. You are doing it correctly. Most video is found to be like this and is hidden by the TV overscanning. Trust me when I tell you that you won't need to crop and everything will look ok when you finish encoding. Just try it, you will like it

Darkstar[/quote]

[FulciLives]

If you get the ATI AIW then check out the LordSmurf website. Might even want to check it out now before you buy as research.

One nice thing about ATI AIW cards is that you have the option to do AVI captures as well as DIRECT TO MPEG-1/MPEG-2 captures though the latter will require a decent speed computer.

If you aren't a diehard game playing nut (I say that with affection as I was once in that catagory) then you might want to consider the ATI AIW 9600 which will be the same CAPTURE wise as the 9800 since they use the same chipset. The other cards below the 9600 such as the 9000 AIW uses a slightly different chipset though any AIW since the 7500 model seem to be decent capture cards.

Bear in mind this is all from reading various stuff here and following stuff LordSmurf has written (whom I respect) but I don't have any first hand experience with ATI AIW capture cards.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[lordsmurf]

The 9800 is a monster that just drips with power. I wish I had one.

I've got older ATI AIW cards, and would not trade them for anything other than a newer ATI AIW (well, maybe a few exceptions in the $1500 range from Matrox or Canopus).

Some people like Canopus ADVC (DV AVI only), Dazzle MPEG cards (various problems) and Hauppaugge MPEG cards (non-compliant MPEG errors), but they each have drawbacks in the video process as shown in parentheses. ATI has drawbacks too, but it's confined to the installation process (can be hard, but not always).

Have fun shopping.

[rhegedus]

Don't limit your choices to just two!

At least have a read of this thread before you spend your $:

ADVC-100 vs ATI Radeon - Screenshots

It is a long thread, but there are some real eye-opening moments.

[Tommyknocker]

Don't limit your choices to just two!

I agree. I got the Pyro A/V Link because it was cheaper than ADVC-100 and does the same thing (takes analog/digital inputs and converts them all to firewire, and vice versa) and never looked back. So I do not have an option to check in this poll.

[tigerman8u]

i got the ATI AIW 9000 pro a couple weeks ago. using lordsmurf's guides i get excellent video and audio captures using P4 1.7 with 512mg ram. MMC 8.1 works great. upgrading to MMC 8.8 gave alot of headaches and i ended up going back to MMC 8.1

[bottle-necked]

Your system specs looks real good and you have a motherboard that doesn't have any VIA chips on it so you are a good candidate for a ATI AIW 9800 PRO card. Their $338.00. Mine will be here any day now. Ordered it Monday.

Good luck

[ktnwin]

I would strongly recomend for a stand alone DVD recorder (like the Panasonic). Then all the VHS tapes will be converted to DVD in no time.

[SandmaN78]

Thanks for all the info everyone!

Honestly I was at one time thinking about a Stand-alone unit. Has anyone seen one work. Would a stand alone be ALOT faster. I think I would rather do it thru the PC so I could eventually do Voice Overs, fades, etc.. But if there is a HUGE speed difference I wouild still consider the Stand alone. If I happen to pick up an ATI ALL IN WONDER 9800 PRO are there any cables that I will specifically need that you guys can think of. Thats one of those situations like when you get home with something new and DON'T have the batteries for it. lol

Oh yeah, if I went the stand alone route, is the Panasonic about as good as it gets?
Thanks for all the replys!

Dave
Sandman78
Extreme Newbie

[pbanders]

Don't limit your choices to just two!

I agree. I got the Pyro A/V Link because it was cheaper than ADVC-100 and does the same thing (takes analog/digital inputs and converts them all to firewire, and vice versa) and never looked back. So I do not have an option to check in this poll.

I have an ADS Pyro A/V Link and completely agree. Excellent device and considerably cheaper (~$100 less) than the ADVC. And it includes a component in/out that the ADVC lacks.

[SandmaN78]

What is the difference between the ATI ALL IN WONDER 9600 and the 9800? 9600 is only $129.00? I have a GeForce 4 TI 4400 right now, but it is sort of overkill. I hardly EVER play games. But when I do I want the graphics to be pretty good. Would the ATI AIW 9600 work for what I want out of it?

Thanks

The Poll is leaning more towards the ATI LOL

[ktnwin]

the standalone recorder is definitely the fastest way to convert any video to DVD. The good thing about the Panaosic unit si they have TBC that enhances the video captured from VHS tape and make the DVD look even better than original tapes !!! The computer can't do that.

There is some price to pay for although the cost is less than a PC equiped to do the same thing.
1) no editing capability
2) the menu is kind of boring
3) stuck with auto chapters every 5 mins or so
The PC path is quite complicate and frustrating, it always take longer to capture/convert/author/burn and you will run into problem along the way (I still do once in a while)

[DaveS]

Here's my experience w/ standalone vs. PC capture .. the standalone will be much quicker and easier, but of course the PC let's you do a lot more in terms of creativity. The realtime encoding on the standalone makes a big difference in terms of both time and ease, although true to the other post, the menus are boring, etc. (although you can do some editing, ala play lists, etc. but it's not super easy but is doable).

I don't know what your budget is, how much free time you have and how many tapes you have. The more tapes you have and/or the less free time, the more I would recommend the standalone.

One thing I have done lately to comine the two is convert the tape on the standalone, rip it onto the PC, add menus, etc. and then re-burn on the PC's burner (which is where the budget question comes in). DVD-lab, for example, has a scene autodetect feature which combined with the auto creation of scene menus can make a captured home video quite easy to use, although no editing.

If you want your editing limited to cuts and trimming, and maybe some cross-fades between scenes, you could still do this w/ the ripped mpeg files from the standalone. If you want more complex editing, you will need an analog capture solution as editing the AVI files is much easier (IMO).

I happen to have the sony, which I got primarily for the quality (IMO) of its conversion, although it does not have a hard drive (which was not as big a concern for me). It does have a TBC (probably on par w/ other built in TBCs) and does have noise reduction which I think works rather well.

This is not an argument for one or the other, just some info.

[SandmaN78]

I guess a person could go buy the stand alone, convert all their old VHS Tapes to DVD with the stand alone. Then RETURN the stand alone and get money back. From there rip movies from the DVDs made by the stand alone and tweak and reburn until your blue in the face

Im saying someone could do that, i never would do something like that myself.

Seriously, after reading that, curious as to what someone would charge just to "Generically" transfer my VHS stuff to DVD for me. Then I could take over from there.

However, I do have plenty of extra time, and I would really like to do this myself. I know there are going to be some speed bumps, oh well. Probably going to go get the ATI AIW PRO tomorrow.

[Leoslocks]

I am just comming off my first real successful author project. It only took a few months to get here. I am using a Ti4200 card on a Via chipset mobo(Not the best senario).
1. Capture to uncompressed AVI(Huffyuv had occasional glitches)
70 Minute sVhs = 84 gig
Virtual Dub (Free)

2.Scan Video Stream for errors, about an hour(Don't know if it was necessary)Virtual Dub > Video > Scan video stream for errors

3.Frameserve to tMPGenc aproximately 6 hours
tMPGenc DVD author($99 US)
Use Source Range filter to adjust VT to sync audio
Use Clip Frame filter to trim noise from vhs signal
CBR of 8000

4.Create DVD in tMPGenc DVD Author
Create Chapters, change background images, use Motion Menus
About 2 hours to create and Output to file

5. Burn DVD compliant disk 4.3 gig (33 minutes)

Figuring out where all the errors, poor quality burns, Jitters and general mistakes came from . . . about 2 months.

[DaveS]

From there rip movies from the DVDs made by the stand alone and tweak and reburn until your blue in the face

Yeah, I guess the alternative, which is to encode until you're blue in the face, is a good one.

Seriously though, the 'real time encoding' provided by the standalones is pretty incredible since it seems to come out so well...I chose the standalone over a $500 canopus realtime h/w board, and the standalone includes a burner...I can't say they are equivalent, but there's a reason that the standalones came up.

Anyway, good luck & enjoy your new toy & I"m sure you'll have fun w/ it.

[JamesB69]

I may sound stupid or something, but unless you are just dieing to start a new hobby, or have other projects planned, just buy the DVD's you want...

IT will save you a lot of time, yield better quality, and probably be cheaper, unless you have hundreds of VHS tapes, but then you are going to be spending a LOT of time doing this....

[FulciLives]

I may sound stupid or something, but unless you are just dieing to start a new hobby, or have other projects planned, just buy the DVD's you want...

IT will save you a lot of time, yield better quality, and probably be cheaper, unless you have hundreds of VHS tapes, but then you are going to be spending a LOT of time doing this....

Don't forget a lot of people like to record TV shows too!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[JamesB69]

true, I didnt think about TV shows, or home videos, ignore me.
Ive been up too long...

I own an older version of the All in Wonder and I would reccommend it if your computer is over 1ghz....
Otherwise youll possibly drop frames

[SandmaN78]

When I start to CAPTURE the VHS Tapes and Converting them to DVD is it possible to use NERO 6 Ultra? I was looking thru the different options and capture video is an option, and it also looks like it can encode and burn to dvd also. Would NERO 6 Ultra be good for a NEWBIE like me for what I want to do?

Thanks for ALL THE HELP and REPLIES!

Dave
SandmaN

[Tommyknocker]

When I start to CAPTURE the VHS Tapes and Converting them to DVD is it possible to use NERO 6 Ultra? I was looking thru the different options and capture video is an option, and it also looks like it can encode and burn to dvd also. Would NERO 6 Ultra be good for a NEWBIE like me for what I want to do?

Thanks for ALL THE HELP and REPLIES!

Dave
SandmaN

SandMan:
Please start a new topic. You cannot hijack someone else's post. I will look for it.

[macleod]

to the poster that was asking about what it would cost to send it somewhere. In Texas and various places online, the cost for 1 hour of video is between $20-$70 dollars to do JUST the capture, no menus, editing, etc.

I have gotten into converting peoples' home videos over to DVD and here is what I have (and the prices-when I bought them)

1.2 gig emachine ($400)
20 gig hard dedicated drive ($20)
dvd ram/dvd rom drive ($30 from newegg.com)
A05 DVD-r burner ($105)
TMPGENC DVD Author ($80'ish)

Panasonic DMR-E30 ($280 off of ebay)
JVC S-VHS ($20 from a pawn shop)
S video cables and other cables ($25'ish)

DVD-ram 5 pack ($25)
DVD-R 100 pack ($70)
Hub labels ($10)

I am sure that I am forgetting something, but this is what I have invested so far in making DVD's from VHS (not the sole purpose of the machines, however). I am charging $15 a tape to do the conversion, add chapters, and menus). Everyone that I have done this for so far have been VERY happy with the results.

Here is the time breakdown (in case you were wondering):

Cap 1 hour of video (1 hour, d-uh)
Rip to HD (20-30 min)
Add Chapters in TMPGENC DVD Author (20-30 minutes)
Author DVD (2 hours)
Burn to DVD-R (30 min to 1 hour)
Label Hub (2 minutes)
Test (2 minutes to 1 hour)

[Will Hay]

Don't limit your choices to just two!

At least have a read of this thread before you spend your $:

ADVC-100 vs ATI Radeon - Screenshots

It is a long thread, but there are some real eye-opening moments.

Yep, but don't let the original author's screenshots put you off.
Try reading the lot , it covers not only the superb ADVC-100 but Will Hay's inability to see past his own nose.
I will simple say that for me the ADVC-100 has been flawless and produces superb results, without any alteration to saturation, brightness etc.
Superb.
Will

[dukehtran]

I am sure that I am forgetting something, but this is what I have invested so far in making DVD's from VHS (not the sole purpose of the machines, however). I am charging $15 a tape to do the conversion, add chapters, and menus). Everyone that I have done this for so far have been VERY happy with the results.

Here is the time breakdown (in case you were wondering):

Cap 1 hour of video (1 hour, d-uh)
Rip to HD (20-30 min)
Add Chapters in TMPGENC DVD Author (20-30 minutes)
Author DVD (2 hours)
Burn to DVD-R (30 min to 1 hour)
Label Hub (2 minutes)
Test (2 minutes to 1 hour)


-----------

It took almost 5 hrs. to convert a 1 hr. video & you only charge $15? I may need you to covert my old tapes. It is well worth it the money.

[K(c)offee]

A little advice from my limited experience. If you feel that a good product should have a good website to back it up. Dont buy anything from pinnacle. Could be the worst website ever. The forums suck. Finding drivers is a nightmare. Everything about the site is just wrong. But just recently they added a whole bunch of flash graphics. Granted they dont help at all in fact make it worse but at least you have pretty moving images to keep you entertained while your searching aimlessly.