Seeking assistance with converting VHS videos to DVD

[Zippity]

The more I read, the more confused I get

I have over 145 VHS tapes recorded in PAL (New Zealand) format of Formula One motor races spanning the last 9 years. I now want to convert these tapes to DVD's.

Each of these video tapes is of about 2 hours duration. All of the videos contain unwanted television commercials which I want to remove.

I have connected a VHS player to my PC. My computer details are listed below.

What format should I convert the VHS to on my HDD?

Can I satifactorily transfer/convert 2 hours of video onto one DVD?

Will Virtual Dub and TMPGenc be sufficient for my needs?

And finally, is .mpg the same as MPEG?

So many qustions, so much to learn. My head is spinning in circles

Any assistance/suggestions will be very much appreciated.[/b]

[winifreid]

You will need something that has the mpeg 2 codec like Tmpgenc plus and a program to author (create the proper dvd files) the DVD and finally a program that will burn it. Did your Leadtek card come with Ulead software? Video Studio can do all these things. You can capture with it to either avi (use Huffy-free- or PicVideo- not free) or directly to mpeg 2. Your computer is plenty fast enough to do it. Then you can clip the commercials, author and burn to DVD, all in Video Studio. Some say that the quality is a little less than some other programs, but I have found it fine for my purposes and very simple.

[daamon]

Hi Zippity,

First of all, there's no one right way of doing it - but there a loads of ways that work. The following link is worth a read (it also contains links to other threads):

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=219415&highlight=

What format should I convert the VHS to on my HDD?

As you're wanting to edit commercials out, I'd say AVI as it lends itself to editing more easily than MPEG.

Can I satifactorily transfer/convert 2 hours of video onto one DVD?

Yes, should be able to - especially if you capture to 1/2 D1 (see info in link above, and threads it refers to).

Will Virtual Dub and TMPGenc be sufficient for my needs?

No, you'll need TMPGEnc Plus (the one you pay for to get to encode AVI to MPEG2 - see the specs for MPEG2 under DVD in "What Is" section, top-left of page).
You'll also need to author the MPEG2 to VOB, BUP and IFO files (these are what's on DVDs). If you don't want menus, just a disk that plays, check out ifoedit. If you want menus, check out TMPGEnc DVD Author (there are others - but this one is good to start with and, when bought with TMPGEnc Plus, you'll get a discount for buying both together).

And finally, is .mpg the same as MPEG?

Yes, kinda. .mpg files can be either MPEG1 (VCDs & SVCDs) or MPEG2 (DVDs). Again, see under the "What Is" section for info on the differences.

Hope that helps. Good luck...

P.S. Nice avatar!

[Zippity]

Thanks for the feedback.

Looks like I have some heavy reading to keep me occupied for a while

[hech54]

I was going to tell you to just buy a DVD Recorder....until I saw where you lived. They are still too expensive Down Under and Beyond...