converting VHS to Mpeg

[skyhawks]

i have some VHS that I am interested converting it to MPEG files. (or avi files). I know I can use a TV capture card... plug the VCR to it and capture it that way. But i know I will be drop frames and the quality will go down much more.

is it possible to do this.... plug the vcr into camorder that had firewire... and from camorder into the PC using firewire.. or something like that?>?!?. I do have a firewire card which i dont use. I can always borrow a DV camorder from a friend...

any suggestion?! thanks guys

sky

[TheInformer]

In my experience, the composite plugs in MiniDV camcorders are for -Output- only. You could transfer a video to VHS tape that way
MPEG --> camcorder --> VHS
but not the other way around.

Check the MinDVD out and see if there are any input composite plugs.

[brlase12]

Yes - that can be done. I have not done it yet but want to do the same thing. I have a Sony TRV11 MiniDV videocamera and the manual shows how to record from TV/VCR. Once you do that, you can capture through firewire. I have heard that it can be done all at one time - record and capture simultaneously - but like I said, I have not tried it yet. I don't see any reason why this would not work. I will try it this weekend and post my results for you so look for a post Sunday/Monday Timeframe.
Good Luck.

[brlase12]

Check out this topic - Someone here has done what you want to do.

https://www.videohelp.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=67855&forum=2

[John Drake]

One method if you have CCE and a PIII:
http://www.geocities.com/stanwebber/vhs/vhs.html

[JHebert]

Some brands of DV camcorder (mostly Sony) allow copying
VHS-->DVCam-->Firewire PC
directly all in one shot. The DV camcorder acts like a "DV Bridge" pass-through device in this case.

Some other brands of DV camcorders require two steps for this process.
First copy VHS-->DVCam tape
Then transfer from DVCam-->Firewire PC.

In either case the quality should be the same, since you are capturing into DV format AVI at 720x480. However you will not improve on the quality of the original VHS source.

Finally, some DV camcorders do not have analog inputs at all but just analog outputs only which is a bummer.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JHebert on 2001-11-29 12:41:07 ]</font>

[m204310]

Yes, it is possible. I converted my VHS tapes to MPEG using a Sony digital8 camcorder without any problems, quality loss or dropped frames. Most Sony camcorders (both DV and D have that feature. The basic steps are:
VHS-->Camcorder-->Firewire-->AVI-->MPEG
Hope that helps.

[skyhawks]

kool. thanks guys. now i just have to ask my friends about their DV camorder... and start playing with it.

[DVD Knight]

regarding the dv camcorder what does the i link stands for? the model I am refering to is the trv-530 and trv-830. I like to know if this have an a/v cable or s-video cable to hook it up to me computer or do you use the usb cable to download the mpeg to the computer?
I have try every method I can think of to get vhs video to my computer and even my dazzle video creator II is not having much luck. so I would like to know if I can use dv camcorder as a "linkage or bridge" between the vhs and the dvc II. Here is a copy of what I got off from sony trv-530. this is the same for the trv-830.

Analog-to-Digital Conversion with Pass-Through Convert and/or record any analog NTSC video source to digital video via the DCR-TRV530's analog inputs. Analog NTSC video can also be passed through the DCR-TRV530 directly to a PC via the i.LINK®* interface in real-time.
any help would be appreciated.
dvd knight

[EricB]

dvd Knight,

The iLINK is just Sony's brand labelling of a Firewire or IEEE1394 interface.
I use the system described to transfer VHS to the computer but would give one warning: DV files are gigantic! 3.6mb / second. This is 17 minutes of video before hitting my system limit of a 4G file. There are ways around this, but these files are huge.

For generic VHS video capture, I think hardware encoding may still the way to go. I use the DV stuff for just my own family videos.