What is the best way to capture video from a VCR to my PC?

[VEBouto]

I have a Winfast capture card, and i want to transfer some old VHS tapes to my hard drive then make some DVD's. What is the best format to cature the video in? I have heard alot about capturing in avi then converting to mpeg-2. What will give me the best possible quality?
Thanks guys.

[yoda313]

Hello,

For ease of use capture in mpeg2 than load it into any dvd authoring software. Quick and easy.

If you want to edit it a lot capture in avi. But you'll have to convert it to mpeg2 or use a dvd authoring program that will accept that avi for conversion to dvd.

Mpeg2 - quick and easy

avi - lots of editing freedom

Kevin

[johnharlin]

Actually, as I have noticed, you can do some editing in mpeg2 with DVD Shrink Like if you want to get rid of the credits at the beginning or end, those can easily be cut. Using that method, it might be possible to edit out points in the middle of the film as well and then maybe combining two separate files like what happens when you get your final video output usually in several files.

At least then you won't have to get a mpeg editing program like Cutterman and then have to download another 27 megabyte program called Microsoft Net Framwork 1.1 just to make it work.

[redwudz]

Shrink doesn't really edit. It will only cut out parts of a complete DVD movie. Mpeg editing is not so easy as AVI editing. It's fairly easy to get the audio and video out of sync when doing extensive editing. That's why it generally works better to edit in AVI format. MPEG Video Wizard is one decent Mpeg editor. ($120US)

If you want easy, follow yoda313s advice about mpeg capture.
For quality, and easy edit, AVI capture and edit. Then encode to Mpeg with a good encoder, then author and burn.

[VEBouto]

But which one will give me the better quality video recording...capturing in Avi or capturing in Mpeg-2?
I think i can edit using the Tmpg enc plus.

[edDV]

Capturing in Avi will give higher quality on high quality sources, but the differences will be less with VHS.

Mileage will vary by capture card, VHS player, encoding software and computer speed. Try rerpresentative test clips both ways and see which you prefer.