help for an old man

[wayneout]

Hello, I have a bunch of VHS tapes which have most of my
late relatives on them that I want to burn to VCD. Through the
forums and the info on the left I have learned to burn
a VCD. I have a Dell Computer, 1 gig, 256 ram that has
NO capture card. I thought about Dazzle but it has bad reviews.
Then I read about Pinnacle Studio version 7 but I am not sure if
that is right for my computer. If I buy it, do I need a capture card?
I have read the stuff on the left, but still am lost. (It happens when
you get in your 50's) All I really want to do is transfer from my VCR
tapes to my computer and I can take it from there. (I think)
I see info about a Wonder Card on this forum too. I am not even
sure if I can put a capture card in my computer. (I can get that done
if I know what is the best route) Any advice? Thank you, Bill

[TheInformer]

Old man? Hehe I'm 38 myself

There are many ways to go about this. I think the first question that should be answered is this: how much money would you be willing to spend to convert the VHS to digital format (DV or MPEG)?

Cheapest:
Go buy a basic WinTV GO or other TV tuner card. Use free software on internet to capture and encode.

Moderate:
Buy a hardware capture device such as the Dazzle DVC II, ATI All-in-Wonder, Sony Media Converter DVMC-DA1/2, Dazzle Hollywood Bridge, and others. Use either free software from the net or bundled software to capture and encode with.

Expensive:
Buy a hardware encoder that does it all. The more money you pour into it, the more it can do

Most folks here, in my experience, tend to go the cheapest route. There's nothing wrong with that at all. The negative is that you have to have a beefy enough machine (which yours sounds like) and time to do the encoding.

I tried that way for a bit for encoding my 100+ episodes of Married with Children but became annoyed at the amount of time needed. I eventually went the "moderate" way and bought a Sony Media Converter DVMC-DA1 and also bought a Dazzle DVC II.

Anyways, please let us know how much you want to spend first, and then how much time you're willing to devote and also what kind of quality you expect to get out of this.

[wayneout]

Thanks for the reply,

Right now with Spring approaching and having some money
to spend on the house. I was trying to limit the spending
to $200 or around that figure. Of course, I can wait untill
later and go the higher route.

You have a few more episodes of MWC then I do. I got my
"NO MA'AM" t shirt a few months ago and can wear it
when the wife lets me.

I will check into what you were telling me about.
Thanks.
Bill

[fravel]

Bill:
Give the PV231 MPEG capture card a try. It lets you record directly (on the fly) to VCD compliant files. It's only $85.00 at Akida Computers. It works great for me. I capture a lot of old westerns and serials VHS tapes with it, then burn them to VCD. Take a look a Skittelsen's site:

http://steve.kittelsen.com/pv231/

There you'll find a lot of info and Akida's URL.
Good Luck!

[wayneout]

Thanks Fravel for the info,
It looks like a good card but there is a three things that I
am not clear about and I quote from the page
Missing features in the capture software (has to be set via the registry)
Default factory settings gives poor video (lots of blocks)
No support for 48KHz audio sampling for DVD compliancy (must convert the audio in software

Okay for the first one, I hope it is not that hard to change the registry.
I think it has a file that tells about it. I downloaded all the info on the
website.
The second one about the blocks. I am not that sure what a block is
(remember, I'm old) Anyway, the info said you could just capture
as a mpg without blocks

The third one really throws me. I don't know how to convert with
software. What would I use for that? And it also mentions needing
a good mpeg editor. I will have to look for that one. But having
to convert the audio is what throws me off.

Anyway, it sounds like what I need. I will read all the info I downloaded
and see about ordering it.
Thanks again,
Bill

[TheInformer]

The PV231 creates MPEG-1 files. DVDs use MPEG-2 files

Video files can be encoded by either a hardware board or through a software program.

Hardware boards usually can do the capturing and encoding in real time, i.e. if the video is 30 minutes long, that's how long it will take to capture and encode it.

Software programs can equal, and in some cases surpass, the quality of the hardware encoded video files. The negatives are the length of time it takes to encode the file and the fiddling with the program you'll have to do to obtain the optimal results.

[wayneout]

Thanks to everyone who has offered advice.
I seen a item which had a good review
Creative Labs Video Blaster MovieMaker
I am not sure if anyone has ever tried it.
I am going to sit down and look at everything.
I am sure whichever one I choose, I will probably
have to have help.
Thanks again for the input.
Bill

[Bud]

wayneout


Just to bad you still a young man....I just turned 60 this past Jan.....been doin' this VCD stuff for about a year now...........

Bud

[fravel]

Hi, Bill & other Pals!

Missing features in the capture software (has to be set via the registry)
Default factory settings gives poor video (lots of blocks)
No support for 48KHz audio sampling for DVD compliancy (must convert the audio in software

1. The registry settings by Skittelsen takes care of everything. Just run it and it writes the settings to the registry.
2- Same as answer No. 1
3- If you are not going to make DVDs, just VCDs, you don't have to worry.
Believe me, PV231 it's the best I've seen.
Now, do you really believe you are old just because you are 50 or 60?
C'mon, I'm 99 and still going fast.
Take care all of you,

Frank (fravel)

[fravel]

Ooops!
I forgot to mention what Skittelsen says about the default factory settings (those that come with the software):
"The default factory settings are wrong with the PV231. The correct settings are -10 for brightness, 65 for contrast, 70 for color, and 0 for hue."
Frank