I’m looking to copy mostly home videos and back up some older videos from VHS to PC. I need to choose an internal PC card or USB device that I can dub without having to mess with a lot of settings. I also understand some devices have an issue with the audio and video not being in sync. How about Hauppauge or Pinnacle DVD Recorder or Video Recorder? I’ve also got a Sima Video Copymaster to defeat macrovision that goes between the VCR and capture device (used to be another VCR), if it should be necessary. I just want it to dub. I don’t have any interest using it for TV tuning.
If you have a digital camcorder for your home videos, I suggest using it as a throughput for your analog signal. That is, connect you video up to the digital cam corder via AV leads and then out of the camcorder to a firewire card to capture digitally. If not, there are usb2 devices with rca inputs for analog for under $100. Make sure you capture software also has the ability to encode to mpeg2 for dvd.
For capturing from vhs to my computer, I use an external capture device. I've got a Plextor convertx px-m402u It works quite well & the windvd creator that came with it is very simple & easy to use.
That's more of what I'm talking about. I understand that external capture devices are more liable to overheat than internals. I'm looking at getting a Pinnacle device. Do you have any troubles with the audio and video syncing?
To convert my VHS tapes, I chose to use a VCR/DVD Recorder. You put the VHS cassette in one side, and a blank DVD in the other side, then dub the video over. Very few settings; I do use the highest quality setting. I can then read in the DVD files to my hard drive or wherever. I decided it was the simplest way to do the job. In fact I am using the Magnavox unit discussed in a thread in this forum at: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/400006 Just FYI in case you wanted an alternative....