You'll probably get other answers asking you for a lot more info (e.g. about your system, etc.), but just last week I started transferring VHS tapes to DVDs on my computer so I can tell you what I did. You'll need a capture card (I think that's the official name) -- I don't like messing with the insides of my computer so I bought an external USB one for <$100 from amazon.com (DVD Xpress). That comes with Capture Wizard (CapWiz) software, which is easy to use but will just do a "straight" capture -- i.e., exactly what you have on tape will be transferred to your hard drive. If you want to do some editing, which I needed to do, you would use the other bundled software, ULead VideoStudio. It has a bit of a learning curve, but I was able to get the hang of it after a few hours (I'm sure I still have a ton of stuff to learn). It saves the files in mpeg-2 format for DVDs. I'll be burning the files with RecordNow, which came with my Sony DRX-530UL external burner. I'm sure there are lots of other choices out there & hopefully others will give you their ideas too. BTW a couple of years ago I bought a Philips DVDR985 DVD recorder -- that does transfers of VHS to DVD as well, but the stuff I transferred to those DVDs isn't read by my computer DVD burner, I don't know why. (It will play the files, but it won't give me a directory of what's on the files -- the format must be different.) Also if you want to do VHS-to-DVD back-ups of copy-protected videotapes, you'll need a video stabilizer too -- you can get them for <$20 on ebay. Otherwise your burner will probably give you a "copy protection" error. Good luck! Report back as to what you got & how it worked!
I have a sony vaio pcv rz 40 I just purchased a dvd xpress and used the movie factory to copy direct to disk it worked fine on the first 30min episode. It stopes and will not finish copying the tape. When initalized the program gives 28 min defalt time limit. I moved folder to d drive which has 128 gigabytes of free disk space I only get 1hr 11min as defalt time limit it still stopes after the first episode
Sorry, I can't help you there as this hasn't happened to me so far. I would have thought it was a disc space problem but it sounds like you're on a drive with plenty of space so that shouldn't be it. One suggestion -- do you empty your recycle bin regularly? I delete DVD files after successfully burning them because the files take up so much space on my hard drive. But then I have to go to my recycle bin and "clean sweep" it (using the Norton Clean Sweep tool) to really get the files off the hard drive. Hopefully others will have suggestions for you too since I'm so new at this myself. Good luck!
thanks for the suggestion on the clean sweep tool its new information to me . Sounds like we have some of the same hardware & software . May need more advice so keep checking the fourm . I've only have 6 months on pc so I need all the help I can get
I found this out the hard way when my new hard drive's capacity was going down, down, down even though I'd deleted files. I couldn't see them any more in that drive's directory, but they were still there until I used Clean Sweep. If you don't have Norton SystemWorks, I think Windows has a program that does the same thing. It's in programs / accessories / system tools / Disk Cleanup. I've never used that one but as I said, I do think it does the same thing. The reason I suggested this is, one of the programs that came with DVD XPress tells me how much space is left and how many hours/minutes' worth of video it gives me -- that sounds like where you were getting your info. Try Clean Sweep or Disk Cleanup, then check to see if that hours indicator has gone up. You should also defragment your hard drives regularly -- that's programs / accessories / system tools / Disk Defragmenter. If your hard drive is very fragmented, it will take a while to run. Highlight the drive you want info about, then click "analyze" and it will tell you if the drive needs to be defragmented. Keep us posted. If no one else answers this question, post again on the newbies board, giving as much specific info as possible. I've gotten a ton of help from these boards.
I'm not talking about the record time limit on the capture wizzard. I'm working with ulead dvd movie factory[a program that came with dvd express]. When I start the program & try to record direct to disk I have the problem. When I hit capture & burn a dialouge box comes up and gives me a warrning that I may not have enough disk space & a default time limit. Your advice on the disk clean up & defragmenting was right on the money . My recycle bin appeared to be empty but disk clean said diffrent, also I had alot of temporary internet files.Anyway I did the disk cleanup & defragmented the next time I tried to back up my vhs I still got the dialouge box but no default time limit & downloaded the entire vhs.Thanks for all the help Karen I did'nt state my problem cleary or give enough details. You let me know and helped guide me to the solution.Thanks again
Hey Guys, Why do you want to put a VHS tape onto a DVD? Its like having a DVD and none of the quality. Just wondering.
Answering just for myself ... I have a ton of videotapes from when that was THE format to own (yeah, I'm old). I've replaced some with DVDs, but some titles aren't available in DVD format and may never be, so before the videotape gets any older, I'm backing them up to DVD. I also sometimes use very short segments from various programs (2-3 minutes so still within "fair use" as far as I can tell) in my classes (I'm a college prof).
Well I'm old too like karen said I have lots of VHS tapes recorded years ago mostly broadcast tv, & its very hard to find these anymore [ monthy python , saturday night live , sitcoms ].Just trying to update my library to a better format thats eaiser to store & less vunerable to age & ware. Besides I have some friends who have the same hardware & software who say it can't be done with this equipment. I've directed them to this site and this fourm. They were floored when I showed them the results but to be fair I had to tell them how many costers I made. I only made 1 coster after I visited this fourm. Thanks a lot for all the help[ I'll Be Back]
I have been wondering if there's a way to backup vhs to dvd for ages. Im glad I stumbled on this thread, what great advice! I too have some old tv shows on tape which I cant find on DVD, also loads of hours of Camcorder footage of my kids when they were younger - I thought I was really clever backing up to VHS and re-using the camcorder tapes (ha). I want to save my VHS footage before they are lost with wear! Thanks!
Hi Mamasita & welcome to the forum! Glad you found this info useful. BTW if you don't want to go the PC route -- using a capture card, hooking up a VCR to your computer, etc. -- you might want to just buy a DVD recorder. They've gone WAY done in price since I bought my Philips DVDR985 2 years ago. With the Philips, I just hook up a VCR to it, play the non-copy-protected VHS tape in the VCR, and it's copied to DVD. With copy-protected tapes, it gets a little more complicated, but it sounds like all of yours would be non-copy-protected so this might be a simpler solution for you. In any case good luck!
Thanks for that Karen. I've been thinking of buying a DVD Recorder, now I know I can hook up the VHS to it too, I'm actually relieved! Its took me months to figure out all the .avi encoding pitfalls and was dreading having to wait days to convert the files to DVD! You have solved so many problems and worries for me, I cant begin to tell you! Cheers! Mamasita
To capture VHS tape and all my capturing needs for That mater i use the ATI all in wonder. Some people don’t prefer it as it is a package deal and if your a gamer your video chip will be outdated before the rest is. Bur for the money it the best option and the Software is ideal giving you at least 10 different Compression options so you should be able to capture 4hours of video on 2 GB and keep the same quality. _X_X_X_X_X_[small] Amd 1200, ATI All in wonder 8500 DV 383 133 ram 80 GB HD Windows ME Memorex 8X DVD Dual format[/small]
Trying to decide which is the best way to go from vhs to dvd. I have a dvd burner only, but thinking about just getting a dvd recorder. Can someone give me advice on which way would be cheaper and easier to copy protected vhs tapes. For the PC, I would have to get capture card and software, anything else? For the dvd recorder, I would have to get the recorder itself and what do you call it-a stablizer? FYI-I don't really need to edit the videos, just want to put my old disney movies onto dvd eventually, for my 4 month old. Please help!
I think that either way -- using a video capture card & a PC, or using a DVD recorder -- whenever you copy copy-protected tapes you'll need something else in between, a video stabilizer. I bought one on ebay a year or two ago for around $20, and I was surprised at how well it worked for copying VHS-to-VHS. However, from what I understand -- and I found this to be true with my Philips DVDR985 recorder, bought about 2 years ago -- the cheapest (~$20) video stabilizers don't work on DVD recorders, only on VCRs. So if you want to just hook up the stabilizer in between a VCR and a DVD recorder, be sure to get a stabilizer that definitely works with DVD recorders. Maybe the newer ones do. Another, more convoluted alternative that I ended up using was copying the copy-protected tapes VHS-to-VHS with a 2-VCR set up with the video stabilizer in between. Then I could take the VHS copy, which no longer had the copy protection, and record THAT to DVD. As I said, this is a convoluted way to go, but it worked fine and there was virtually no loss of quality from the original VHS tape to the DVD (of course, overall anything that goes from tape to DVD is going to have a noticeable quality difference compared to regular DVDs). So far I've only used my video capture card & PC set-up for short video segments that I am editing or will edit at some point. To be honest, if you're not going to do any editing, I think the DVD recorder would be an easier process, plus wouldn't tie up your computer for hours (video capturing is very resource-intensive, so you can't do much else while it's going on). The DVD recorder option would be especially good if you can find a video stabilizer that works on DVD recorders. (BTW, surprisingly, not all store-bought videotapes are copy-protected; I only did the 2-VCR set-up when I got a "copy protection" message on my DVD recorder, but that only happened maybe 2/3 of the time. So you might not even need the video stabilizer, although I guess it's good to have if you can get it inexpensively.) As to which option is cheaper, since you already have a DVD burner on your computer, the computer option will be a bit cheaper since you can buy a capture card for <$100 (I got mine, DVD Xpress, at amazon.com) and would only need the video stabilizer. The DVD recorder would cost probably $200-250, but it, of course, can also be used like a VCR, not just for capturing your VHS video, so the two options are not easily comparable. In any case, the sooner you get your VHS tapes onto GOOD DVD media, probably the better -- the quality of my old videotapes seems to get worse every day. So I'm backing them up to DVD as quickly as I can, but I have a LOT of videos. (Some of them have been released on DVD, but I know a lot of them never will be.) Good luck & let us know what other questions you have!
Karen is right on, I use my Panasonic dmr e-30 dvd recorder which is hooked to a vcr player and Sima copy master video stabilizer. This stabilizer seems to clean up the picture a bit when recording older vhs tapes. If the vhs tape has copy protection on it I copy from vhs to vhs with another stabilizer connected to these vcrs. Then I copy my new tape to dvd. Like Karen said this is a slower method but it works well. I've had my dvd recorder for 3 years and never had one bit of trouble recording vhs tapes to dvds. strone
