PLEASE can anyone give me some advise. This is my first attempt to convert vhs to dvd. I bought a Tevion DVD MAKER VS-USB2800D. This comes with PVR PLUS and also Powerproducer Gold 2.0. The problem i've found so far is this, i can capture in avi or mpeg1 format but nothing else. When i select dvd pal my picture goes really slow but the audio plays fine. I get the same problem with mpeg 2. If i choose mpeg 4 i get a message saying no mpeg4 codec found, please download and install microsofts mpeg4 or divix codec. I have attempted to do this from microsofts download centre but still no joy. I have also tried ffdshow codecs, still same. The trouble is when i captured 10 mins of video yesterday in avi i then used the mpeg encoder to convert to dvd but the picture quality was worse than the old vhs tape. I would at least like to achieve the same quality as the video. They are not original videos either, i'm just trying to convert my old analogue camcorder footage of my children which are all on vhs tapes. If anyone can give me advise as to why i'm getting what i guess is a rendering problem then please please help. When dvd or mpeg 2 is selected the vhs tape plays fine until i press record this is when the pictures goes in slow motion sorta stopping and starting all the time. And also if anyone can shine any light on the microsoft mpeg4 codec problem. My system consists of this: Intel celeron 2.7ghz, 1 80gig hd & 1 120gig hd, 3Dagp Geforce FX5200 64mb with Tv out, 512mb ddr ram. I hope this is enough information for someone to guide me in the right direction, i really want to transfer these old tapes while they are still working before i loose all footage of my kids growing up. The only thing i do regular is backup dvd's & ps2 games, other than that all i have done is transfer my new camcorder (dv) to dvd disks. I used pinnacle studio to do this and was successfull apart from 4 1/2 hours of recording having to go on 5 dvd disks so that no quality was lost.
Well First off no matter what it is Not possible for you to Capture your Video at the Same quality as the Old VHS Tape you are Captureing because Captureing (Especially to Mpeg) is a Very Lossy Process so you will allways achieve quality worst than your Source...This is even True with the most expensive Highest end Video equipment... I figure your Problem is One of Three things or a Combination of them.. The Symptoms you describe sound Like your PC isn"t Fast enough to Encode all of the Frames at Full resolution in Mpeg-2 format...You would Figure Even your Lowly Celeron would be able to encode to Mpeg-2 at full resolution but since you can capture to Mpeg-1 and AVI and at lower resolutions it does sound Like your System is Struggling to encode all the Frames in Real time... (It takes about 400% more CPU Power to encode to Mpeg-2 DVD than it does to encode to Mpeg-1 VCD) I used to Have a 2.5ghz Celeron and I had simulr Problems Captureing with it when useing certain Programs Like "Cyberlink PowerProducer 2.0" but was able to Capture to Mpeg-2 DVD useing "InterVideo WinDVR 3.0".... The Celeron-4 CPU"s(128k L-2 Cache) which yours Probably is and Mine was are Notoriously slow because they have only 25% the Cache of the Northwood P-4 and only 12.5% the Cache as the Prescot P-4 and without that Cache the CPU has to work Twice as Hard to Process the same ammount of Information as the Same speed P-4.... The only other Thing I can think of becides your system not being fast enough and the Software you are useing is the Capture device it"s self...I tried to do Some research on your Capture device but could Find very Little about it but what I could Find was Other Poeple Complaining about Various problems they are haveing with the device... Also found Many of the same device for sale for between $15 and $25 which seems Pretty cheap but not cheap enough if it doesn"t work for you properly..USB devices are Notoriously Bad anyways especially the Cheap ones..If yours is one that Basicly looks Like a USB Cable with a couple RCA Inputs and a S-Video input and there is No Box that the Cables are connected to then yours is one of the Super cheapo ones... As for Finding a Mpeg-4 codec to Capture to one of the Best is the "XviD codec" or the "DivX Codec" both of which are much better and much newer than the Old Microsoft Mpeg-4 codecs ... The XviD Codec is Freeware and you can download it on this Page: http://www.xvid.org/downloads.html And this Codec Pack will install Most of the Basic Codecs any system should need: ftp://ftp.fluidlight.com/pub/nospin_files/all_codecs.zip Good Luck
Jacauioo, sorry to say so, bu I think that you have taken the wrong path... USB is not a very suitable port to transfer video at high quality. I read that you have been transferring film from DV, so you have a DV camcorder and (I guess) a Firewire connection. The best way to capture your old analog tapes is to use your DV camera as a pass-through device. This will convert your analog material to DV-AVI on your system. You can then encode it to MPEG using a good encoder to burn DVD's. If you use the right tools and techniques you will not see any degradation in quality compared with your VHS tapes. You can find a description of the pass-through technique on http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/basics/transfer.php There is a lot more information there that may be usefull for you.
Guys.... have read the comments made here. To Jacquioo1, for approximately 5 to 6 months I kept asking for help doing the same as you. I had many many tapes, movies that I wanted to transfer to DVD's. This was almost useless since there wasn't much help out there, or everyone was protecting a deep dark secret. I finally got one or steers in the right direction, and since have done well. I will pass it on and hope it does help. (1) download WINDV. A dandy program. I have yet to get one dropped frame. Then go over to eBay and procure a Canopus ADVC-100. Cost less than $100 including shipping. Connect the ADVC-100 using an S-VHS connector to your VCR. The ADVC is connected to the computer using a DV-110. You will be downloading AVI data to your hard drive. To change this AVI to Mpeg you will need Canopus Procoder followed by DVD-Lab. DVD-Lab can be download for a 30-day test run. The final result is a high quality DVD playable on any DVD player or burner. The quality of the DVD's I have made almost rival the output of the tape itself. I have used it both for VHS and Beta. Beta being a tad better than VHS and always has been. If you want a quicker way and have the change, you can get a Phillips DVDR600VR which is supposed to do within itself. hope this helps. CIAO... the Texas Outlaw
Well, Outlaw, it's a petty that you did not come across DigitalVideoClub.com before... It certainly is not a dark secret how to do it. Of course you can get a analog capture card or break-out box (from Canopus or other brands like e.g. Pinnacle), but if you already own a DV camera, you can save the money for such a card....it is of no use anyway anymore after you digitized all your analog tapes and you switched to digital. About you suggestion to use DVDlab: sure, it's a great program (recently reviewed at http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/reviews/dvdlab.php ) and certainly a class in it's own, but probably a bit over the top for the majority of users. Cheaper solutions which are satisfactory for the vast most are for example Ulead's MovieFactory, Workshop Express or the TMPGenc DVD authoring package. Advantage of the first two is that they include an MPEG-encoder, so you will not need the Canopus Procoder software that you suggested ($350 it is way too expensive just to use it as an encoder). If you absolutely want to (or have to) use a stand alone encoder, try TMPGenc (which is $50) and can create great result.
Get Canopus Procoder Express ($59 or less), and it will do better encoding than tmpgenc, in less than half the time.
Hi Jim, That sounds interesting, gonna give it a try. I did very thorough testing with various encoders. But hey, that was in Stone Age, when we were all digitizing our stuff using MJPEG compression and creating VCD's and SVCD's so that does not realy count anymore I guess... ;-) I did less thorough testing when DVD-R hit the market and found reduced differences in quality (which is logic, because of the higher available bitrates in MPEG-2 for DVD). Only many of the built in encoders in DVD authoring packages often show less good results, and most of them don't allow much tweaking. So, I stuck to TMPGenc which gives good results for me with 2-pass VBR (between 6 and 9Mbit), 10bit encoding and applying a little softening. And indeed it takes ages, but I don't care that much because I let my machine do that over night. Did you do a lot of testing recently to compare various encoders? An interesting thread, if you have sufficient time to read all the 200 posts in it: http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=235665&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
I'm a member at videohelp, username reboot. Yes, I've done my own testing, and although tmpgenc is (semi)reliable, it's way too freakin' slow! I now do everything in Canopus Procoder, or Mainconcept. It's nice to be able to to 5 movies over night, instead of 1, and you can't beat Canopus for doing PAL<-->NTSC conversions. AFAIK, the Express version just doesn't have all the filters, but does have the same encoder engine. If your source needs filtering, just frameserve it.
Jacquioo1 A relatively simple HARDWARE solution is to hook your VCR up to a Humax DRT800 ,Pioneer DVR520HS or a Toshiba RS-TX60 through the RCA jacks. After recording your VCR tape onto the units hard drive you can then burn as many copies as you want onto a DVD. If you need to do some editing you can burn it onto a DVD-RW , take it to your computer and use somthing like ULEAD Dvd Movie factory 4, for the final version. This method has several advantages. The learning curve is relativley small. Hooking up your VCR to the unit , cueing up the tape and then letting your vcr and dvr run for an hour or two is as hard as it gets. Using ULEAD Dvd Movie factory 4 also is relatively easy to master, for additional editing of your disc. Of the 3 units I would buy the Toshiba. They all cost about $450. The Humax needs a TIVO subscription or it wont work with out it. Another $12 per month or a one time fee of $300. The Pioneer has its own software NOT TIVO. The Toshiba has TIVO Basic included, and as anyone who has Tivo will tell you ITS FANTASTIC !!!! So for $450 you get TIVO a DVD player to watch movies and a DVD recorder for the TV shows you watch. Sort of like a VCR on steroids. After you get done copying your tapes to DVD , you will be able to enjoy the TIVO every single time you watch TV or watch a DVD
72morgan.... Apparently HP has been doing extra work to get into the transfer of VHS tape to DVD's. They now have a unit dc4000 8x4x12 external DVD Movie Writer. Product number is 50521983. The present price is $242.30. I am looking at the specs put out by COMPUSA. This would be the way to go if one doesn't want to improve on the "last" job? Now I have a rather mundane and stupid question that I have never seen addressed on any forum. I haven't tried it since I don't like making a coaster. But can one make a copy of a DVD, using say Nero, to copy a disk. The disk being another DVD?
You can copy any DVD straight to a DL, if you have a DL burner and a DL disk, otherwise use DVD Decrypter to rip it to the hard drive, then use DVDShrink to make it fit on a dvdr5.
Jim.... What do you mean when you say DL? By the way.... the person who headed me in the correct direction used the the nick of Reboot. You probably have seen his signature on CDFreaks answering mail and queries. Good man, and I do thoroughly appreciate his great help and guidance. I have found that WINDV in conjunction with the ADVC-100 has never dropped a frame on me. Another interesting point... these days, one can pick up an ADVC-100 on eBay for under $100 including the shipping.
Yeah, reboot is me on a whole bunch of forums DL=Dual layer as TPFKAS has said, otherwise known as DVD9. It has the same capacity as a commercial DVD, thus you can do a 1:1 copy.
T_Outlaw I can see that $243 is $220`s less than the Toshiba option with TIVO Basic. But $243 is a lot of money if you only have a couple of tapes to convert. After you get done converting the 2 or 10 tapes to DVD , you will use and enjoy the Toshiba TIVO each and every day. I bought a Pioneer 810-S , a year ago for $600 for the very same reason. I converted the 4 tapes I wanted. I also went through several different options, from a USB Dazzle to several video cards. I gave up and bought the Pioneer, it is now a $400 discontinued model , and I LOVE it.My tapes are converted and I use the TIVO every day. My wife said " Why did I need another toy? " She now uses it more than I do , and she LOVES it too....
72morgan..... I know exactly what you mean. However, the HP does give you almost as much.. a dvd player and a VCR. I don't need it since rebootJim steered me in the right direction. I think the way I have gone will give me a better end product. I had discovered Dazzle about 3-years ago, but later refined it by adding Ulead DVD Moviefactory as the final recoding and writing tool. The end product was between fair and so-so. Using WINDV, ADVC-100, Canopus Procoder Express and DVD-Lab, a really great end product is finally realized. The clarity is what makes the revision so worthwhile. Using WINDV, which is a very small program and very simple to use, I never have experienced a dropped frame. You and RebootJim are doing a good thing in helping others and I commend you both. Thank you..... TX Outlaw.
