Hello All, 1st post - Hope it doesnt bore you all. I would like to convert old VHS home movies onto DVD, retaining the same picture quality. I have a standalone SONY DVD player, so will need to get a DVD- Writer, and software. I purchased a pioneer 8.4GB writer, before learning about the whole incompatability DVD+/- issues. At the same time, I also purchased a converter kit (cant remember the name now), and didnt think that the picture was all that. Have been advised since that a dedicated video capture card will be preferable. Have now returned everything,and got a refund. However, Nero 6 (which came bundled with the pioneer) is still on my pc, and seems to be pretty much what i want. Am now very wary about which player and software to get. Can anyone provide any advice. Any received really would be greatly appreciated. The pioneer I bought was the new breed of dual layered players. Have read a couple of bad vibes about them on this website. Anyone think they are a good purchase ? Like I say, any advice......greatly appreciated. Cheers !!
First of all get an ALLINWONDER capture card from ATI, with wich you will be able to record your vhs tapes flawlesly into mpeg2 on yr hdd. Get TMPEG2 Enc to encode mpeg2 files into DVD compliance and then burn to DVD with your Nero - Won't cost you much and will work without hassleand play on your standalone DVD player.
All I can say to the newbie getting into DVD authoring using the PC is...GOOD LUCK! I'm telling you now, if you don't have a top-of-the-line PC (fast Pentium 4, lots of RAM, 2 fast and big hard drives, a top video capture card and at least USB 2.0 and/or Firewire input), you are doomed. Even so, it will takes hours just to "render/compile" your DVD, which means the PC sits for hours overnight converting your avi/mpg files into DVD format. To the newbie who just wants to preserve his VHS tapes on DVD, BUY A DVD RECORDER!!! Otherwise, if you must have fancy menus and transitions with sound/video effects, prepare to upgrade ($$$), and prepare for months of trial and error!
Thanks. You just dashed my dreams of a DVD library comparable to my VHS library. But, on the bright side, you saved me a lot of time and $$$$.
hp dc4000 movie writre works pretty good at converting vhs to dvd.this unit comes with everything you need except a computer and vcr.the one problem area that i am still working on is some vhs movies are copyrighted and can not be transferer .still looking for a program to fix this.
paul6077, I started creating my own DVDs from VHS when DVD recorders were over $800 about 2 years ago. I've seen some as low as $150 (Gateway) now and the recorder is much better than some video capture cards. If you're still gung-ho about doing your own DVD authoring, I suggest getting a DVD recorder and using that as a video capture card (worst-case scenario). Once you get everything onto a DVD, you can edit/author it from there. To buy a top capture card with a slow hard drive (5400rpm) or not enough space (4GB per hr in mpeg, 10 or more in avi) would be just wasting your money. That's where you hear these stories of choppy video.
Ditto Dogbomb. I started out with a vcr hooked up to my computer. It Bogarted all the RAM, and took an eternity, couldn't use my computer for anything else. I have a dvr that I use use to copy from vhs to dvd. It puts the movie on a dvd-rw so I can edit it on my computer or just do a quick copy to a dvd-r. It takes some time to get it all set up right, but once you get the hang of it, transferring is a snap.
Ditto DogBomb and Ditto Amazaun- so that's a double ditto. yeah if you're gonna do editing by all means get a newer mac (or hope up you're pc) and then spend the extra on harddrives. You're still gonna have to tie up the machine while it encodes to dvd. you're better off doing a 'push play on one and record on the other' routine for now, then you can take that DVD out of the Recorder deck and pop it into your computer for later editing, or, if you use the right type of disk (and a decent quality), just pop it in your friend's dvd player for viewing.. any info on which type of disks to use with DVD decks for compatibility. also for rewriting which is best +RW or -RW?????????? Do these DVD decks record into MPEG-2 format on the fly??? any help appreciated..
-oh yeah there's one other thing if you're still leaning towards using the computer. it's a converter box from ADS Technologies. it takes your analog (VHS) input from your vcr and compresses it to MPEG2 on the fly then sends to your computer through firewire. this saves disk space and processing time and i believe makes the footage ready for DVD Authoring Apps such as Roxio Toast or iDVD. no experience with these though- just a suggestion. anyone out there use this method?
Permatex, VHS copy guard is called Macrovision. Boxes that go in the video line between the VCR and DVD recorder or capture card cost between $50. to $100. Thats all you need to get rid of the copy protection on VHS tapes. Do a search for Macrovision removers, you should get several hits. Jerry
