As the name implies- that Radio Shack unit is just a link between source and computer. It allows the signal to be sucked into the computer so the included software can do ALL the processing. It's a software solution with no hardware encoding. Your CPU is doing all the work. I don't know Plextor's numbering scheme but I do know the 100 is not much different than other [bold]software only[/bold]A/V units. The 402 has a Phillips and a WIS chip inside to handle encode/decode functions relieving your CPU load. No matter what, the computer and capture device needs a program running to control the signal I/O. That's what a capture program does. Don't know much about ADS stuff- can't comment. However, what ever product you decide on I think it should have [bold]hardware capability[/bold] and not rely totally on the CPU. Hauppage series 250 and 350 are highly reccommended by some as are the Canopus units. Wish I had the $ to compare for myself and post screen shots.
I have discovered how to record my (and all) VHS takes with this devicte from Hauppage. http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvrusb2.html I chose this device instead of one of the pci cards since i did not have to upgrade my operating system to windows xp media center. I hooked my older dual dec VHS/CD player to this device and discovered it will recored (all VHS)tapes and i can then trasfer the VHS tape to my pc in mpg format and I can then burn this file to my NEC 2500A DVD burner on my pc. When it burns the dvd, it burns it to mpeg vido format. For software i am using the software that came with the usb device. Dvd movie factory 3.0, WinTv2000 and burn the file through windows media player. Its a great little device that works for converting my family vhs tapes as well as making personal backups of my vhs that i have purchased.
You do need conversion equipment to get your VHS tapes to DVD as for copy protected video tapes which you have purchased just put some duct tape on the tab and it work fine in your video player. As for the equipment it needs to have RCA inputs and USB 2.0 support and NeroVisionExpress3.0 for burning to DVD. I have only recently started a website which tell you how to do everything since many of my friends want to know as well and it took me ages to find something that works and is streamlined just to give my self a plug Removed
I hope the rest of your advice is more sensible than this (on your website that is). Duct tape to solve copy protection? ROFLMAO. I think you are dealing with "overwrite protection" here, and anyway duct tape is overkill and hard to remove later. Scotch tape does the trick usually, but a little bit of card under the tape really kicks ass. Copy protection (Macrovision) on tapes is a whole different issue, and is dealt with elsewhere in this thread Also, I don't use Nero, but I believe you are several versions out of date. (I will gladly stand corrected on this one however). I use a shareware product called "Burn on CD/DVD, which I find excellent) As to the need for equipment - simple - buy yourself a decent DVD recorder. You are going to get one eventually anyway, so why put it off? BenQ has a really good product coming out soon with a MTS stereo tuner, but if you don't mind only having a mono tuner to begin with the Daytek P30 is excellent, and there is a hack for defeating Macrovision on one of the sites somewhere. (It still accepts stereo input from VCRs and other devices). JMHO
OK Mil Rudic, you charlatan. The link to your website is just a pitch for your overpriced book. You can't even spell (can you say PEACE?) I hope nobody is tempted to blow $30 on this trash, when all the advice you need is on this site, or DVDRHELP, or Lordsmurf, along with a few others.
Hi wordsmith First of all if you dont like my book thats fair enough but there is no need to become abusive mate. Given that you have sufficient knowledge in this area to you my Ebook would be an expensive option to others an inexpensive one. There are some people who dont wish to spend alot of time on the Internet and end up finding so many different ways of converting vhs tapes to dvd whether the work properly or not is a different story. My Ebook is aimed at them. No one is forcing you to buy my Ebook i have presented it on the Internet for people to decide for themselves. As for the price my book could save alot of people time and money. I think the worst thing anyone could do is pay high prices for a Studio to do the conversions.
i've had more luck with the ADS box over the Plextor ConvertX and SONY VRD-VC10 (in terms of A/V sync). Thing is with the SONY one, you don't need a computer to get your final DVD copy, it has a DVD burner built-in... kinda cool, but only if you don't care what your DVD menu looks like
Milrudic, Charlatan isn't as abusive a term as I might have used. My real concern was that a) you can't spell, and b) your advice about using duct tape to combat copy protection was a signal that you are not yet fully competent to give advice to others. True, I have not read your book, so it may well be a worthy tome. If so, I apologise if you are offended. However, $30 is still a steep price for this level of instruction, so my other real point was to let people know that this BB is a good place to start - for free. Meanwhile, I admire your entrepreneural spirit, and if you ever want me to do some pre-production editing, let me know - it is what I do!
milrudic, Read the forum rules. No advertising. Don't post that link again and remove it from your sig.
howndawg, Your sig has been removed from your post. Read the forum rules. No advertising. Do not post again with it in your sig. You will be banned if it is in your sig again.
my question might be related to this forum. i plan to transfer my home video, mostly vhs and v8, to digital format. what i am concerned is that if the burned dvd can be read by a dvd player in a different zone. if not i might be forced to use a lower quality vcd format which does not have this restriction. tks. doug
Hi Doug, Once you have converted and burnt your movies to DVD lets assume it is in Region 4 as your DVD burner might be set to 4. Download DVD shrink from the Internet. It requires that you have Nero as your burning software. Burn another copy with DVd shrink and there is an option to burn as Region Free this will ensure that it will work on most DVD Players. But there is no guarantee that it will work on all Stand Alone DVD Players there are always exceptions Regards Mil
True for Dvd Shrink, however, you don't HAVE TO HAVE Nero for burning. Just load the transcode from dvd shrink into burn application.
Hi Doug, As PFH rightly states you are not limited to using Nero with Shrink. However your original question left a few things unclear. Do you propose to transfer your tapes to DVD "the easy way" using a standalone PVR? If so, the best thing for you to do is get a copy of good authoring program and then you can edit out any unwanted material such as commercials or just plain boring stuff. You can build your own menus and finish up with a kick-ass product. I usually transfer my tapes in the one hour (HQ) mode, and then consolidate them on my computer using my preferred tool (if original is longer than one hour it takes more than one disk obviously). I then use DVDShrink to reduce the resultant oversized file to the requisite 4.6 gig. Shrink uses built in algorithms to reduce file size with very little loss of quality (in fact it has some built in processing features that I don't pretend to understand, but which seem to clean up my old tapes to some degree). The process is time consuming, but the beauty of Shrink is that you can set it up to run at bedtime, and it will turn off the computer when it has finished rendering. Come down in the morning and burn the resultant ISO file using whatever burning software your little heart desires.
thanks to Mil and wordsmith for offering me tips. i now consider buying an entry level converter, which allows me to play vhs and v8 and digitizes the a/v signal and sends to computer via usb. i have a question about DVDShrink. you mentioned shrinking results in very little loss of quality. does it mean unnoticeable? i have a 100 min long tape and if i shrink it to 60 min will it not be noticeable? does the original length matter? you guys' experience are very valuable. doug
I have shrunk two hour movies down to fit on a single disk. They are still two hours long, but at a lower frame rate. You don't reduce a 100 minutes down to sixty, you simply use higher compression rates to get the same amount of time from a 4.7 gig disk. DVD Shrink uses clever analysis to determine what to compress in order to do the least degradation (and all this while you sleep, you lucky devil) Typically, it will advise you of the degree of shrinkage as a percentage. I have found little or no visible reduction in the resultant quality, and in fact my VHS tapes usually look better than ever, since the sharpening algorithms seem to enhance the rapidly fading (yes, fading) magnetic images. Either way it is the only way you are going to achieve the file size you need to get the tape onto a single disk. BTW forget about buying anything other than a decent PVR (BenQ or Daytek are what I work with). You are going to have to get one sooner or later as VHS is dead. The realtime conversion to disk beats computer capture so I no longer bother with the latter. Post processing software like TAD is a good investment, after that.
Thanks. Could you tell me the model numbers of PVRs? I feel confused. I thought Personal Video Recorder does what I described, i.e., converting analog signals to digital and store into computer. It uses RCA A/V connectors as input. Am I wrong?
