okay ive been wondering online for weeks looking for the best tv tuner that will record vhs to my computer. does any one know what the best tv tuner is, money is not an issue im just looking for the best tv tuner to record my old vhs to dvd in the highest quality, please help me
Have you thought about a DVD/VCR combo? These are often the simplest and fastest way to do a pure copy from VHS to DVD.
if you're dealing with retail (aka MacroVi$ion) videotapes (many of which are never released to DVD), the Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U will capture directly to custom quality DVD format MPEG-2 files, and disregards the MacroVi$ion signal. i love it only downside is it costs about $100, but it DOES live up to the price, and comes with capture software, too!
or visit VHS to DVD and transfer your home video tapes to dvd. You can get a pretty good conversion at a reasonable price from a lot of places. But what are most of these companies lacking? Care and attention to detail! Other ways you get totally amateurish product done with domestic equipment. link: http://www.vhs-to-dvd.com/
it's a nice site, with plenty of options, but for 8 bucks a pop, if you have more than 10 videos you'd be better off just doin' it yourself. plus, you'd have more options that way, too (like compression levels, menu appearance, etc.). that site IS a good way to save you the hassle, though, if you've got the spare cash...
And your dignity can survive paying someone else to do something you could do yourself I would trust a local studio more than this kind of site. If you have friends in a local TV station, they usually have this kind of equipment, and would be willing to let you borrow/use it.
yeh, i prefer to do things myself anyway. add a sort of "personal" touch to it, let 'em know it was made by me, heh but you know, some people...what's the phrase, "why put off doing tomorrow what you could put off doing today"
Well if money is not a problem then buy a 9000 series JVC VCR then hook it up to a full frame TBC like the Datavideo TBC-1000 and then get the ATI AIW capture card. The ATI AIW cards will capture in any format and resolution you would need unlike many of the USB capture devices.
i'm abit confused... why would you need a TBC (Time Base Corrector) AND a JVC VCR? the 9000 series models usually HAVE TBC's built-in. also, i HAD an ATI card on my last PC, and between all the "dead-weight" useless software, and the fact that ATI vid cards don't "like" Macrovision tapes... well, suffice it to say i got an nVIDIA card next time, and was quite pleased. but i digress. anywayz, the ConvertX M402U (which you can check out here) peformed ALL of the functions mentioned above with ANY VCR, and all it needed was an open USB port (also 2.0 compatible for faster file saving), and an AC outlet. with it's HARDWARE encoder, the burden is taken off of the computer, letting it simply SAVE the resultant file. all you need is a PC with a fast enough processor to save all the data to a file as it comes. conversely, you can check out the TBC-1000 that Chroma45 mentioned here. it's not a bad deal, either, it just seems a waste to buy 3 products to do the job that ONE can. and besides that, some older video tapes are best played on the VCR they were recorded with, due to head alignment issues, and ConvertX allowed me to do just that. just my 4 cents
I read an article about that head alignment thing recently... I can only hope that you still OWN the original recording device and can still use it. As far as the caprutre devices go, I would always go with one that has (good) hardware MPEG-2/MPEG-4/etc. encoding, especially if you have a slow computer. I find that mine is also used often for recording from other sources, i.e. screen recording my other PC or laptop, etc. I would highly recommend a capture device (internal or external); if not solely for this, they have their odd uses elsewhere.
could you not link both together i connected my vhs player to tv through the multicolor wires then the dvd recorder to back via scat played the vhs and the dvd recorder did what it was told to recorder what was on TV and had a family video night watching all them memories as they went from vhs dvd
chaomac, that's a good idea, which is why i hate to burst your bubble, but not every TV has options like that, plus the quality would be slightly dropped as well, whereas with a ConvertX box, all it does is convert to DVD MPEG-2 format and save it (instead of re-processing it), and a TBC actually IMPROVES the signal (sometimes), rather than just transfering it. if you don't have much money, though, and you already have a TV that does that, it is a more "frugal" option. thanx for the reminder oh, also, i do believe you meant "SCART". i'm in the US, here, so i just barely remembered that, since it's not as widely used here as it is in the European areas.
This is a common misconception about many devices. JVC 9000 series VCRs and many consumer/prosumer video devices only have line based TBCs and not full frame. This why something like the Datavideo TBC is needed. Also the ATI capture cards are great because they can capture in almost any resolution or video codec you have installed. Not many capture cards have this kind of versatility and you can get the best possible results using the JVC, TBC and ATI.
good to know Chroma, thx if my current setup (basic Toshiba VCR > ConvertX > PC) ever gives me issues, i'll definitely try your setup.
