Tranferring VHS to Dvd

I have many Vhs tapes and would like to trnsfer them to DvD. what is the easiest and simpliest way to do it. Do I need to buy a dvd r recorder or what. Thanks for the help and suggestions.

 

I'm trying to do the same thing. I just purchased a Magnavox mwr20v6 at Walmart for a great price of $148. I've had no problem copying old home movies I've made and some old copies of animes I rented. But the newer VHS tapes I've made of DVD's I've rented or borrowed won't transfer due to the copyright protection. I'm hoping to find a way to alleviate this problem, and there seem to be some posts listed here on what you would need to buy (hopefully not very expensive). So if all you want to do is burn some old movies or home movies, I'd suggest buying a dvd/vhs/dvdburner combo, but if you have to bypass copyright protection, you may need something more complicated.

 

most around here, myself included, recommend putting a quality tv tuner card in your computer and hooking a VCR up to it. you record the files to your computer at a variety of quality settings, edit the footage, make menus, etc, and then burn to dvd. very easy and gives you a lot of control over the end product.

 

how do you go about with a tv tuner card. And where do you buy one? Thanks for the help any other suggestions with the tv tuner card.

 

anyplace, from Best Buy to newegg.com, that sells computer parts typically sells tv tuner cards. i recommend Hauppage PCI cards, or if you want to improve you gaming and use a tuner card, you can get an ATI All-In-Wonder to go in an AGP slot.

once you install the physical hardware and run the wires to your sound card, etc, you install the drivers/software from the disc that comes with your card and go. typically, there's a variety of connections--all the common ones at least.

 

Is there anyway to clean VHS tape copyright protection from your old movies so you can copy them to DVD using the DVD burner in the the basic VHS/DVD burner combo, or do you have to go the computer route?

 

there are little devices out there that will go on the connection between a vcr and a standalone burner, but these require two separate units; one combo machine alone won't cut it. this limits you to one-to-one copies that you'll have to re-rip later to edit as well as limiting your quality. i've never seen it as truly effective to go that route.

 

I am not a gamer but just want to get the vhs on dvd. tigerdirect has one for 20 bucks. looks pretty simple to install. you said something about wires to the sound card.???

 

Thanks for the info. Can I pick up the device at any electronics store? I'm only having a problem with 2 tapes that my daughter wants to take with her to college, so I don't mind hooking up another VCR to the burner and ripping the copy if it's not a very expensive piece of equipment I need to buy for the copyright removal.

 

chewbkka: i wouldn't go for anything that cheap, personally. as for the wire, you have to typically run a cable from a sound out port on the card to an input on your sound card.

gfoyle: google for macrovision defeating devices. you'll find lots of selection. there's also some on various threads on the forums here, i believe.

 

I maybe be up to speed on this but what does macrovision have to do with a tv tuner card. With eveything I reading the tv tuner is the best bet and the simplest way to go.

 

macrovision is the old copy protection on vhs tapes. if you're having problems with copying tapes, it's most likely due to macrovision. there are devices out there that elimate the protection from the signal being sent to your tuner so that you have a clean picture to work with.

i never bothered to pick up such a devise as the only conversions from vhs to dvd that i do are movies that i make with my friends.

 

Thanks for the info. I am considering buying a Sabrent Sbt-tvfm tv tuner card for the pc along with a new hard drive from western digital from shop4tech.com. What do you think of this tv tuner? How long does it take for the process of vhs tape to dvd take? and how many vhs tapes to a dvd can one hold?

 

A company called "Sima" made some really good macrovision defeating devices for cheap. I still use an oldie called "Video CopyMaster" Model SED-CM. Works like a charm! Quite a while ago, it cost about 65.00 new but you see them on emay all the time. You connect audio normally from source to DVD or VHS recorder and you run the video from the source to the Copy Master, does its thing in there and then you connect the CopyMaster to the DVD or VHS recorder. Works like a charm. I've coped encoded DVDs and VHSs both and copied them to both DVD and VHS. What I've never understood is how, when copying a protected DVD unto a VHS tape, the quality was almost as good as the DVD and far better than any new VHS straight from the studio. Makes no sense but there it is. Here is the Sima link:

http://www.simaproducts.com/

@Wolfboy...will be sending a PM when I get home this evening. I've a favor to ask.

 

i don't know anything about the Sabrent cards as i've never used them. i recommend ATI A-I-W cards and Hauppage (sp?) pci cards.

ger, better get to it! i'll be out with the family tonight, as i'm home for part of the thanksgiving break and hit the road Tuesday to drive to PA and see the lady friend ^.~

 

thanks for the advice. have a nice thanksgiving. let you know on the sabrent. worse possible secenario I will lose thirty bucks

 

If you are going for ease of use then using a DVD Recorder is much easier than a TV capture card. Unless you plan on editing or making custom menus than a TV Capture card is just adding unnecessary steps.

For removing Macrovision copyright protection Sima products are supposed to be good as gerry1 pointed out. The best, but most expensive, is to get a full frame TBC such as the Datavideo TBC-1000. This completely stabilizes the signal and you can get most of your money back on EBay when you are done using it.

 

I'm wondering about a dvd recorder also.

I use an ASUS 9600XT with video in and video out. It doesn't say AIW. I'm not quite sure if it's the same as an ATI AIW card, is it?

The capture software that came with it is....
WDM Capture Driver
ASUS Digital VCR
(No Multimedia Center Software included)

Is digital VCR the same (or similar) as Multimedia Center Software? I've never used MCS or seen it used.

When I capture (vcr home movies) using Digital VCR I'm not very happy with the results, bad quality but liveable. It's better than nothing. I capture the sound with my sound card (microphone in) and have never had any out of sync problems, that's good.

I've been thinking about getting a stand alone dvd recorder or a dvd recorder\vcr combo. Wouldn't it be easier to just burn the vcr material to a dvd-rw and then play it in the computer? Copy it and then edit it.

To make my home DVD movies normally I .... edit with Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 .... then use TMPGEnc XPress .... then TMPGEnc DVD Author. I use VirtualDub for compression If I need to. Sometimes DVD Shrink.

But my question is, wouldn't a stand alone dvd recorder work as good as an AIW card? The objective is to capture with the least amount of loss. Then put that dvd in computer and edit....thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

Recently I boughta usb 2.0 tv tuner/video capture box and tried it out this weekend. well the instructions are bad and doesn't explain enough. then when you program it you have to go to help menu alot for things to explain to you. you have to use your own cables for the vcr or camcorder. but when you play on the camcorder the picture is black and white and no sound. they don't help you. it was a fiasco but finally I Transfer it to the cpu but had problems with Nero Express 2 and winAVI to get it to dvd. finally I use DVD shrink and decrypt to burn it but I was smart and use a DVD RW so I can erase everything. It is a hassle and has to be a better way. How do use a camcorder tape on DVD recorder?

 

Hi, I'm a very new, "newbie". I too am looking for something to capture my vhs to dvd. A techie where I worked recommended ATI All in wonder. When I went to buy it, I saw some reviews that were not at all impressive. Many said that the quality was not that good. I want to be able to edit the family movies and possibly put in some pictures too. I had also thought that I could copy some of my old vhs movies. Do you recommend the all in wonder, or something else? I appreciate any help I can get. Thanks in advance!