VHS to DVD guide (free/shareware, external USB capture hardware)

Hello all,

I have been reading this site, espacialy on backing up DVD, for a couple of weeks now. This post is meant to find some missing answers I need. I'm not a technical guy so help me understand you After a couple of search on the forum, I must however say I understand a good portion of the terminology.

My goal is to find a way to Capture, straight in MPG2, via a "Dazzle Digital Video Creator 80 USB", VHS tapes. At the end, I want to burn on DVD AND I don't have the kind of disk space it takes to save a 2 hour movie in AVI format. I have around 10 Gigs free.

I'm trying to use VirtualDub but with no success. I'm open to other software but it needs to be freeware or shareware. I also own NeoDVD and a stripped VideoWave4 (No MPG2...).

My questions for the moment.
a) In VirtualDub, I get no sound. My sound should come from the DVC 80 (Digital Video Creator 80) but I can't seem to find the place to change the setting.
Where can I tell to VirtualDub that my sound come from the DVC 80 and not from my internal sound card?
b) How can I tell to VirtualDub to capture and compress to MPG2? Codec isn't free I heard. Is this truth? Is VirtualDubMod an option?
c) Is VirtualDub a good choice? (I tried AVI_IO, VirtualDub, NeoDVD, a stripped VideoWave4...)
d) Are my expectation too hight and impossible to meet?

Here it is. Thanks for reading, I will return to this thread each day.

Thanks alot for the comming help. If a guy like Old Scuba or Minion could help, I will be the luckiest man around Scuba guides to backing up DVD with Shrink and Decryptor were really great.

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Sewcid
P4 Intel, 2.4Ghz, 512 Ram
French Canadian, please disregard spelling errors.
_X_X_X_X_X_[small]---
Sewcid
P4 Intel, 2.4Ghz, 512 Ram, Digital Videao Creator 80 (DVC 80), DVD burner: LG GSA-4081B, Window XP SP1
French Canadian, please disregard grammar errors[/small]

 

well, I thought those forums where the best to ask questions.

A little bit deceived here.

If it is just plain impossible, just say so, so I don't have to come back here each day to check for a response.

Thanks anyway for your reading time.