Can I transfer my VHS tapes to DVD...if so....HOW?

[serryjw]

n/t

[Goldmund]

1. You have to get a video capture card --

-- "dazzle" ones are cheap. Then you capture it into an MPEG, and from there you burn a DVD.

[serryjw]

3. Huh?

start slow.......I have no idea what you just said? These are VHS tapes?

[Goldmund]

6. No, a video capture card...

...is a little USB device with video input jacks. You can get it at any Radio Shack, CompUSA, etc. You connect your VCR to it, play the tape, and have the computer record an MPEG file. Then you use a DVD-burning program (I suggest Nero) to burn the file onto a DVD-R.

[Dcitizen]

13. Use PVR PCI card or PVR USB external device

High quality cards, low cost:

WinFast TV2000XP Deluxe Personal Video Tuner/Recorder PCI Card.
(good bargain on Ebay)

WinTV-PVR-250 contains a highly integrated MPEG-1/2 hardware encoder, plus a high quality video digitizer. WinTV-PVR-250 can record full screen TV or video from a VCR or camcorder, using as little as 1.5GB of hard disk space per hour. The encoded MPEG-2 video is sent over the PCI bus, where it is stored on the PCs hard disk. The video can also be played back to the PC screen while recording. (100-120)

If you want use EXTERNAL USB:
Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB2 model 941
Watch record TV, videos over USB on your PC,burn DVDs (around 140)

Make sure PC is Pentium4 or 1+GHz and 250+MB memory.

Then from harddisk, copy to DVD or CD with Nero or Sonic RecordNow
software if you dont want keep it in PC.

If you want to show your Video to all DUers, PM me.

[htuttle]

2. I got a Formac digitizer that works okay

I don't know if the software is available for anything but Mac OS X, but it connects to the computer via firewire, and can hook up to the VCR a number of different ways.

It captures to straight DV files, so they're very large, but you can convert to DVD with a couple of different programs (some free, some commercial).

[serryjw]

4. I'm on dial up

is this going to take me 3 days to transfer ONE?

[htuttle]

8. No, you'd hook it up directly to your computer

You'd have to go buy a convertor. It would take years to transfer a 12 GB file over a dialup line.

I guess if you only have a single VHS to transfer, it wouldn't make sense to buy a digitizer, though (they are about $200-$300, depending on features. Mine has a cable TV tuner built in, so it was closer to $300 a few years ago).

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

5. Better sources of info...

Google is your friend

[Deja Q]

7. Easy!

Video capture card
160GB hard drive space so you can batch process... (a captured 1 hour program takes up ~15 GIGABYTES)
Video editing software (to mark and delete commercials, et al)
Video cleaning/restoration software to make it look better
Audio cleaning/restoration s/w to make it sound better
DVD (MPEG2) encoder software to turn the captured file into something usable by a DVD player
DVD writer device to make the DVD

Everything I do is PC-based. Not Mac. The mac's overpriced "one touch, do it my way or go away" yields pathetic results as I've seen the results of some work done for a friend of mine. The results were, um, not the best... pretty much garbage given the circumstances. (aren't macs easy to use? :eyes: ) Especially when, for video compression and encoding you WANT the fastest model out there. After a net cost of $3500 (high end Mac) or $1500 (high end PC), the choice is obvious in terms of cost/benefit analysis. Even a 50 minute program, on a disc that could handle 2 hours with standard compression, looked like it had way too much compression and looked HORRIBLE. (I've since then bought the same VHS, captured it myself, and made a MUCH better looking copy.)

[htuttle]

9. Well

A) I only paid about $1500 for my G4 iMac, and it's plenty fast enough to digitize real time video right off the cable TV line (or from VHS).

B) I can use a whole assortment of free Unix-like tools (which all have nice GUIs available for them) to compress, dice and slice the video any way I want. The whole mplayer suite is available for OSX.

[thecorster]

11. Once you go Mac, you never go back n/t

[Dude_CalmDown]

10. Speaking with some experience here...

I've tried a few hardware and software packages and the best I've found for hardware is the Dazzle DVC90



The Pinnacle editing and capturing software isn't even close to being worth as much as a pile of dogshit so don't get their software. Instead I got (after returning the Pinnacle software, keying the car of the guy who created it, and sleeping with his wife) Roxio Easy Media Creator 7. I don't know if this is the best software package but it works pretty good and it's compatible with the Dazzle DVC90.

Or you can just get a DVD VCR combo for about the same price as all of the above at Costco. But the computer route is better in my opinion for the editing ability and because you can also convert home video that may be on the smaller tapes (and really anything that uses the banana plugs).

[Smirking_Chimp]

12. I have a componant style DVD burner.

I just connect the 3 rca plugs(yellow, red, and white) from the burner unit into the VCR. press play on the VCR, and record on the DVD. Pretty simple.

[LaPera]

14. What's the point? The video will look like shit!

Buy a software program (there are now many) that make direct copies of any DVD movie, concerts, everything that's put out in DVD....with very little noticeable audio or video transfer loss.

[serryjw]

15. I have 100 VHS copies

what do I do with them?

[catzies]

16. Don't even mess with the computer stuff. Just buy a DVD player/ recorder

from Best Buy.

The one I got has a VHS player next to the DVD burner. I put in a tape, put in a blank DVD and record.

This worked fo me because I didn't have a DVD player to begin with. I waited a long time for home DVD burners to come down in price, and it just came into my price range.

This is the one I have:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1077629691853&skuId=6539873&productCategoryId=pcmcat13900050019&type=product