VHS -> DVD

[lem0n]

I would like to know, what would be the best way to transfer VHS tapes to DVD-R's. I have looked around a bit and stumbled upon a HP external DVD burner (model dc3000) which is made for this purpose. I've also found Pinnacle Studio Movie Box USB, a box which connects between the VHS player and your computer, converting the video to Mpeg-2 on-the-fly. And of course, my third option would be getting a TV-card, with which I would simply record the video to my harddrive and so on. Now, I don't have much experience in this area, so I would welcome anything that would help me. And oh yeah, I would also be interested in this: how much video could I fit on one disk? The manufacturers don't seem to say much about this. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[twofruitz]

find a capture/video card with TV in and record the video from a standard VCR. once the files are on your computer get some software, pinnicle is good and burn them to dvd.

its hard to do and time consuming but worth the time if they are important videos

 

[argyle]

u can also try a mini-dv player which has an analog to digital passthrough. i have a sony mini-dv for that purpose. havent tried it though.

 

[superboss]

Is it important that these DVD-R play in a standard DVD player, or can you play these files through a computer hooked up to your TV?

If you want standard DVD through a DVD player then you could probably get about 2 hours of dvd on a standard DVD-R
these figures are a basic guess, as DVD movies are released on DVD media that holds over 9 Gig of data not 4.7(4.5) gig like DVD-R or DVD+R, and I know that most commercial DVD's cant put much more than 4 hrs of footage on one disc, so by that theory, you would probably fit on about 2hrs on one dvd.

If like me you have a computer as your dvd player, then I would highly recommend DivX or Xvid and you could fit on
8 - 10 hours of footage






Opel Superboss, now that was a car!

 

[lem0n]

The idea was that I could watch old recorded VHS tapes from DVD's, taking less space in the shelf. I can imagine having all the old shows neatly organized on a computer would be very handy, but this would be a much bigger operation I think, having to use a computer to watch the movies. The shows would be watched on a TV away from my computer. There is a computer in the same room as the TV, but it's not located very well considering easy picking of files should be possible. Besides this computer is much slower and has no TV-out/in.

 

[superboss]

Well you need a computer with a videocapture card to convert VHS to DVD in the first place, and they have a TV Out also, and seing as even old computers can play video fine with a decent card, I would still consider using your computer as your DVD player.

You do not have to store the files on the computer. You can burn them to blank DVD's therby attaining about 8 - 10 hours of footage, or 4 - 5 VHS tapes. Thats the best way to minimize your VHS/DVD usage.

Ofcourse if you really dont want to use a computer then you can still put your VHS onto DVD, but Im afraid it will be about a one to one replacement, and in some cases you will need 2 dvd's to replace one VHS.

You can only store about 2 hours of video in DVD format.

I will also be easier using an of the shelf product like you mentioned to help you convert VHS to DVD, and alot more difficult to do it my way using divx or xvid as your final source.



Opel Superboss, now that was a car!

 

[lem0n]

Hmm. I gotta think this over again then. Using a computer as player would change things a lot. But what about the output? I use S-video from my computer to my TV right now, and the quality isn't that great. What better ways are there?

 

[superboss]

Thats strange, I also use S-Video to my
TV and it looks perfect.

Maybe your source file does not look good in the first place. The quality of the played file looks better through your TV than your computer monitor because of the size of the pixels.

As an example one of my Music Videos looks average on my Laptop, and good on my desktop and perfect on my TV, its just because Laptop pixels are tiny and TV pixels are bigger.



Opel Superboss, now that was a car!