I have about 40 or so store bought Movies on VHS which I would like to copy to DVD. 1. Is this even legal? My assumption is that this would be a fair use so I am inclined to think it is. 2. What is the easiest (read idiot-proof) method to accomplish this? My preferred option would be to bypass my laptop. Place a tape in one slot, press a button and get a DVD out the other. I do have an external DVD burner capable of DVD+R and DVD-R, but is not essential that I re-use this. I can see scope for a standalone TV/DVD-recorder in my future. 3. I would like to get the highest quality possible result - at least as good as the quality of the tape. Anything less and the exercise is pointless. Does the current 'state of the art' make this feasible without excessive funds? Thanks.
You want to capture from VCR to DVD. You will need an MPEG encoder that will elminate macrovision [copy rights] Dazzle makes a Digital Video incoder that will incode any AVI or VHS to an MPEG format. It is USB connected to your computer. The only draw back is that it will only allow a 4GB file size. The same goes for Pinnacle Studio 8 or 9. After 4 GB it will break the file into a second half which will show up as a 1_ file. The new Dazzle product Digital Video creator 150 now comes with Pinnacle Studio 8. Since Pinnacle has bought out Dazzle. Both products incode into an MPEG 2 format which is needed to make DVD's, it also incodes the audio into an MP2 format from a WAV. Which all VHS tapes are. The only other thing you can do is buy a capture card with either S-Video or Composit in and then buy a Video Enhancer which gets rid of the Macrovision. Either way you are going to spend some money getting those tapes on DVD. Good Luck.
Depending on the length, timewise, of those VHS movies, you won't get the same quality as the VHS by capturing and burning to a DVD. You can figure one hour of movie time, on a DVD, to get the best quality. Anything after that, you will need a program to compress it, to fit on one DVD, thus losing quality You are better off going to Wal-Mart, or other places, and look for those VHS titles on DVD.
GrandpaBW; I am also a Viet Nam Vet, 1969-1971. I am service connected 100%. So most of my time is spent on the computer mostly doing movies,since my movie collection contains over 500 different titles,so my time is spent on transfering them to DVD,since some of them are so old that I am afraid of loosing them, because some of them can not be replaced so I transfer them to DVD. I have been copping VHS tapes for a long time now and have several different programs in which to do it with. One of the programs that I use I can capture up to 180min. in an MPEG 2 format and don't loose any quality in the transfer to DVD. Matter of fact the movie looks even better then it did on tape. One of the programs that I use is called Ulead movie factory, which will capture in any format that I want to use. AVI,MPEG 1,2,4. It will compress the movie to fit on a single 4.7GB DVD without loosing any quality at all. But of course using this program you will have to get a capture card, which I use ATI All In Wonder 9600, but the draw back with using a capture card is that federal law makes the company incorporate macrovision on the card, but there are ways around that also and still keep a high quality transfer to DVD.
180 mins. is a long time to record to a DVD. If capturing via capture card, at the highest quality, I get a file size around 4 GB for each hour recorded, for MPEG2. AVI, which I can't do with my Hauppauge card, would even be larger. Where were you in Nam? I was down in the Mekong Delta.
GrandpaBW I use an ATI All In Wonder 9600 capture card with a program called Ulead Movie Maker 3. It will capture in almost any format including MPEG 4 It also has DVD standard play and DVD long play, AVI and MPEG The software is great because you can change the bitrate of the video and the audio.I am now looking into a new capture device made by ADS. It comes with Ulead movie maker 7 which is just an updated version of 3.Like I Said before the only draw back in using the capture card without an incoder program is that federal law makes the company incorporate macrovision.{copy right protection]in the video stream. I was actually all over nam, Mostly north of Nam. Along the DMZ.Also in Loas and Cambodia,sometimes ferried up the Nung River past the DO Lung Bridge which was the last Army out post.Our orders came directly from the DOD and not the Army.We were a special hit squad.Mostly on special top secret missions. So Let me know if you need any more info on capturing Videos and I will let you know what I find out about ADS products.
i was in nam too.....helicopter squadron with the navy....flew search and rescue...i need help converting vhs to dvd...have a few tapes i took while in the service...but also have store bought ones...have a dvd burner..so don't wanna buy another burner...eg..a vhs/dvd recorder..any help you can give i would appreciate..my email is jappel2@cfl.rr.com....trust me..i am soo new to this...i need software....don't wanna buy a capture card....will a converter box work?...thanx...joe appel
specforce or grandpa.... I have an ATI9600XT card, Ulead Movie Maker 7, DVD Decrypter and over 1000 vhs tapes...can you guide me on how to convert them to dvd. I get the green screen of death. Marisa
To bklyn 1028 or marisa 56. Heres the deal at making DVD's from VHS tapes that are copy protected. First you will need the software. You can either get DVD movie Factory 3 full version. Or you can get a device that will encode your movies directly into an mpeg2 format and the audio into a mp2LII layer. What I do is capture the movie through my incoder and then I have anouther program that will enhance the movie into digital quality. The capture device is called ADS DVD Express which costs around $50 to $70. The Software DVD Movie Factory3 full version is about $90.00 The digital inhancer is about $129.00. The ADS DVD Express is a USB 2.0 connection to your computer. You can hook your VCR to it through RCA compossit cables. Since I digitize my movies for better quality and add chapters and titles to them I have other programs to do this with. I can take a 8GB movie and shrink it down to fit a standard 4.7GB DVD-R disk without loosing any quality sure saves money on DVD's because that means I don't have to buy duel layered DVD's.Even though I have a duel layer burner. Remember one thing though, do not use DVD+R for videos, they are great for data but lousy for videos. Always use DVD-R's for videos.If any one wishes to reach me via E-Mail, My E-Mail address is deendarryl@adelphia.net. In the subject line put making DVD's so I will know who it's from or else I will not open itand deleat it from my mail.Hope this info helps! If anyone needs more help please feel free to let me know.
i also have an ati 9600. (XT AIW) what software do you suggest so that i can transfer home tapes to dvd? im looking for best quality possible with a reasonable file size... no overkill, but no noticable image quality loss (not that vcr looks that great anyways) and also, what format, bit rate and such?
You can certainly get stand alone units that eliminate the macrovision coming out of the video out of your VHS recorder on many names such as video enhancers, eliminators, etc. I have a very old unit called a RXll that still works well today. But, anyway, I believe you can use NeoDVD and it will let you input the capture directly with no problems from a copywritten VHS, I have done it many times with store bought VHS movies, I just play the movie and capture it and have never had a problem. I am not sure NeoDVD eliminates handles VHS tapes with macrovision, I am just saying I never had any problems. I don't even know if NeoDVD is available anymore, but of course you could always capture the VHS tape in AVI or Mpeg and use any other software for further steps if you wish. NeoDVD will capture to mpeg2 format without a problem, but it won't do mpeg4.
With the older vhs tapes with copy write protection nero might remove it, but the new tapes and dvd's that are comming out now have a compleatly different type of protection on them. So the old software like nero will not remove it. It takes a stand alone device to remove it. There are several devices on the market that will remove the protection. The best one that I have found is either GoDVD made by SIMA, it will remove the macrovision [copy write protection] it will also inhance, darken or do black and white. It costs about $129.00. You just plug your video out from your VCR to one side and the video out from the device to your capture card or device. You can find it either on line or at Best Buy. The other product that is great is made by ADS. They have 3 different devices that will do the job and give you the quality you want for a DVD. This product runs from $60.00 to $230.00. ADS products can be found at Tiger Direct.com or you can order it streight from ADS.[ADS Technologies]. These devices are USB 2.0. Some of them even come with software to create DVD's I use both of these products in line with each other for great looking DVD's. With the SIMA product you will need either a capture card or a device like ADS makes. Hope this info helps!
http://www.the-console-corner.com/pro_vision_plus_dvd_decoder_v2.htm Here is a link to one of them for about $35. They are all over the place really, just do a search under macrovision decoders. Good luck, I have had a couple of them and they all seem to work well.
Had a look at the pro vision DVD decoder. It looks as though it would be great for a new person to capture movies from a VHS. One draw back to it though, it does nothing for the sound. ALL VHS tapes are analoge and sound is in a WAV format. So your movie size is going to be huge. Because WAV's are large file sizes. So all DVD's are in a MP2LayerII format. Which is about 1/10th the size. Say you capture a 2 hour movie. You are looking at a file size of around 6GB's. So now what do you do? It won't fit on a 4.7 GB DVD. Because a 4.7 GB DVD will only hold 4.3GB's. So now you have to have a program to shrink the movie.Also to encode the sound into a MP2 format. I really think that if you want a great quality movie with good sound and picture, this device is not for you. Some one was asking at what byte rate you should capture at. You should always capture at a VBR rate, [variable byte rate]. Your VBR should be set at no less then 4000 bytes per sec, and no higher then 6000 bytes per sec.At this rate you will get a great capture. I would also like to mention that if you just want the same quality picure that your VCR puts out then you can use this device described above. It might stablize the picture but it does not inhance it for DVD quality. I have spent a lot of hours and money learning what to do and what not to do about making DVD's. With the programs and devices that I use I litterly remaster the movie. Just like the big companies do. Hope this info is helpful to the people just starting out in capturing movies. Good Luck!
