Help! how do I convert vhs to dvd?

Hi, I am really new at this and I was wondering how I would go about converting Vhs to dvd. I have a pc with a dvd burner, I burn dvds all the time and i was wondering if there was a software out there that made it possible to transfer vhs into my computer so that I can then burn it on my dvd burner.
thanxs

 

What you Need isn"t necessarilly Software which you do Need but more Importantly you need to have Video Capture Hardware in your PC...

You need to have an analogue Video Capture Card of some sort to Digitize the VHS Video and Transfer it to your PC"s Hard Drive...

I suggest you get a Capture device that uses Hardware Compression Like the "Hauppaggue WinTV PVR-150" which Can Capture the Video to your Hard Drive in the Correct Format for DVD (Which is Mpeg-2) then all you would have to do is Load the Captured Mpeg-2 file into a DVD authoring Program and add your Menu"s and Chapters and Burn the DVD...

A Simple to use DVD authoring Program is "Tmpgenc DVD author" or if you want something more advanced then "MediaChance DVDLab Pro" is very good But a Bit Complicated.....

You can Pick up the Capture Device I mentioned above for under $100 and then all you need is the DVD authoring Program and your DVD Burner and you can Transfer VHS to DVD.....

Cheers

 

Cool, thanks a lot for the advice. Just a question though cause I'm really new to this, I'm not sure how the Win tv thing works, Is it a device that will plug into my vcr so that the information can then be transferred to my pc?

 

The PVR-150 is a hardware mpeg-2 encoding (digitizing) card.
It's PCI and goes into your computer. Hook up the VCR, and it will record directly to dvd spec mpg video on your hard drive.
If you don't want to open your computer to install it, take a look at the Hauppauge PVR-USB-2.0 instead.
These also double as TV tuners, so you can watch and record TV on your computer.

 

Thanks alot! I actually went and bought the WinTv-Go-plus hauppauge today, I'll hook it up and see how it works!
Thanks again

 

The "Hauppague WinTV Go" is NOT a Good Card...It is actually a Very Old Model and uses Software Compression which will cause you a Lot of Problems in the Future....

You should Have Bought the Card that was Recomended to you not the WinTV Go Card as the "WinTV PVR" cards are in a Total Other Class than the Crappy WinTV Go Cards...

Actually the WinTV Go card was one of the First Capture devices I ever owned and I quickly realized that I made a BIG Mistake in Buying it as the Quality was awefull and I had Lots of Dropped Frames and Sync problems....

Return it ASAP and get the Card that was recomended to you....

Cheers

 

Hi, I'm also having problems copying vhs to my HDD. The sound is out of sync with the video and there seems to be a lot of dropped frames. As I'm new to this stuff, I could use some help. My capture device is an ATI All-in-wonder 9800 pro 128mb video card with Pinnacle Studio 8. According to the manual I connected it to my Soundblaster Live sound card. When I try capturing the vhs it's quite jerky during playback.
Any advice...please?

 

Dropped Frames will cause Sync Problems and Jumpy Playback....

Try useing different Capture software, maybe one that capture directly to Mpeg-2 Like "InterVideo WinDRV 3.0" as it"s Files don"t go out of sync from dropped Frames and you shouldn"t get Dropped Frames unless your PC is Slow Like under 2.5ghz.....

Cheers

 

Many thanks, I'll try it.

 

Minion, Two quick questions (Ok, more than 2). The Canopus 110 DV output is an AVI file? Is this file compressed or is it a hard drive-eating uncompressed AVI? Will the DVD Lab Pro use the file as an input and then allow it to be output to a DVD, or must it be converted to another format before it is used in DVD Lab Pro? I thought it mentioned something about "DVD Labs slow internal encoder" on their site. Thanks for all the information and guidance.
Rags

 

The Canopus ADVC Captures to DV AVI format which is the same Format used in Digital camcorders and even Some newer movies are being shot in Digital these days and it is the Best Format for editing...It uses up about 4gb per 20 minutes of Video so it isn"t nearly as Space consumeing as Uncompressed AVI...

After Captureing you have to encode the DV AVI files to mpeg-2 DVD format before you can Load them into DVDLab and add your Menu"s and Chapters and Burn the DVD...DVDLab doesn"t have a Built in encoder which is Good because Most all Built in encoders aren"t very Good...

Cheers

 

Thanks Minion, I was afraid I was beginning to figure all this out. More fool me! Guess ProCoder Express will have to come from Santa. It seems to be well thought-of and should complete the project's hard/software setup,(unless I win the Natioal.) Thanks Rags

 

My cheap way to back up a VHS tape: Get a mini Y adapter from radioshack with two male RCA end jacks and the mini-plug to plug into the sound card on the back of the computer.Next get the Norwood micro from CompUSA video tuner/Capture card $40.This doesn't have The greatest software but it does the job for a commercial video.Next back up you video and create a menu with Nero Vision Express.Enjoy your back-up.

 

Thanks for the alternate idea. I need to do the best backup I can on my collection of VHS tapes before they are gone forever. Things like Peter Sellers will never make it to DVD (in my lifetime) and at the rate VHS is disapppering, I won't even find a machine to play the old tapes on<G>. Even the recent copies I've bought from catalog houses seem to be of lesser quality. Such is life. I _think_ that the system I am puting together with all the help from this fourm will do what I really need, if I can get past the learning curve. Rags

 

I was going to buy a Canopus 300 and hoping to download a totally uncompressed .AVI to my Dell XPS 400. Do you know if the Canopus 300 can output Uncompressed .AIV to a PC for extensive editing?

What is the best way to convert analog vhs - download it into a PC with no compression?

 

The Thing Is That Firewire is For transfering DV Video which is the best Format For editing and you won"t nescessarilly get any Better quality by useing Uncompressed AVI as there are Lossless Compression Formats that can Compress with absolutly no Quality or Data Loss which makes editing in Uncompressed AVI Not Practical anymore....

Pluss the ADVC-300 Has Built in Hardware Image Filters and a TBC which Improves the Quality Considerably over other Capture Devices and because the Format is Not Very compressed and because it uses a very effecient Compression algorythm so there is litte or no quality loss because of the DV Format....Many Hollywood Movies are Being shot in this format because the Quality Rivals Film and will in the Future Surpass film as Digital Movie Cameras get better.....

You Could Capture to Uncompressed with it if you use a Direct Show WDM Capture program but it would not Give you any Better quality because the Source is DV and decompresing Video doesn"t do anything for Quality.....

Pluss you won"t find anything in the Price Range or even double the Price (Accept for ther ADVC-500) that will produce the Same quality and the Device is Made to work with all of the High end Editing programs Like Premier and AviD and DV is the Format that these programs are Made to Edit.....



Cheers

 

Minion, Thanks! Great info. Based on what you said in your post, I'm going to buy the Canopus ADVC-300. I was considering this, but your comments cinched it. I'm sold.

But there are a few things I would still like to Capture on totally Uncompressed .AVI. What hardware (video capture card or video converter) would you suggest is the best that can do this? I'll be getting a 2nd hard drive for the huge files I expect from the .AVI conversion. I'm prepared to go as high as several hundred dollars to convert some of my vhs tapes to an Uncompressed .AVI.

You mentioned that I could "...Capture to Uncompressed with it if you use a Direct Show WDM Capture program." Could I really use the Canopus 300 and Capture the output as totally Uncompressed .AVI with it? I didn't think this would be possible - I thought the best the 300 could do would be to output DV-AVI, which still is Compressed. What is the Direct Show WDM Capture program?

What do you think?

 

Well Like I said before If you Capture to Uncompressed with the ADVC-300 the quality would not be any Different because you would Simply be Decompressing a DV Source which does absolutly noting for the Quality But Can Introduce Problems Like audio and Video Sync because with DV AVI the Video and Audio Stream are In the Same Stream (With Type-1 DV) but standard AVI Has a seperate audio and Video stream so the seperation of the stream can Intruduce sync problems....
Decompressing Video can actually Reduce the Quality in some Cases as there may be Colorspace conversions and Color Sampling Conversions when going from DV to Uncompressed AVI....

Why are you so Hell Bent on Captureing Uncompressed AVI???

There are Absolutly no Advantages to Captureing and editing in Uncompressed Format Over DV Format but there are a few Disadvantages, Pluss there are Lossless Formats Like HuffYUV that use less than Half the Disk Space as Uncompressed but has exactly the Same Video Information which Make Uncompressed AVI Obsolete for Video editing....

If Uncompressed AVI was a Better Format than It would be the Main editing and Capture Format but it isn"t and hasn"t been for about 5 years that is why all Professinal Editing programs are geared towards editing and Captureing DV and it is also a well Known fact that if your Source Is DV it is best to Keep it in DV untill you have Finnished editing and are ready to to render to your Final Output Format.....

I just Tried to Capture to Uncompressed AVI useing my DV Camcorder and a Program called "Lead Capture & Convert" and it worked but the quality wasn"t at all Better because the Source is DV as it will be with the Canopus ADVC-300 ,The only advantage to captureing from DV as if it were analogue would be that you can Capture at Different Resolutions than 720x480 but if DVD is your Final Ouput format then this is the Correct resolution to capture in.....

I don"t even think they Make Professinal Quality Analogue Capture Cards anymore, all of the Professinal Editing and Capture Hardware these Days is ALL For Captureing and Editing DV, Only the Cheapest Capture Cards these Days use Software Compression which allows you to capture in Uncompressed but they Produce Terrorable Quality....

Cheers

 

Hi Minion,

And thanks for the info. Here's the thoughts behind my craziness (by the end of this post you may pronounce me totally Certifiable). I have a few vhs cassettes showing footage of Hollywood studio Special Effect "background plates" - these are some distinctive, spectacular landscapes especially photographed by a film crew for combining with miniatures that were later shot & composited into the settings. (The original film was made over 20 years ago)

I'm studying CGI right now, and I wanted to see what I could do to create my own CG imagery and composite them into the footage (and compare to the orignial...) I'm fully aware that the quality of this footage isn't great (being on vhs), but I'd really like to work with these. I know I'll have to degrade my own work to blend in with this stuff, but it seems like a nice challenge for myself. And yeah, I do know I'm more than a bit nuts to work with this.

I also thought (...could very well be wrong here!) that it would be best to Capture digitized images with the least amount of compression possible, an Uncompressed AVI. My thinking was that Uncompressed AVI would yield the largest amount of 'information' up on the screen to manipulate and work in.

If DV-AVI would be exactly as good for the same purpose, then I would go with that. But from what I've read, Uncompressed AVI is better - I want as little dillution of the orignal video image as possible, even thought I know that digitizing it will involve some. After finishing work on these and compositing the imagery, my idea would then be to burn it onto a DVD.

Please tell me if I should be locked away... or, considering the above, what would you suggest in the way of analog-to-ditial conversion, with an eye on introducing CGI into it?

 

The Thing is that with the ADVC-300 it Compresses the Video on the Device and then Losslessly Transfers the Video Data to your PC so the Native Video format is DV ,So By the Time the Video gets to your PC any Quality Loss From Compression and any artifacts are allready In the Video and decompressing Video that is allready compressed does Not get Rid of artifacts caused by Compression....

Also the ADVC-300 has Hardware Image Filters which remove any Compression artifacts that May be there and also Actually Improve the quality Somewhat so You could In theory end up with Video that Looks Better than the Source VHS as most artifacts will be Filtered out.....

Also the Information you have On Uncompressed Video is Rather Old and doesn"t really apply any more because of the advent of Lossless and Near Lossless Compression formats Like HuffYUV and DV and a few Other Lossless formats which Compress without Loosing any Video Information...

Actually when you are previewing or editing DV Video you are actually seeing a Uncompressed Image because the Codec has to decompress the Video so it can be Displayed so what you are seeing on the Preview screen is exactly what the Video would Look Like if you decompressed it.....

I"m sure once you get the ADVC-300 you will Find out how good it is and you should be Very Happy with the Video that you get from it , Just make sure you have a couple Good DV Codecs installed which you will need to edit the Video.....Also the ADVC-300 has a couple very cool features Like it has an Audio Lock Feature that Makes sure there is Never any Chance of any Sync Problems no matter how Bad the Source Tape is, It also has an Anti-Macrovision Feature so you can Capture Copy Protected VHS tapes...If you Look on the Net you should Find Instructions on how to enable the Anti-Macrovision Feature as it is Not a Feature that is in the Manual ....

Cheers