I have about 40 VHS-C tapes of home video taken from my old VHS Video Camera that I got from a country that plays PAL. I want to convert all those tapes to DVD. I have wasted almost 3 months of my life, first by believing that i could be done through the PC and second, by acually trying about 10 different software to capture them on my PC. I do have an AVER TV PCI video capture card. Bottomline: I have given up and now I want to go for the DVD Recorder Option. I already have a Panasonic VCR that can play PAL tapes and its output is also in PAL. Can someone with similar experience please guide me? - What type of a DVD recoder do I need? - Can any DVD recorder capture both PAL and NTSC signal? - What would be the quality of conversion - specially, any audio-video sync problems? - Can I get a reasonable / reliable DVD recorder for less than $200? If I think of any more questions I will post them here but a good advice from anyone would be great appreciated. I have almost come to the point where I will get a nervious breakdown thinking about how much time I have wasted. PS: Now I have a mini DV Camcoder. Will the new DVD recorder be a waste if I get a PAL only recorder and use it to convert mini DVs to DVD? Thank you !!
Pipe your PAL tapes from the VCR through your new cam, directly to the computer. Encode to NTSC mpeg-2, author and burn. (assuming you want to convert PAL to NTSC), otherwise encode to PAL mpeg-2, author and burn.
Thank you Jim; My VCR that plays PAL also gives output as PAL. My SONY PV-DV203 Camcorder does not have any ports for input. So I doubt if I can "pipe" the signal. Besides, I have given up on the PC option because there are too many steps and I have lost faith in that method. That is why, my question was for people who have used the DVD Recorder option. Thanks, //OM.
Hi OM67, I have the exact same need and been trying to find a solution the last few days. I came accross two products that appear to do the job. They are: Akai DVD-RW120 Region Free DVD Recorder Lite-On LVW-5115 Worldwide DVD Recorder The prices and specs can be found on the follwing site: http://www.dvdoverseas.com/store/ I have not made a decision yet and wanted to share the info with you. Let me know what you think. Regards, Al
Hi Al !! Thank you so very much for caring to give the info. Just 3 days back I actually bought a LiteOn 5005X. I have yet to open the box. As soon as I use it I will update this thread with my findings so that it may be helpful to others. Thanks again, OM67.
Hi AL & OM67, Any Luck? I also needed exactly the same thing. So i just bought the Lite-On LVW-5115 Worldwide DVD Recorder. It worked fine when i copied an NTSC VHS to NTSC DVD. But when i tried the same thing with a VHS Pal tape it kept saying 'wrong signal'. If yours is working then obviously i'm doing something wrong. Hope to hear from you guys soon. Thanks! Sid
I have started using my 5005. So far I have only used it to convert PAL VHS-C tapes & I have not had any show-stopping problems. My only issue is with the resulting format. I had initially wanted to convert the tapes into DVD also in PAL format. But that apparently was not working. I could not get the resulting image on the TV so I was not even sure if it was going to record. So I am converting them to DVD in NTSC format. What I do not like about that is that there is something funny with handling the resolution so a significant part from the bottom is chopped off. To give an idea, the DATE & TIME displayed on the original video is not visible on the resulting DVD.
I see..but you are telling me then that the actual recording does work? my problem is that it doesn't record at all when i try a Pal VHS to NTSC DVD.
I do computer video editing as a hobby and also make safety and training videos for the bush fire brigade of which I am a member. Your problem with what you are trying to do, that being put VHS tapes on to dvd is something I do every day. To do what you want to do you need a video editing program and a capture board. I use Pinnacle Studio and have it on two machines. Studio Plus AV/DV Deluxe International Version is what you will need. It has a "breakout box" out front which is where you plug in your video input, I use the S-Video cable for a better job. You also need big hard drives and a fast pentium 4. I have two 200 gig hard drives in each machine and one drive is partitioned with 20 gig allocated for the operating system and programs. You need a genuine Intel Pentium 4/ 3 ghz minimum with 1000 meg of ram. Regards, John Keeble.
The best solution would be to find a PAL DVD recorder, like the ones used in Europe. They give you best encoding quality, with a minimum of time and effort to invest. If you don't have any European friends nearby, you may want to check the web sites of the major DVD equipment manufacturers (I'd try Pana, Sony or Pioneer) for some PAL recorders or even multi-standard recorders. You can even order one in Europe, for instance. A "good" brand recorder without hard disk may be worth it, rather than investing a lot of time and effort (and even money) in other experiments with uncertain results... Val
Akai DVD-RW120 Region Free DVD Recorder works perfectly. Converts all VHS pal to NTSC DVD quite easily. Just beware that it only records to +R or +RW DVDs.
