VHS to DVD

[haggard]

Yes, the results are the same quality as the original tape. The VCR connects to the Adaptec box, and then to the PC. It records in realtime (Sonic DVD is the software) and then "writes" the file as an mpg to the hard-drive (and that's the part that may take time on a slow pc). I then use Nero to make the DVD.

You can see all the ways to do it at www.videohelp.com

You need plenty of RAM though. My box was £30 off ebay, £6 for the lead.

And then I bought 2Gb of RAM ;) otherwise your PC will be unuseable during processing.

Just one comment, if you go the route I do, via a dv (avi) file then using a mpegger like Bitvice, you can clean up the picture quite a bit and it looks subjectively, just a tad better than the original VHS tape. On my trusty old panasonic VCR, there is a little knob that takes out noise. That helps if I am in a hurry. But Bitvice has algorithms looking for areas of uniform colour/density and does a good clean up.

Referring to the original need - cheap, I would look for a Hollywood Dazzle on eBay or look at current new version (VCR -> dv). It must be less than £100.
I cant remember what the name of the VCR -> mpeg gizmo was in MediMax but Do wohnst in Deutschland nicht? T_G? Then there must be a store near you
h**p://www.medimax.de/htms/filialen/f_filial.html

I have a hauppauge digitiser also that I got when it was the only thing that would work on a Mac. I hardly used it on my G3 cos there was always a faint warble on the audio, something to do with the USB multiplexing. I used it only for making movies off VHS to watch on trains where the warble couldnt be heard. I will check it on new G4 and see if the warble has gone. Hauppauge simply said "what warble" -- except in web archives (you cant escape them) there is a link to an old Hauppauge page saying their engineers were looking into it.
If there's no warble, you can have it for price of postage. If warble is still there, then I will bin it. It is possible drivers exist for PC.
I used to capture using Adobe Premiere which saw the thing alright on Mac.

 

[PCD]

The latest Pinnacle device is the (Dazzle) DVC90. Around 90€. I got one lately and it works fine.

Two things to watch: First, it only works with Windows XP. Second, the (AVI) DV files it produces are enormous.

It's the compression to MPEG (or any compression) that takes time. That's why people pay more for a hardware real-time MPEG encoder. No convcersion necessary.

Hope this helps,

bartok

Hi Bartok,

I have just bought a Dazzle DVC90 to transfer some video tape recordings from vcr to pc files. The supplied test program Amcap works ok but with dropped frames, but nothing shows or captures with Pinnacle Studio 9. I keep getting a 'capture error'. Any advice ?

Regards, pcd.

 

[mhku]

USB2 or firewire?

 

[PCD]

USB2 or firewire?

Usb2.0. What I want to know is - does Studio 9 produce better quality capture video than Amcap ? If not, I can capture with Amcap and edit with Studio 9. Regards.

 

[haggard]

Usb2.0. What I want to know is - does Studio 9 produce better quality capture video than Amcap ? If not, I can capture with Amcap and edit with Studio 9. Regards.

Provided your PC can keep up with the data flow, you are unlikely to see any difference between captured avi files from different devices or even less so using different software on the same box.
The dropped frames are a worry. It shouldnt happen if yr PC processor is (say) 600MHz or faster. If you are going to capture, then there are some golden rules:
Stop as many applications running as you can.
De-fragment your hdd before starting.
Make sure you have at least twice as much free space as the estimated captured file size (abt 13GB per hour).
Check the capture settings to make sure that you are not doing any re-coding on the fly.
I assume all this is for capturing avi (dv) files. If the boxes are encoding to mpeg on the flky then the dropped frames is an even bigger puzzle.

 

[PCD]

@haggard

Sorry I have not replied earlier, been away. Thanks for the advice. No luck so far, probably my usb 2.0 port (in pci card) needs more power. Thinking of getting a powered hub.

Regards, pcd.

 

[PCD]

Just an update !

I picked up a Pinnacle PCTV Rave for £25, very impressed with it. Near perfect copy of vhs tape to cd. The best thing is, it capures in mpeg1 in real time, so no need for hours of converting with tmpgenc ! The files produced are small, about 50mb for 3 minutes. Very simple to use, no messing about with audio out of sync. For best quality try varying the brightness, sharpness etc. Tried on a system with pentium 3, 698 mHz, 128 mb of RAM. Regards, pcd.

 

[T_G]

Thanks PCD, that sounds good!!

 

[PCD]

Thanks PCD, that sounds good!!

Yes, it gives more reliable recordings for tv channels directly than thru cifs. And one can either copy to a cd or watch on the dreambox using cifs. Regards, pcd.

 

[T_G]

I just got one of those for 5 Euros from ebay. Is this the right one? Can it be that cheap??

It said:Pinnacle PCTV Rave StereoEdition

 

[PCD]

Yes T_G, it looks like the one I used. See what you think of it. Regards.

 

[johnny jukebox]

Hello

The best way is to buy a Plextor ConvertX USB unit model PX-TV402U. nice piece of kit that really works well. You can convert and burn your VHS to DVD on the fly or save them HD for any possible editing. Comes with software. All the work is done in the Plextor and transfered to the DVD via USB 2.0. It has the added attraction of having a built in TV tuner as well. Works well with all TV and video standards. You can also use it to back up DVD movies in real time.............. read all about it here

http://www.plextor-europe.com/products/px-tv402u.asp?choice=ConvertX%20PVR%20PX-TV402U

I have one its well cool.

 

[BarMoo]

I just got one of those for 5 Euros from ebay. Is this the right one? Can it be that cheap??

It said:Pinnacle PCTV Rave StereoEdition

Would it be daft to say that outputting RF from your VHS into a TV card introduces 'noise'. This noise will be encoded as picture. As a result your treasured VHS's might not come out as best they could: given that MPEG is lossy enough anyway???

Mind, at the beginning you did say 'cheap'. LOL.

[have a feeling I have said this already] - its much easier to have a cheapish DVD/hdd recorder like my Samsung HR-720. Using EP (VHSish quality) via SCART. I use 9Gb RAM discs so if I need to edit, I can just throw it in the PC. Else the PC isn't being dominated by my archiving and the recorder is still free as a PVR. €220.00 can't be bad. LG do a cheaper one AFAIK.

 

[PCD]

I have used the pinnacle pctv to convert music videos, can't say I noticed any 'noise'. If there are moving banners they look a bit jumpy, thats all!

Regards, pcd.

 

[BarMoo]

.. I can't say I noticed any 'noise'. If there are moving banners they look a bit jumpy ...

LOL, that says it all really.;)

.

 

[PCD]

LOL, that says it all really.;)

.

Hey, I watch them for the 'music', I am not interested whether or how much hassan loves fatima !

 

[popovp]

I intend to buy a TV card. What are requirements about HDD size – is 40 GB enough?My PC system: Celeron 1700 MHz, 374 MB RAM, 40 GB/7200 rev/min.
Thanks in advance.

 

[BarMoo]

* popovp,

OT 1st: Me thinks you have 384MB of RAM;) . Its not 'normal' to have anything otherthan this order: 128/256/512/1024. If you have been mixing and matching - buy another compatible 256MB so you have a min. 'normal' RAM set-up of 512MB.

Is 40Gb enough? How long is a piece of string? Like with the Plextor (link in post above from jukebox;) ) - it will depend on how you encode your stuff and what compression rate you use. Divx can be devastatingly efficient, MPEG2 can be super hungry for space.

The Plextor recommends at least 10Gb of hdd.

Not that long ago I added a second (160G hdd to my PC. The native hdd is 60GB. Now, the new drive is well over half full of media already

.

 

[popovp]

Thank you for advice BarMoo. Yes 128+256 MB and after upgrating PC works sensibly better.Perhaps I'l buy a Plextor ConvertX.

 

[kamaleon]

A great way to rip vhs into digital is to use the svideo/composite in of a miniDV camcorder, this will do the "digitalizing" on the fly and then firewire it to a PC. works like a charm and it's usually called "analog passthrough". Of course if your camcorder can't be input analog signal AND output DV through firewire to a PC at the same time, then you can always record it to the miniDV first tape then later on inport it to your PC.
You can then edit your video, captured in DV, author it, encode it, etc etc.
Use virtualdub for fiddlin your video and tmpenc for encoding it into mepg2 (DVD), it's the dogs bollox.

Another way which has been referred to on this thread and which can prove to be alrightish is to use a random pci tv card with analog inputs, capture the video then encode it. the downside to it is that you need a quite decently fast PC to capture and huge space on your hard drive.
The advantage of the camcorder method is that it will convert your video to DV (which is compressed 1:5) thus not taking as much space and CPU time to encode as the tv tuner card method. Using the later method though, you can use some codec like mjpeg or huffuyv to reduce the size of your capture, and still have a good quality.

You can find loadsa useful info on doom9.org