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Convert old VHS to DVD - Need Help
Hello All,
I am looking for some expert advice here. I want to convert my old VHS tapes to DVD's.
What is the best hardware and software for thi task?
I thought about using something like a Pinnacle Dazzle DVC 150, however like everything the reviews are on both sides of the fence. I would like to use a USB solution unless using an actual PCI card is the best.
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated - the tapes are old and I am sure are starting to deteriorate.
Tahnks for the help in advance,
Andrew
I am looking for some expert advice here. I want to convert my old VHS tapes to DVD's.
What is the best hardware and software for thi task?
I thought about using something like a Pinnacle Dazzle DVC 150, however like everything the reviews are on both sides of the fence. I would like to use a USB solution unless using an actual PCI card is the best.
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated - the tapes are old and I am sure are starting to deteriorate.
Tahnks for the help in advance,
Andrew
ASKER
Hello Gary,
I will defintiely consider a vhs/DVD unit. Is the one in the link above the new one that comes out in two weeks? If not, where can I find the info on it?
I would also appreicate the info the computer setup. I think I would to be able to try both.
One last thing, I also have a a camocrder that uses super 8 cassettes. How will I use this in the vhs/dvd recorder?
I will defintiely consider a vhs/DVD unit. Is the one in the link above the new one that comes out in two weeks? If not, where can I find the info on it?
I would also appreicate the info the computer setup. I think I would to be able to try both.
One last thing, I also have a a camocrder that uses super 8 cassettes. How will I use this in the vhs/dvd recorder?
I recomend you use a video capture card, obviously the better the card the better the quality you'll get out of it, but even a basic VIVO from nvidia will due. Use VirtualDub. Its great for video capture and compression. In this way you will be able to simply plug in an RCA or S-Video into your video card and capture whatever you want. Much more flexible than a pure hardware solution. I recently purchased a Plextor ConvertX. Its really cool. Besides its TIVO like features it does really good video compression and is capable of doing real time divx compression, along with a slew of other formats. Quality is good too.
BTW, the ConvertX plugs into USB. Cost me about $160. Search it on google you'll find a bunch of em. Just be sure to get the NTSC one, or whatever zone you happen to be in...
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>>Tapes degrade with time -- and most people will be unpleasantly surprised at how much their old home videos have degraded in a decade or two.
Indeed, tape do degrade but quite gradually with time. The problem is that DVD and CD recordables degrade as well and do so FASTER. Most experts estimate that some mass market blanks may fail in less than 2 years! and the problem is that since the data is digital there is no such thing as gradual degradation. Once the data falls below the detection threshold the data is lost...
TIPS:
1) Use the highest quality DVD or CD recordable blanks you can. There are some on the market that are of designed for data archival and are certified to last for a certain amount of time. If they don't say, then there is probably a reason.
2) Plan on refreshing your DVDs or CDs every few years. Say every 5 years or less. That's the good news about digital data, when you made a copy from a good original, you get a perfect copy.
3) Make duplicate copies of anything special and put the copies in a safe and environmentally controlled place.
4) Consider digital tape backup of your most important stuff. There is still not archival media more reliable and time tested than magnetic tape. Which is why your VHS tapes that may be 20 years old still look pretty good. But VHS tapes are consumer grade. I like DDS tape systems, the drives are fairly expensive but the tapes are low cost and the capacity is decent. You can put several DVDs worth of data on a single DAT72 cartridge.
Indeed, tape do degrade but quite gradually with time. The problem is that DVD and CD recordables degrade as well and do so FASTER. Most experts estimate that some mass market blanks may fail in less than 2 years! and the problem is that since the data is digital there is no such thing as gradual degradation. Once the data falls below the detection threshold the data is lost...
TIPS:
1) Use the highest quality DVD or CD recordable blanks you can. There are some on the market that are of designed for data archival and are certified to last for a certain amount of time. If they don't say, then there is probably a reason.
2) Plan on refreshing your DVDs or CDs every few years. Say every 5 years or less. That's the good news about digital data, when you made a copy from a good original, you get a perfect copy.
3) Make duplicate copies of anything special and put the copies in a safe and environmentally controlled place.
4) Consider digital tape backup of your most important stuff. There is still not archival media more reliable and time tested than magnetic tape. Which is why your VHS tapes that may be 20 years old still look pretty good. But VHS tapes are consumer grade. I like DDS tape systems, the drives are fairly expensive but the tapes are low cost and the capacity is decent. You can put several DVDs worth of data on a single DAT72 cartridge.
Andrew,
I couldn't find the post I had in mind (I've answered over 1100 questions in the past 4 months, so it's sometimes difficult to remember just which one included a particular discussion) ==> so I'll outline the key points again.
As I noted previously, if you simply buy a VHS/DVD-Recorder you can trivially transfer your tapes to DVD's, and the newer units (such as the one I linked you to) include automatic video enhancers that help to keep as much quality as possible in the transfer. The ONLY disadvantage I can think of with this technique is you cannot get a raw video capture -- but for MOST people that's not something you'd ever do anyway (read on). Once you've transferred the videos to DVD this way; you can simply rip the DVD to your computer's hard disk, and then edit the files with any good video editor that allows MPEG input/output. Since it's in digital form, there will not be ANY "generation loss" in the editing/copying process.
But if you want to do the capture directly to your computer, then you should be aware of the two basic type of capture devices:
(1) Software encoding devices (a good example is ATI's All-in-Wonder series of video card, which include TV tuners and video inputs that you can capture video from) allow you to capture the actual raw video. Note that this is a very high bandwidth stream -- so you'll use a LOT of hard disk space when capturing in raw mode. Most of the software that comes with these devices allows you to capture in MPEG compressed mode (II or IV), and you can "tweak" these settings a lot --> so you have a lot of control over the captured video's quality. I have captured a LOT of video using an ATI AIW with an "old tapes" setting that uses a particular set of MPEG settings. I've "played" with raw captures -- but don't do many. A raw capture allows you to edit the video in raw mode; to try various compression settings without having to recapture the video (since the original video stream is on the hard drive), etc. Most of these are things you'll NEVER do unless you just like to "play" with your video (and spend MANY HOURS doing so). Bottom line: software encoding devices work just fine -- but you'll probably still capture the video in MPEG compressed mode -- so the result will be exactly the same as if you used a hardware encoder.
(2) Hardware encoder devices (a good example is Hauppauge's PVR-150/250 series --> I have a 150 in the computer I'm writing this on, along with an ATI AIW 9600XT), as the name suggests, feed a compressed video stream to the PC. They do the encoding onboard with a hardware encoding chip; and cannot send an uncompressed stream to the PC. They do allow some adjustment of the encoding parameters -- so you can do essentially the same things you would do with a software encoder, but use very little CPU power to do so. Are they "better" ?? No -- just less resource intensive for the PC, since the encoding is done in hardware. But note that if you're also WATCHING what you're capturing, the PC must decode the MPEG stream to display it (not necessary with a software encoder solution); so the real savings is not as great with ONE video stream. I have a video server that has SEVERAL Hauppauge encoder chips (6) -- and when you're capturing multiple streams at once hardware encoding makes a HUGE difference.
Note that if you're capturing with a hardware encoder you end up with an MPEG encoded stream - just like you would with the dedicated box. HOWEVER, the audio/video synchronization can (and does) often get lost with these devices -- particularly with older, degraded video inputs. This is NOT a problem with the dedicated boxes, which have circuitry that compensates for degraded video synch signals.
I've used several programs do do the edits on video I've captured. I primarily use Pinnacle Studio and Roxio's VideoWave; but there are many good programs. They all have fairly extensive learning curves to get "good" at it -- but once you've overcome that, you'll find it's fairly easy. The "premier" editor is Adobe Premier -- but it's also rather pricey. I've used it -- and it's great; but I simply don't do enough of this to justify buying a copy.
So my recommendation on the software is to at least try whatever software is bundled with the capture device you select: it may very well do all you want. Or, if you buy the dedicated box, try some of the less costly editors -- especially if all you want to do is cut/paste/fade editing (which is what most folks have in mind for their old videos). Since the A/V sync issue won't be a problem, these are likely all you need.
Back to capture devices: the external USB capture devices work fine as long as your PC has USB 2.0 ports. But again, the A/V sync issue is likely to "bite" you -- so don't be surprised. I'd still go with a dedicated external box ==> if they had been as good 2 years ago as they are now I'd have used one for all of the old tapes I converted (but now don't have any more tapes to convert).
I couldn't find the post I had in mind (I've answered over 1100 questions in the past 4 months, so it's sometimes difficult to remember just which one included a particular discussion) ==> so I'll outline the key points again.
As I noted previously, if you simply buy a VHS/DVD-Recorder you can trivially transfer your tapes to DVD's, and the newer units (such as the one I linked you to) include automatic video enhancers that help to keep as much quality as possible in the transfer. The ONLY disadvantage I can think of with this technique is you cannot get a raw video capture -- but for MOST people that's not something you'd ever do anyway (read on). Once you've transferred the videos to DVD this way; you can simply rip the DVD to your computer's hard disk, and then edit the files with any good video editor that allows MPEG input/output. Since it's in digital form, there will not be ANY "generation loss" in the editing/copying process.
But if you want to do the capture directly to your computer, then you should be aware of the two basic type of capture devices:
(1) Software encoding devices (a good example is ATI's All-in-Wonder series of video card, which include TV tuners and video inputs that you can capture video from) allow you to capture the actual raw video. Note that this is a very high bandwidth stream -- so you'll use a LOT of hard disk space when capturing in raw mode. Most of the software that comes with these devices allows you to capture in MPEG compressed mode (II or IV), and you can "tweak" these settings a lot --> so you have a lot of control over the captured video's quality. I have captured a LOT of video using an ATI AIW with an "old tapes" setting that uses a particular set of MPEG settings. I've "played" with raw captures -- but don't do many. A raw capture allows you to edit the video in raw mode; to try various compression settings without having to recapture the video (since the original video stream is on the hard drive), etc. Most of these are things you'll NEVER do unless you just like to "play" with your video (and spend MANY HOURS doing so). Bottom line: software encoding devices work just fine -- but you'll probably still capture the video in MPEG compressed mode -- so the result will be exactly the same as if you used a hardware encoder.
(2) Hardware encoder devices (a good example is Hauppauge's PVR-150/250 series --> I have a 150 in the computer I'm writing this on, along with an ATI AIW 9600XT), as the name suggests, feed a compressed video stream to the PC. They do the encoding onboard with a hardware encoding chip; and cannot send an uncompressed stream to the PC. They do allow some adjustment of the encoding parameters -- so you can do essentially the same things you would do with a software encoder, but use very little CPU power to do so. Are they "better" ?? No -- just less resource intensive for the PC, since the encoding is done in hardware. But note that if you're also WATCHING what you're capturing, the PC must decode the MPEG stream to display it (not necessary with a software encoder solution); so the real savings is not as great with ONE video stream. I have a video server that has SEVERAL Hauppauge encoder chips (6) -- and when you're capturing multiple streams at once hardware encoding makes a HUGE difference.
Note that if you're capturing with a hardware encoder you end up with an MPEG encoded stream - just like you would with the dedicated box. HOWEVER, the audio/video synchronization can (and does) often get lost with these devices -- particularly with older, degraded video inputs. This is NOT a problem with the dedicated boxes, which have circuitry that compensates for degraded video synch signals.
I've used several programs do do the edits on video I've captured. I primarily use Pinnacle Studio and Roxio's VideoWave; but there are many good programs. They all have fairly extensive learning curves to get "good" at it -- but once you've overcome that, you'll find it's fairly easy. The "premier" editor is Adobe Premier -- but it's also rather pricey. I've used it -- and it's great; but I simply don't do enough of this to justify buying a copy.
So my recommendation on the software is to at least try whatever software is bundled with the capture device you select: it may very well do all you want. Or, if you buy the dedicated box, try some of the less costly editors -- especially if all you want to do is cut/paste/fade editing (which is what most folks have in mind for their old videos). Since the A/V sync issue won't be a problem, these are likely all you need.
Back to capture devices: the external USB capture devices work fine as long as your PC has USB 2.0 ports. But again, the A/V sync issue is likely to "bite" you -- so don't be surprised. I'd still go with a dedicated external box ==> if they had been as good 2 years ago as they are now I'd have used one for all of the old tapes I converted (but now don't have any more tapes to convert).
One more thing to consider, whether you decide to go with a DVD recorder or with a PC based solution, is what VCR you will be using to playback your videos. As tapes age and degrade, VCRs start to have problems playing the tapes.
One VCR that I find can play just about any tape (with picture quality that is much better than most VCRs, even with newer tapes) is the Panasonic AG-1980. This VCR was designed as an editing VCR, and originally cost around $1200. It is now discontinued, but it can be found on eBay for a few hundred dollars.
While it may seem like a few hundred dollars is too much money to spend on a VCR, I think that preserving old, valuable videos with the best possible quality could be worth the money. I bought one about a year ago to tranfer my pile of old tapes to DVD, and I am still amazed by the picture quality of this VCR.
One VCR that I find can play just about any tape (with picture quality that is much better than most VCRs, even with newer tapes) is the Panasonic AG-1980. This VCR was designed as an editing VCR, and originally cost around $1200. It is now discontinued, but it can be found on eBay for a few hundred dollars.
While it may seem like a few hundred dollars is too much money to spend on a VCR, I think that preserving old, valuable videos with the best possible quality could be worth the money. I bought one about a year ago to tranfer my pile of old tapes to DVD, and I am still amazed by the picture quality of this VCR.
With the combos the transfer process couldn't be easier -- and once you have the videos on DVD you can easily edit them in your computer ==> remember, once they're in digital form there's no more generation loss from copying/editing.
However, a Pinnacle Dazzle works fine for the basic process of capturing the video. A much more important decision is what editing software you select => it can make a LOT of difference in how much trouble it is to get the recording in the format you want; fix audio/video sync issues (these are very common in video recordings -- the audio and video track get out of sync => not a problem with the combo boxes); and just what "nifty" vidoe editing features are available to you.
With an old collection of tapes, your first priority should be to simply get them all copied to DVD's. I'd defer any major editing of them until later. Tapes degrade with time -- and most people will be unpleasantly surprised at how much their old home videos have degraded in a decade or two.
I've writen several long diatribes about my experiences with this process in previous posts. If you want to use your computer (instead of a dedicated VHS/DVD-Recorder) I'll see if I can find one and post a link to it.