Advise good way to transfer VHS to DVD

Bob Greaves wrote on 7/21/2005, 8:35 AM

I have several VHS tapes family videos birthdays christmas etc, I want to transfer to DVD. I do not want to create unusual edits but would like to remove dead time and fluff using vegas before rendering to DVD. What are the useful ways available to grab the VHS and digitize it?

Comments

JJKizak wrote on 7/21/2005, 9:44 AM

Play the tapes on your VHS vcr through "S" video connection to your analog/digital converter (Canopus ADVC 50, 100, 300) and via firewire (1394) to your computer and capture with vidcap provided by Vegas.
It's a piece of cake if everything is right.

JJK

Jimmy_W wrote on 7/21/2005, 10:33 AM

Or pass it thru your dv cam if it has this feature.
Jimmy

Redd wrote on 7/21/2005, 10:48 AM

If you have only a few VHS tapes to do, then doing a pass through on your mini DV camcorder is a whole lot cheaper...in fact it's free...as long as your camcorder has a pass through feature.

t-keats wrote on 7/21/2005, 6:34 PM

Run OUTPUT of VHS VCR to miniDV camcorder in via 3 RCA plugs or one S video input and 2 RCA plugs for audio.
Run OUTPUT from DV camcorder via firewire into computer.
Capture and edit in Vegas.

NOTE: As you pass the analog material through the DV camcorder, be sure to send the audio through the camcorder as well or the audio will be out of sync if you go directly from the VHS deck into the computer. The camcorder introduces a noticeable time delay as it converts the material from analog to digital.

Bob Greaves wrote on 7/21/2005, 7:44 PM

My MiniDV cam does not record from external sources. SO it looks like I would have to buy some sort of media xlator.

ArthurDent wrote on 7/21/2005, 7:56 PM

I bought a Philips DVD recorder a couple of years ago and love it! I use it to record old VHS and Hi8 tapes to DVD. As long as you don't need a fancy menu, it does the job a lot more simply than having to capture, render, burn.

Search for one here:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdrecorders

or use Pricegrabber.com

John_Cline wrote on 7/21/2005, 8:44 PM

You said that you wanted to edit the video, so the following solution may not necessarily apply to your situation.

Costco has a LiteOn LVW-5005 DVD recorder with composite, S-Video and Firewire inputs. It will record on all formats of DVD and CDR media and also has a built-in tuner for time shifting TV programs. For $129, it works well.

It records 9.5 megabit 720x480i MPEG2 in the 1-hour HQ mode, 5 megabit 720x480i MPEG2 in the 2-hour SP mode, 2.5 megabit 352x480i MPEG2 in the 4-hour LP mode and 352x240p MPEG1 in the 6-hour SLP mode. It will record SVCD and VCD on CDR media and 44.1k PCM audio in real-time on CDR for making standard audio CD's from analog sources like cassettes, LP's or radio.

The downsides are that it records using MPEG audio instead of PCM or AC3. This may make is incompatible with certain NTSC DVD players that can't decode MPEG audio. The TV tuner is mono, but anything recorded via any of the other inputs is encoded in stereo. The Firewire input can only be used with tape playback via a camcorder, I don't believe you can feed it from Vegas directly.

Here the link:

http://www.liteonit.com.tw/DC/english/lvw_5005/lvw_5005.htm

You could just edit the video in Vegas, dump it back to the camcorder and feed that into the DVD recorder. No fancy menus though...

John