Comments

earthrisers wrote on 11/22/2002, 11:26 AM
Plug the VHS deck into a converter card in your computer (i.e., a card that converts analog to video). Or else, if you have a digital camcorder that provides that same conversion function, then plug the VHS deck into the camcorder, and the output of the camcorder into the Firewire card in your computer. Then go ahead & capture.
jetdv wrote on 11/22/2002, 11:43 AM
The BEST way is to capture via firewire. There are several options available for this. If your camera will pass the signal through, you can use your camera. If your camera WON'T pass-thru, you *may* still be able to use the camera if it will RECORD the signal. Then, you can just capture from the recorded MiniDV.

Another option is to use a deck. We have a deck which we use instead of a camera that will accept input from the VHS source and pass it through to the firewire port.

The third option is to buy a analog to digital converter such as the Canopus ADVC-100.
statas wrote on 11/22/2002, 8:15 PM
so the options are converter card, camcorder/deck passthru (or record the live signal), or record to camcorder and then capture that recording. i would rather not pay for a converter card yet and i don't think my dvcam (sony pc5) will passthru, so i can record from the vhs to the dvcam, and then capture from the dvcam later.

i have an s-video port on the back of my laptop, but i think its only an out for a tv monitor, so doubt i can capture from the vcr s-video. they should put firewire outs on high-end vcr decks.
Sr_C wrote on 11/22/2002, 8:31 PM
Status,

If you are looking for a cheap alternative, you could get a basic TV tuner card ($50+/-) or something like a Dazzle DVC 80 (60+/-) which is a USB connection. The quality is not as good and you capture in uncompressed avi so the files are huge, but it will work fine for personal projects. -Shon

you might even be able to find one of these types of things on ebay for less.
Tyler.Durden wrote on 11/22/2002, 9:09 PM
Hi statas,

You might check about that pass-through... :)

Found this:

http://www.gearpreview.com/film/minidv/pc5.html

Manual also says it will .


HTH, MPH

Tips:
http://www.martyhedler.com/homepage/Vegas_Tutorials.html
statas wrote on 11/23/2002, 1:35 PM
hm, thanks for posting that. looks like you're right.

>> Analog-to-Digital Conversion and Pass-through - Yes

i'll check up on it.
murk wrote on 11/23/2002, 1:45 PM
if you use the DVC 80, you should capture with virtualDub, You will get a much higher framerate and you can compress while capturing
xgenei wrote on 3/2/2003, 2:22 AM
A bit of a lag, but I've been using a DVD Mill by Dazzle, with an external hardware compressor and USB 2.0. Exceptional real-time MPEG-2 capture with no sync problems (audio and video are a single stream unless specified.) Works with older puters with just a usb-2.0 upgrade. PCI card captures are equivalent and offer better TV support. This will take a cable box in, but it doesn't have any of the fancy features like PIP and scan. NOTHING, in fact. Just super-quality picture and capture. Very flexible too I might add. For VHS and Hi-8 and SVHS tape to DVD I wouldn't use DV. 5Mb/sec (versus 15 for DV) will get you equivalent quality. Save the DV for files that need editing.