Video/Audio Out to VCR

BretB wrote on 1/27/2003, 8:05 AM
I've been using VV3 for audio for a while, but have a newbie question for the Video side of it.
I am generating a video/music "slideshow" and want to export it to a VHS tape. What is my best/inexpensive approach for doing this?

The way I understand it would be a DV card out (S-video and sound) to a DV camcorder w/video&sound in. Then, output of camcorder to a VCR via RCA video and audio. Is that correct? So far, I've found an ATI 8500 that seems like it could do this, however newer drivers crash Vegas...?

Any other recommendations? Thanks.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 1/27/2003, 9:14 AM
If you've already got the DV camcorder then your best option would be to send the output to it through firewire and use the camcorder to convert it to analog A/V to feed the VCR. This will be much better than any internal video card option.
mikkie wrote on 1/27/2003, 9:30 AM
Skip the DV part - no reason to include the camera and stuff when you can just use something with an analog out, and the extra hardware might lose some quality.

As far as the actual hardware, search online regarding the various cards etc. for the comments of people whom have used them.

ATI has a decent analog out, but please remember that when using an ATI card, you normally have to make the picture slightly larger then your TV monitor & 640 x 480 rather then 720 x 480 (if NTSC) or else on some TVs you'll get black bars. It might look fine on the one TV you use to monitor the video out to tape, but show the bands on others. Other cards or devices might have this problem too - Read about overscan if you're interested in learning more.

Other hardware includes boxes like those from Dazzle, Adaptec etc. that pass video both ways (in & out) or scan convertors that just do the output. These have the advantage of not having to deal with any hardware inside your case unless you have to add an USB 2 card.

A final note, you might want to check your sound card's output too. Sometimes the line out signal is too weak for your vcr, & you need some sort of mixer to boost the signal, &/or get it to where the vcr accepts it and records at normal volumes.

mike