vhs to dvd

[Drewa311]

has anyone ever transfered vhs/vcr>videocamer rca imput>firewire output into computer. is there any easy way to do this?

[DanielG]

You could use something like a Canopus ADVC110 or ADVC55 to convert your VHS/videocamera source into DV-AVI.
http://www.canopus.com/products/ADVC110/index.php
http://www.canopus.com/products/ADVC55/index.php

Or you could purchase a miniDV video camera that has analog passthrough, which will do the same thing.

[AAR.oner]

has anyone ever transfered vhs/vcr>videocamer rca imput>firewire output into computer. is there any easy way to do this?
though not ideal, yes that'll work...as long as the camera can be used as a passthrough

[arkantos]

try a capture card that you can transfer most players from vhs, v8, minidv or betamax etc. in which i use for transferring recorded files from various camcorders. it is always accompanied with a tv tuner.

*i hope i get what you mean :thumbsup

[chinajoe]

so whats the major diff between using one of those stand alone units to convert a tape to dvd vs using a tape to pc?

[vladsmythe]

Everything of mine goes to standalone. I can't compare because it's the only way I've ever done it.

[rhinowing]

According to my videophile friend, SA units tend to introduce blockiness during video with alot of motion in it.

[DanielG]

According to my videophile friend, SA units tend to introduce blockiness during video with alot of motion in it.

That's correct. If you're going to use a standalone to convert your video, make sure you use the XP mode [or equivalent]. This will allow you to put a maximum of 1 hour of footage on a DVD5 and blockiness during high motion scenes will be minimized. If you use the SP (2 hour) mode then compression artifacts will become evident.

The optimum way of encoding video is to get it onto your PC using the DV-AVI codec or a lossless codec such as HuffYUV (if you're coming from an analog source) and then using 2 (or more) pass variable bitrate encoding.

[Drewa311]

heres the deal, a buddy of mine has like 50 skateboard video VHS's, most of these will sadly never make it to dvd, im broke but i have a video camera that ive heard can be a "passthrough", what im going to try and to is hook up my vcr to the camera and the camer to the pc via firewire. the camera doesnt and rca inputs for the vcr, but it does have an s-video i dont know if this is in/out-put. i just gotta figure all this out, any moire help would be great, tv tuners can be cheap right?

[Drewa311]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1048731&CatId=1427

quality is not of the utmost importance-but i would like it to look decent

something like this will do?

[lbrow65]

read your camera info, it wont work unless it has analog coversion built into it. It takes the placeof a video capture card in your computer. You have to convert the video from analog to digital either in the camera or on the pc.

[AAR.oner]

what up drew :wave:

what make/model is the cam?

imo, since its just for personal viewing, "decent quality" will be acceptable...if the cam won't act as a A/D converter directly [i.e. as a "passthrough"], you can always transfer the VHS>miniDV [or whatever format the cam is] via the RCA ins on the cam...then capture the miniDV>comp via firewire...its an added step and will require some blank tapes, but will work just fine with a negligible amount of quality loss