VHS > DVD help needed .....

[Digam11]

I have about three copy paper boxes full of VHS recordings of percussion based artists such as Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, Airto, Olatunji, etc. Concerts, docus, interviews, etc.

I plan to finally get myself motivated to get these transferred to DVDs and am looking for some advise on what machine to do it with. A friend of mine has an old hulk of a machine from, I believe, Go Video, that he swears by. "Put the tape in one side, put the DVD in the other, hit copy and go ... so easy even I can do it". Problem is, I don't believe they make them anymore.

I've done some Googles and checked Amazon but haven't found much. Plus alot of what I did see were "factory refurbished".

Any recommendations of good , easy to use machine to dub these tapes ?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[xjsb125]

It's all dependent on how much you effort you want to put in it. If high quality and flashy menus aren't a big concern, then a standalone recorder will do just fine. If you are wanting to do high quality transfers, and do your own menus, then you'll need some different gear.

[DanielG]

If you go with the standalone DVD recording way, you're going to run into some quality issues - especially if you decide to play your DVDs on a Plasma or LCD tv.

CRT televisions have an 'overscan' area that hide head switching noise that is generated when playing back a VHS tape. It's usually located at the bottom of the screen. When you record using one of those "Go Video" machines this head switching noise will also be recorded onto the DVD and when you go to play it back on a non-CRT TV you'll see the noise at the bottom of the screen.

The best way is to get the footage onto your PC and then mask it with a black border and then render it to DVD.

That being said, if you have lots of tapes it's going to be a lot of work so if you can live it with then go the standalone DVD recorder way.

[GRC]

I use a Panasonic VHS/HDD/DVD machine for my VHS copying, and I'm very pleased with it. Do you have Panasonic in your country?

If you have a VHS player already, then of course, all you need is a standalone DVD recorder, and again, I prefer Panasonic.

[AAR.oner]

imo its like the first responder said, all depends on what kind of quality yer lookin for...if just medicre quality A>D conversion is fine with you, then a standalone recorder might be fine

if yer wantin the best quality transfer possible, yer better off findin someone with both the gear & expertise to do a proper transfer

[deadjerryhead69]

I also have some VHS tapes i'd like to put on DVD and was wondering if it is possible to connect a VCR directly into an external DVD burner via USB, or into my laptop. I have been looking for a cable that has a USB port on 1 end and audio/video cables (the red white and yellow jacks) on the other but have had no luck.
Maybe i'm not calling it by the right name? iono but i have everything else i need to edit and all, just have no way of getting the VHS connected to the laptop.
any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[co9ol]

Youust connect RCA cables (red white and yellow) to a USB port. Those A/V cables are analogue and your laptop is digital. So what you need is a converter. You will need one of these if you want to do any editing before you make a DVD. I don't know that much about what types to buy (for that you'll have to talk to someone else arround here) but I've herd some talk about canopus.

[AAR.oner]

he's correct, you'll need whats called an A/D Converter...i use a Canopus ADVC300 personally, they do make less expensive models as well

also, there are ways to do this with certain camcorders where you connect the VCR to the camcorder and then the camcorder's Firewire/USB out to the computer...so the camcorder basically acts as a pass-through and converts the analog feed to digital...depends on the camcorder tho

the other option is to post in the tapers forum here, & maybe on some other taper boards, and find someone with really high-end gear who can do a professional job for you...if its a band they like and its uncirculated or an upgrade, they may be interested in doin it for you

[deadjerryhead69]

Thanks for the input i'm gonna look into the converter and the camcorder option. The vids i have are of woodstock 1999. I think i have every band on the bill's full sets on 10 vhs tapes. I'm not sure if they are an upgrade or not, but when i gained a VCR the other day i put them to the test and was happy the sound was still there and the video held up well for a 12 year old VHS tape recorded in SLP mode.

I'd love to try and to this myself and maybe learn how to upload and seed whats allowed here, but if all else fails i will poke around the tapers forum and ask some friends around town. Thanks again TTD rocks

[AAR.oner]

feel free to post back here with any ?s, and good luck!

[xjsb125]

Originally Posted by deadjerryhead69

Thanks for the input i'm gonna look into the converter and the camcorder option. The vids i have are of woodstock 1999. I think i have every band on the bill's full sets on 10 vhs tapes. I'm not sure if they are an upgrade or not, but when i gained a VCR the other day i put them to the test and was happy the sound was still there and the video held up well for a 12 year old VHS tape recorded in SLP mode.

I'd love to try and to this myself and maybe learn how to upload and seed whats allowed here, but if all else fails i will poke around the tapers forum and ask some friends around town. Thanks again TTD rocks

I could have sworn someone posted all those videos from the whole festival a few months back.

[deadjerryhead69]

They did, but i don't think every band was posted. I can't remember what bands were posted but The bands i have are:
James brown, G' love and special sauce, Moe. (missing first 1 1/2 songs), buckcherry, sheryl crow, jamariqui, the roots, live, Offspring, insane clown posse, korn, george clinton (all of it, set is over 2 1/2 hrs) andy dick, DMX, bush, Tragicly hip, guster, kid rock, Wyclif jean, counting crows, dave mathews band, bruce hornsby band, everclear, limp bizkit, RATM, metallica, ice cube, los lobos, mickey hart &planet drum, the chemical brothers, willie nelson, mike ness, brian setzer, everlast, elvis costello, 7 dust, jewl, collective soul, creed, godsmack, RHCP, megadeath, our lady peace, rusted root, and LOTS of overnight footage from the raves.
There are a few more but tape #5 is playing hide and seek with me at the moment.
I ran my VCR for 72 hours taping everything from just 20 min after broadcast started till PPV cut out. Only part i know i missed was the start of Moe. due to a coworker deciding that saturday stands for "make your own hours" day and i did not see them on the overnight "re-broadcasts".
If I have any of the stuff that was not posted i'd be happy to figure this out and maybe post the entire weekend up here putting each band on it's own DVD
Thanks again for all the input, hopefully in the next few months i'll have something to contribute, untill then and happy 4th of july to all who celebrate, have fun and be safe

[AAR.oner]

just a fwiw, but a quick search of this site shows only a handful of Woodstock '99 sets being transferred seeded [see below]...so i'd say you've probly got quite a few sets that've never been traded out before, not to mention most are from unknown gen sources, while yours are from definite 1st gen tapes

keep in mind that they released an official Woodstock '99 DVD, so if you wanted to seed the shows here [or on most other trading trackers for that matter], you'll need to omit the official tracks from your DVDs





http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...ad.php?t=19238

Godsmack
Creed
Jamiroquai
Korn
Limp Bizkit
Megadeth
Metallica (I'm getting a better version of this one)
Rage Against the Machine
Red Hot Chili Peppers

[DanielG]

Originally Posted by AAR.oner

keep in mind that they released an official Woodstock '99 DVD, so if you wanted to seed the shows here [or on most other trading trackers for that matter], you'll need to omit the official tracks from your DVDs

While I understand why this rule is in place, I would hope that deadjerryhead69 would also seed an 'unedited' release at a more liberal torrent site. The Pirate Bay is a good option.

[retired]

Originally Posted by AAR.oner

so if you wanted to seed the shows here [or on most other trading trackers for that matter], you'll need to omit the official tracks from your DVDs

A track or 2 will be allowed to be seeded here, unlike Dime....The OP can pm the video mods when they're ready to upload anything that may be questionable.