Home audio & video forum: How do I record a VHS tape onto a DVD recorder?

I ran into an excellent "how-to" article on Tom's Hardware Guide a few months ago and I found it to be indispensable. It suggests the use of a USB 2.0 MPEG encoder (DVD XPress From ADS Tech). The piece can be found at:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/video/20040220/index.html

I personally picked up one of the devices and have been using it for a few months now as I convert my home videos over to DVD. A few personal notes though, should you find such a device appealing to your particular situation: (1) use the "best" capture mode, else the quality of the video can be less than stellar at times, and (2) try to unplug a few of your unused USB devices that aren't critical to your system when using this device b/c it gobbles up a lot of bandwidth and can cause problems (at least it did on my rig).

After capture, I just used Nero or some other similar DVD authoring program to burn the video. That was just a piece of cake.

So to answer a part of your above question relating to if it captures and burns at the same time, the answer to that is no. It does the operation in two distinct operations. Capture first to create the MPEG-2 file, then burn to DVD.

Hope that helps somewhat.

I have a combo TV/VCR unit, and was wondering if the instructions wwould work for such a setup (recording the VHS onto my PC's DVD recorder? I am a novice/intermediate PC user and wondering if it's really easy to do
Thanks for any help.

I have a question for you. I been eyeing this unit for awhile now..tell me..I know this unit output mpeg4, what I want to know is can you play the mpeg4 file with a divx player (hardware/software) or does it need to be converted to divx format first? My reason for this is because I don't like conversion because it usually takes a long time.

In my case it was simple and yielded excellent results - not quite DVD quality but as good as is possible from a broadcast.

I have an Hauppauge WinTV card ( any input card with a composite video input would do ) and plugged the composite video output from the video player ( BNC / RCA phono ) connector or SCART pin 19 ( vid out) & 17 (gnd) [may be 20 & 17 if connector lead is used])

I then chose "record from video source" in Showshifter (I bought mine but a free trial copy is available from www.showshifter.com and recorded to MPEG Highest Quality.

The recording is straightforward but takes 3~4 Gb per hour of transfer.

Then simply drag the file(s) into Nero or myDVD and let it burn

max recording is split into blocks by showshifter (windows limitations) but if gap between blocks is set to zero in Nero then they don't notice.

Editing can be done in NeroVision (part of nero) but direct recording in Nerovision can be a pain at times.

2hrs video can be burnt to a standard DVD in DVD(ish) quality or 4hrs on a dual layer DVDR.
Lower quality gets more on a DVD, e.g 4hrs in SVCD on a standard DVD or much more using DivX codecs (included in Showshifter) but playback can only be on a DivX equiped computer

The Akura DVD player (about 30 & made bu UMBRO) plays every DVD I throw at it - including SVCDs (48min per cd) wheras many more expensive players won't play SVCD properly or Mini-DVD (DVD quality on a 40min CD) at all

How to convert from VHS to DVD on a PC Computer

1. Hardware:
I use Pinnacle PCTV Pro (I paid less than $50 for mine) which can be found at http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage_n.asp?Product_ID=103&Langue_ID=7

2. Software:
Pinnacle PCTV Pro comes with a program called PCTV Vision. This program is a single solution for all video capture and conversions.

3. Cables and Connections (Optional):
After the PCTV Pro PCI card is installed in your computer, connect it to an AV switchbox (available at your local Walmart). To the switchbox I have attached the following:
a. VCR Player
b. DVD Player
c. Dish Sattalite Receiver (Using a series of Y cables on the receiver)
d. Local TV (Using an AV conversion box from Radio Shack)
This will give you the ability to convert (or in the case of the DVD Player) or make copies of your current library.

4. How to Do It:
a. Setup your input device
b. Load PCTV Vision
c. Start your input device (hit the play button)
d. Click on the RECORD button in PCTV Vision
e. When the movie is over click on the STOP button in PCTV Vision
f. Click on DISPLAY RECORDED VIDEOS button in PCTV Vision
g. You are now in the GALLERY window
h. Click on the BURN button and select the output media (VCD, SVCD or DVD)
i. Drag your movie from the GALLERY window to the BURN window (if you are burning several small movies they can all be dragged to the burn window and placed on the same DVD)
j. Click on the BURN button

Burning and Coping just does not get any easier. If you have choicen a movie which requires more than one disk, the program will burn the first disk then ask for the next disk(s) as needed.

Here's a related question for the group.

I have transferred some of my home movies from vhs to dvd on my desktop using a usb 2.0 connection. I recently purchased a laptop that has a firewire port. What I would like to do is use the laptop to convert the vhs tapes using the firewire port. It seems to me that all I would need is the cable to connect the vcr to the laptop since I already have the video capture software but I have not been able to find any cables with a firewire connection on one end and standard a/v connections on the other.

All the other products I have seen so far are either pci cards, use usb 2.0 cables (which I don't have on the laptop), or are too expensive (I don't want to spend too much on this little project).

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Oldgeek

I hate to be Mr. Wet Blanket, but you'll have to ask yourself: Is it worth it?

I was gung-ho on the VHS/Hi8-to-DVD bandwagon last year and made many DVDs which turned out great. As far as new "home movies" and slide shows to edit and send to people on DVD go, it is worthwhile, as long as they have newer machines that will play your DVD.

As far as putting all your movies already on VHS tape onto DVDs goes, personally, I think it's a waste of time and effort EXCEPT where the tape is falling apart and a new one is not available.

A 120-minute tape will hold 6 hours of movies at nice quality recorded at 3x. To put those onto DVD at about the same quality (it'll never get better), you'll need a DVD disk for every 2 hours, or 3 disks. So there is no space saved, and the cost for disks and the time involved will probably make the whole operation seem ridiculous.

My advice is to leave movies on tape as they are if they still look good. For special movies, import them directly from your TV tuner to your PC, then edit out the commercials and burn to disk.

I realize that this doesn't answer your question (I see that many already have), but after doing a few, I believe you'll see what I mean.

Have you try capturing the signal to the computer yet..using s-video or usb? Do you have any capturing device at all?

Your digicam has firewire output? If so then you can add a firewire adapter to your computer (I have seen some for $10), plus some software maybe. I am not sure because I never work with firewire before.

Good day

I want to transfer my vcr recordings onto dvd discs.
I use a Panasonic NV-SD205 Multi system NTSC Playback on PAL TV domestic vcr machine, and a Sony DVD Recorder, high definition multimedia interface 1080p upscale machine. and my audio tapes onto CD from Sony Mini hifi MHC-GNZ7D,
dvd rw, dvd video rw, HDMI.

Thankyou