VHS to DVD Transfers
Friday, April 15th, 2005 - 8:06pm
I've got some old VHS training tapes a client wants moved over to DVDs since they don't sell DVD versions of it. I assume getting a capture card with RCA inputs to capture the video would be the first step but I'm not sure what the best software would be to use to convert the files and prepare them for a burn.
These are some old ass training tapes, we're talking big mustaches and bad clothes. Oh yeah! 
Certis beat me to it. - Elysium
You should get a card that supports VFW (Video for Windows) in its drivers. Whatever you do, do NOT get a card made by Hauppage.
Now that you have a card that has VFW drivers, you can capture off of it using VirtualDub. I think. You can capture a raw uncompressed AVI onto a vast space on your harddrive. Mannny gigabytes.
Then you should process it with some filters to clean up the horrific VHS artifacts. I have no detailed information on how it is done. However this step is very important.
Then you should encode the AVI into DVD-compliant MPEG 2. I think regular TMPGEnc (not DVD Author) can be used for that. You can also use DVDSanta for this. Actually with DVDSanta you can skip the next step if you don''t care for the menues and chapters.
Then you can use a program like TMPGEnc DVD Author(15-day trial available) to create menues and chapters and burn the MPEG-2 (or DVDSanta created VOBs, it understands them as input format as well) in DVD format that is compatible with most standalone players.
Nero may offer similar functionality but it offers less compatibility with standalone players.
You want a really, really, really good VHS deck.
You''ll probably also want a time-base converter to stablize the image for better capture.
Then, capture it full frame, uncompressed. VirtualDub can do this, and it''s free.
Cleanup of the image will be the lion''s share. Good luck with that...
You may be best off taking the whole thing to a professional transfer company, or asking them what kind of software to use to do the transfer.
Mystic Violet wrote:
I disagree on the recommendation to avoid Hauppauge. Personally, I''ve had great success with the PVR line (although perhaps the recommendation was based on the lower end WinTV line).
VfW is the old mechanism for video display and capture for Windows. Newer cards should support WDM.
no particular interest, no particular talent
I messed around with this a few years ago on an amature level quite a bit trying to copy some old VHS tapes that I had made of various cartoons back in the 80''s. I didn''t want to spend a bunch of money at the time so I just bought the previous version of one of these http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage_n.asp?Product_ID=1427&Langue_ID=7 . Hardly professional I suppose but it got the job done. Of course some folks at work found out I had the hardware and I wound up copying a bunch of their old tapes too so more recently I have purchased one of the dvdr/vcr combo things from Phillips. It works very well and eleminates a lot of wait time.
the SGI O2 with the A/V card is good for capturing.
And it''s stylish, like a big blue toaster.
Mystic Violet wrote:
I went just thru that dilemma when I bought on Ebay a set of 3 Taekwondo fancy kicking tutorial tapes two weeks ago. I just took it to a neighborhood photo developer who in 5 business day crammed them all on one DVD (luckily the combined running time was just over 2 hours), all for $20. And the quality is excellent.
If all you need is just one-off transfer job, I think that''t the best way to go.
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PENIS!
Oh! I thought we were... uhm.... sorry.
My Work does some VHS-DVD transfers for our teaching-material lending library. We have a Panasonic VHS-DVD combo/burner unit and it seems to get the job done. Rudamentary menu''s, minimal custimization for backgrounds and fonts... and quick! The downside is that it isn''t dual-layer... and there have been two or three instances where a burned disk would not work in certain players. But that is a problem with almost any dvd burner on the market right now.
Politely rude. Briskly vague. Firmly uninformative.
LOL <---- When I write that, I mean it, dammit.
Thanks for the advice so far guys. I AM very lazy so I might call some local places and see what they charge. It is a one time thing so buying a bunch of equipment may not make sense. If I can''t do it for a good price, I''ll definitely try some of your software suggestions and report back!
Certis beat me to it. - Elysium
Hauppage has absolutely the worst drivers and support I have seen EVER in a history of a company. What was going on with PVR-250 series drivers on their forums was outrageous. I don''t believe they supported either WDM _or_ VFW. I don''t know if they still do, last I heard from them (before I tore the goddamn card out of my computer after their drivers started conflicting with WinDVD) the WDM support was in alpha stages and there was no sound.
The only way to get video off their hardware-encoder series was to use their HORRIBLE, BUGGY, UGLY software. And there was absolutely no way in HELL to get it without it being already pre-compressed by the hardware, either.