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General discussion

Newbie question - Best products for VHS to DVD transfer

May 17, 2005 9:31AM PDT

I have a bunch of home videos (VHS, 8mm, and 8mm Digital) that I would like to transfer to DVD. I have an Alienware P4 2.8 with 1GB Ram and Windows XP Pro. I am looking at the GoVideo VR5940 DVD Recorder +VCR to do the initial capture and then I would transfer the .VOB file to my computer for editing. What I am looking for are recommendations for the following:
1) Tape transfer hardware options (i.e how I get the video onto the computer like the VR5940)
2) Video file editing and DVD burning software
3) DVD burner (yep my computer doesn't have a DVD Burner just a DVD reader).
4) Anything else that might be needed to do this the easiest

I am not wanting to become a professional quality videographer but would like to produce some reasonably decent DVDs (primarily to preserve the VHS tape content)

Thanks very much for any suggestions.
Rick Anderson

Discussion is locked

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Best products for VHS to DVD transfer
May 20, 2005 4:22AM PDT

Well, you should also look at the multimedia fourm.
The Go-Video unit is the easest way as long as you only want to convert to DVD with out editting. Sony Has the DVR-10 stand alone DVD burner that will also hook to a PC via USB so this would give you DVD-DL pc burner.
Since you said D8mm what camera do you have and will it do analog to digital pass through?
U-lead is a good program, XP SP2 windows movie maker 2 is OK and it's free. Here is a link with good info. John
http://www.timwerx.net/odds/pcfile.htm

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VHS to DVD
Jun 13, 2005 4:42AM PDT

Being in the business of conversions, we've tried a number of all-in-one units and they've always had their share of A/V sync problems. We've tried the Plextor ConvertX, the SONY VRD-VC10, an ADS box as well...

For home-based usage they can be great, since if you get some A/V sync issues you might have some luck by simply trying again. But in a professional environment that doesn't cut it.

Alternatively, you could get a capture card that encodes to MPEG2 on-the-fly (there's a ton of them, i believe videohelp.com keeps a very nice list). We use a VITEC card, but that's personal preference.

Once you've got your MPEG2 on your HD, you can use many programs to get your video into DVD format (VIDEO_TS, AUDIO_TS) and like any software, some are geared towards ease-of-use while others are more flexible but have a steeper learning curve.

Personally I like VideoReDo for editing and dvdauthor (GUI's are available) for getting my project into VOB format for burning.