Making my own dvd's, and VHS to DVD, what equipment do i need

[MSO4]

This past saturday, my family and I had Christmas pictures taken by a photographer, we got to talking cameras etc...yada yada yada.... She suggested that make dvd slideshows with background music so i could send to other family members etc....


My question:
So what do I need to do this, I am assuming DVD-rw drive and a good dvd burner program?

Also I am wanting to upgrade my video card possibly to transfer VHS to dvd from my research seems that a Radeon All in Wonder should fit my needs.

I am kinda leaning towards Radeon All in wonder 9600 seems this card does a little bit of everything.
(I had asked in video section what video card would be a good upgrade for me and people at this forum suggested a radeon 9600)


Basically i am looking to make some system upgrades, video card especially, and just looking for a good excuse to justify it for my wife. "But honey its for the baby" hehehe but i like the idea of making dvd slideshows that will save me money vs. having to print pictures; and it would be nice to get rid of the cluster of VHS tapes we have.

Current system:
athlon 1100 (thinking of upgrading)
512 ram pc 133
cd-rw
gf4 mx 440
soundblaster live value


thanks so much for your help

 

[mcveigh]

aiw can do it. I would do S-video out from a vcr to the input of the AIW I prefer roxio video wave 5 to import and edit.
Ulead is another good program. and of course a dvd burner.

 

[AIWGuru]

Originally posted by: mcveigh
aiw can do it. I would do S-video out from a vcr to the input of the AIW I prefer roxio video wave 5 to import and edit.
Ulead is another good program. and of course a dvd burner.

Get an All in wonder using the rage theatre 200 chipset.
This is:
AIW VE (PCI)
AIW 9000Pro
AIW 9600Pro
AIW 9700Pro
AIW 9800Pro

Record with the "DVD" preset and create a custom from it with "encode de-interlaced" selected.

You can then re-encode to the DVD setting in Studio 8 which is standard bundled software with all above listed cards which will save you some space.

The AIW 9600 pro is a great choice for this. It has the rage200 which means a 12bit dac which beats nearly any discrete tuner solution available. The only bad thing about it is that it doesn't have a silicon tuner and it very hard. Videosoap can help with this though. While the Rage200 does list "hardware mpeg2 encoding assist" in its specs, it's just B.S. To encode with my recommended settings, you'll get about 40% cpu usage with an AThlon XP 2000+ or 2ghz P4.

If you don't want to upgrade your videocard, I'd recommend the Hauppauge PVR250 (or whatever it's called) with its hardware encoding and excellent drivers, you have about 3% cpu usage on a lame 1ghz p3 while encoding. It's not as usefull as a PVR though.

 

[AIWGuru]

Originally posted by: mcveigh
aiw can do it. I would do S-video out from a vcr to the input of the AIW I prefer roxio video wave 5 to import and edit.
Ulead is another good program. and of course a dvd burner.

Uh...no.

What VCR have you ever seen that has an S-video port? I doubt that his does.

Also, you should use ATI's MMC to encode anything on an AIW because ati's soft-encode is far superior to the horrible software encoding done by any third party app including the bundled studio 8. Also, MMC applies videosoap on the go which is an excellent piece of software even if it is format specific.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: MSO4
This past saturday, my family and I had Christmas pictures taken by a photographer, we got to talking cameras etc...yada yada yada.... She suggested that make dvd slideshows with background music so i could send to other family members etc....


My question:
So what do I need to do this, I am assuming DVD-rw drive and a good dvd burner program?

Panasonic DMR-E50 standalone DVD recorder. Works like a VCR but records on DVD-R (and DVD-RAM) instead.

Originally posted by: AIWGuru

Originally posted by: mcveigh
aiw can do it. I would do S-video out from a vcr to the input of the AIW I prefer roxio video wave 5 to import and edit.
Ulead is another good program. and of course a dvd burner.

What VCR have you ever seen that has an S-video port? I doubt that his does.

Mine does.

 

[jackschmittusa]

My S-VHS vcr has S video output. All of the combo DVD/VHS boxes I have seen have S video too.

 

[zikronix]

My interweb pen0s is bigger than all of yours. No really I have an intrest in this too so this is a bump to get some more opinions

 

[quadcells]

Ok I'll add my 2 cents worth.
I use the Canopus REX RT PRO as my capture hardware. This card has a BOB (break out box) with DV and analog inputs and outputs.
To edit my video and pictures I use Adobe Premiere Pro, PP also encodes the final movie to mpeg 2 which is the format for DVD's. Then I use Adobe's DVD Encore to author and burn my DVD's. It works great.
The bad news is that this stuff cost about $3,100. You can get lower price equipment that will work fine, the thing is that you should try to find hardware that comes with Premiere. Also if you have a digital camcorder and a computer with 1394 firewire you only need the software and DVD burner.
If you want me to explain more you can e-mail me.

 

[Eug]

Everyone loves doing things the hard way.

If all you want to do is convert VHS --> DVD-R, then that $350 standalone machine I linked is the way to go.

1) Stick in VHS tape into VCR.
2) Connect VCR output to DVD recorder input (S-VHS or composite)
3) Stick blank DVD-R into DVD recorder.
4) Press play on VCR and press record on DVD recorder.

Seriously, that's all that is required.

 

[anandfan]

I''ve tried, but "I" can't capture VHS to DVD that comes anywhere close to the quality of the original tape.

If you have the money, I'd suggest you consider buying a digital camcorder with pass-through. The pass-through accepts analog output from your VCR and converts it to digital then sends the digital out through the camcorder's Firewire output so you can burn it to DVD. (You can also save it on the digital tape as it comes in. Check camera models first. Some low-ends may not do all this.)

This will help 2 ways: 1) you have the hardware to convert old tapes to digital. 2) New footage will be digital and generally better quality. I think this is a better solution that either a capture card or a DVD recorder!

 

[Eug]

I''ve tried, but "I" can't capture VHS to DVD that comes anywhere close to the quality of the original tape.

If you have the money, I'd suggest you consider buying a digital camcorder with pass-through. The pass-through accepts analog output from your VCR and converts it to digital then sends the digital out through the camcorder's Firewire output so you can burn it to DVD. (You can also save it on the digital tape as it comes in. Check camera models first. Some low-ends may not do all this.)

This will help 2 ways: 1) you have the hardware to convert old tapes to digital. 2) New footage will be digital and generally better quality. I think this is a better solution that either a capture card or a DVD recorder!

I have:

1) Standalone DVD recorder.
2) DVD burner (3 of them in fact) and the appropriate software.
3) MiniDV camcorder with analogue to digital pass through.

By far the easiest is option 1, and the quality is good, as long as you use the high quality recording settings.

However, I do agree that shooting future footage with a digital camcorder will of great benefit over VHS cams.

 

[MSO4]

Would rather not do a stand alone unit to transfer vhs to dvd. is it possible to get good qualityusing ur computer?

Also want to create picture slideshowsw/ background music that i will burn to dvd, which dvd burner drive do yall suggest?

 

[oldfart]

The thing about a stand alone tape to DVD machine is that is all it does. What about editing, putting in chapters, menus and such? How about editing and adding audio tracks? Adding still photos? If all you need to do is a tape to DVD copy, it's not bad, but is limited if you want to do anything else.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: oldfart
The thing about a stand alone tape to DVD machine is that is all it does. What about editing, putting in chapters, menus and such? How about editing and adding audio tracks? Adding still photos? If all you need to do is a tape to DVD copy, it's not bad, but is limited if you want to do anything else.

Oh I agree totally. But he mentioned "it would be nice to get rid of the cluster of VHS tapes we have".

If you want to say convert 25 VHS tapes to DVD, it's going to be a MAJOR undertaking if you're going to be using video capture and computer editing software. Total waste of time IMO, unless it's ultra-important stuff that requires pretty menus and what not. If they're just baby videos etc, it'd be way better to use a DVD recorder. Where you want to use the computer is if you want to edit small clips from multiple VHS tapes into one composite DVD with full motion menus and slideshows and chapters, etc., but that's a completely different situation.

So for me, I use the DVD recorder for basic stuff. It gives basic menus, with selections for each recorded clip, and chapters every few minutes. Once or twice I even changed the audio track, when major editing wasn't involved.

For the more complex stuff I'll capture it to a computer (now thru a MiniDV cam), edit it, make menus, and burn it.

By the way, one thing to note is that if you have the stuff on DVD-RAM or DVD-R from the DVD recorder, you can also rip the video to your hard drive and edit from there, although that's a pain too. There are DVD recorders with built in hard drives too, but obviously they're not as flexible as a computer (but more flexible than a DVD recorder without a hard drive).

 

[AIWGuru]

Originally posted by: MSO4
is it possible to get good qualityusing ur computer?

q]

Sigh. Yes. Again, use a hardware mpeg2 encoder such as haupauge PVR250 with its 12bit adc. Excellent quality.

 

[Kutter]

I am also using a Canopus box to convert my analogue sources to digital. The one I have is a cheaper one than mentioned above, but it works extremely well. Here is the link:

[S=]http://www.canopus.us/US/products/ADVC-100/pm_advc-100.asp[/S]

Basically, you plug your VCR into the box (either S-Video or composite - depending on your VCR) and connect the device to the Firewire port on your computer. You then load up your video editing software and it will recognize the Canopus box as a camcorder. You then turn on your VCR and play the tape and caputre the footage on your computer. My experience with the box has been excellent. The limiting factor in terms of quality will be how good your original recordings are and the quality of the VCR you play them back on.

The ATI AIW will provide similar capabilities. I'd be interested in knowing how the capture quality of the AIW compares to the Canopus box.


HTH.

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: AIWGuru

Originally posted by: mcveigh
aiw can do it. I would do S-video out from a vcr to the input of the AIW I prefer roxio video wave 5 to import and edit.
Ulead is another good program. and of course a dvd burner.

Uh...no.

What VCR have you ever seen that has an S-video port? I doubt that his does.

Also, you should use ATI's MMC to encode anything on an AIW because ati's soft-encode is far superior to the horrible software encoding done by any third party app including the bundled studio 8. Also, MMC applies videosoap on the go which is an excellent piece of software even if it is format specific.

mine does and several others I have seen... i think most new ones do.

 

[1966]

Bump for glenn1