VHS tape to DVD?

Sniper82

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
16,517
0
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Can I hook a VCR to my PVR150-MCE and capture a VHS movie to copy to DVD? If so how would I do it?

Or do I need a video card with VIVO?
 
Mar 19, 2003
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Yes, you should be able to do that. I used an analog TV tuner several years back to capture/digitize video from a VHS tape. All you should need to do is open whatever program came with your tuner and set the input to RCA (or S-Video, whatever the VCR is connected to), then record to the hard drive and play the tape. Also, you can sometimes directly capture into other video editing programs like Virtualdub.

Edit: The above would cover getting the video on your hard drive - after it's there, then you'll want to use some sort of DVD authoring program (I've used Nero Vision Express before, I've found it easy to use) in order to burn a video DVD with that captured video. Since you have a TV tuner that (I believe) does hardware MPEG2 encoding, you might not even need to transcode before DVD burning (though I'm not 100% sure on that).
 

Philippine Mango

Diamond Member
Oct 29, 2004
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Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Yes, you should be able to do that. I used an analog TV tuner several years back to capture/digitize video from a VHS tape. All you should need to do is open whatever program came with your tuner and set the input to RCA (or S-Video, whatever the VCR is connected to), then record to the hard drive and play the tape. Also, you can sometimes directly capture into other video editing programs like Virtualdub.

Edit: The above would cover getting the video on your hard drive - after it's there, then you'll want to use some sort of DVD authoring program (I've used Nero Vision Express before, I've found it easy to use) in order to burn a video DVD with that captured video. Since you have a TV tuner that (I believe) does hardware MPEG2 encoding, you might not even need to transcode before DVD burning (though I'm not 100% sure on that).

There is a catch though, You MUST not be recording movies that have macrovision ETC. If you're trying to go about doing this, you'll be in for one heck of a headache as the software companies haven't played nice with this sort of thing and won't let you do it easily.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
19
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Originally posted by: Philippine Mango


There is a catch though, You MUST not be recording movies that have macrovision ETC. If you're trying to go about doing this, you'll be in for one heck of a headache as the software companies haven't played nice with this sort of thing and won't let you do it easily.

Maybe. I think that some copy protection relied on screwing up a timing signal that VCRs looked for, but PVR cards might not need it or look for it, so it won't affect them. So it's a results-may-vary sort of thing.
 

SKORPI0

Lifer
Jan 18, 2000
18,463
2,397
136
My setup, very straighforward, no PC involved. I just set the VCR to play, and DVD recorder to record.

Sony SLV-N71 VCR <---> RX II CopyGuard Eliminator <---> Magnavox MDV630R DVD Recorder.

No need to capture the VHS to a PC, re-edit/encode, then burn to DVD. Very time consuming process.
 

ParatoOptimal

Golden Member
Jan 27, 2004
1,094
2
81
I've used the RX II CopyGuard Eliminator to eliminate Copy Protection on VHS.
It often worked but I found that it didn't work with some tapes.

Googling "RX II CopyGuard Eliminator" I found a link that advertised the RX II CopyGuard Eliminator AND a SIMA SCC Color Corrector bundled togeter for $170.95.

http://www.hightechdepot.com/Detail.tmp...t=3117950869246668&sku=Combo%20Special

Videoguys has the SSC for $129.
http://www.videoguys.com/sima.htm

I've read that the SSC doesn't work with any Sony VHS machines.

I bought my RX II CopyGuard Eliminator for either $11 or $15 ages ago from a popular mail order house. Back then I tried to order another from them but they emphatically denied EVERY selling it.

I've read in other forums where endusers have tried to D8 their VHS tapes but Macrovision prevented their D8 to go into record mode. One enduser used an AIW-Pro to get past the Macrovision.

Macrovision is produced by your VCR/DVD player if the tape/DVD is flagged to enable Macrovision. Macrovision plays with the Auto Gain feature of your player.

If your player has manual Gain or doesn't hav Auto Gain, Macrovision shouldn't be a problem for you.
 

Sniper82

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
16,517
0
76
I am just putting home videos on my PC from years ago so surely there won't be any copy protection on it. What if I bought a OEM card with no software? Can Nero capture from VCR?
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
Your home videos will not have any copy protection.

The non-MCE Hauppage comes with DVD authoring software from Ulead, you just record with the composite or s-video input (plus audio jack) as MPEG2 using the Hauppage WinTV2000 program, then use the Ulead MovieFactory to make the DVD.

Since you have the MCE version, it's missing the above software right? You can probably still capture video the same way you'd record from a cable box using MCE itself.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
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yea get a cheap dvd recorder standalone. think they are 100 bucks now:p online or at costco or such. little more u can get a vcr+dvdrecorder combo, make it easy as pie. no worries about capture quality and such.
 

Sniper82

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
16,517
0
76
Well this is just a one time thing so buying a set top DVD recorder really wouldn't be worth it. I will try it with the MCE somehow but it didn't come with any software.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
If you can't get MCE's own recording working, it does make sense to buy a DVD recorder (walmart <$100) to use and then eBay rather than paying money for software and having to learn to use it.

Also, if you have Nero Ultra it might be able to do the capture too. Your card has a perfectly good video input for recording if you can figure out the right software to use it.

This was also good advice from LASTGUY2GETPS2, the forums there might have pvr-150mce specific how-to threads:
www.vcdhelp.com has a LOT of resources. I use WinDVR with an ATI TV Capture card...

 

Sniper82

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
16,517
0
76
GBPVR will allow me to play the video but I don't know how to manual record when I hit play on the button.
 

Sniper82

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
16,517
0
76
Nerovision would work perfect but when I am playing the video and hit record it says failed to initialize the capture device. Please check the device settings.

Any ideas?
 

yukichigai

Diamond Member
Apr 23, 2003
6,404
0
0
Okay, lemme lay some info on you.

First off, you can actually do this (probably better) with VirtualDubMod and HuffyUV to get your "source" video. From there it can be converted with a number of programs to DVD format, such as DIKO and TMPGEnc. Let's go over the process, shall we?

First off, you need to get the HuffyUV codec and install it, along with VirtualDubMod. Once you've installed them open up VirtualDubMod and select File->Capture AVI. From there you should be able to pick out the areas with the appropriate settings. You need to set your video compression codec to HuffyUV, set your colorspace to YUY2 or UYVY, and your audio codec should be 16-bit PCM at 48000Hz, or 44100Hz if 48 is unavailable. Also, your resolution should be 352x480, nothing higher. The maximum horizontal resolution a VHS tape can ever achieve is 200. (If it's SVHS or SVHS-C you can go higher, since SVHS can acheive a horizontal resolution of 400) Once there just fire up your player and hit record in VDubMod. You should be able to capture just fine, though the filesize will be large.

After you have you resulting AVI file your next step is to convert it to DVD format. Contrary to popular belief, you CAN in fact encode in resolutions other than 720x480. In this case 352x480 will do. Now for the purposes of customizability we are going to assume you're using TMPGEnc for this, rather than DIKO. DIKO will work, but since the video WILL be interlaced (always is on analog broadcast or VHS) you have to jump through some extra hoops to convert properly. TMPGEnc can handle it just fine.

Before you open up TMPGEnc you'll want to download the KDVD Half-D1 template and save it to your TMPGEnc/templates directory. When you open up TMPGEnc you'll be presented with a Wizard. Scroll down until you find the KDVD template and click next. Hit browse and select the ginormous AVI file you just made. Change the video type to Interlace and the Aspect Ratio to 4:3, then hit next. On this screen you'll want to go into Other Settings, and in the Video tab set the aspect ratio to 4:3 and the encode mode to Interlace. You may also want to click "Setting" next to Rate Control Mode and increase the CQ setting and the maximum bitrate setting; a CQ of about 90 and a max bitrate of 4000 should do it. Click OK. If you have a particularly noisy tape you may want to enable the Noise Reduction option here. Anyway, click "next" twice, uncheck the "start encoding immediately" box and hit OK. Towards the bottom right you should notice a number of radio buttons: select the one marked System (Video + Audio), then click "Settings". Go to the Audio tab, make sure that the frequency is set to 48000 and that your bitrate is at least 192. You might also enable error protection to be safe. Hit OK again and then hit start. Your video should start encoding nicely. Once you're done just create a new DVD with the freshly-created MPG file using something like Nero.