VHS to DVD Conversion

[hennessy1]

I am looking for a high quality vhs to converter. I found this one on newegg but it seems that there is better out there.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo


I was wondering if you guys can help me find a good one. I am looking for one that I can use with my pc and with windows 7 x64.

 

[Ronstang]

Have you ever seen a VHS to DVD transfer? They look horrible, especially if you use compression to control file size. They may be watchable on a tube television but on a computer or HD TV they look really bad. If I were you I would make sure the resulting quality of the video is in line with your expectations before I waste a lot of money and time. I

 

[hennessy1]

So it would be nothing like dvd quality then even using the vhs to dvd combo players they have out there?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Content is what it is. Shifting the medium from VHS to DVD doesn't mean it magically looks better.

 

[hennessy1]

I figured at-least a 480i res. I honestly haven't watched a vhs tape in years so I do not know what to compare it too currently.

 

[3chordcharlie]

I figured at-least a 480i res. I honestly haven't watched a vhs tape in years so I do not know what to compare it too currently.

Plug a VCR into your flat screen.

This is the absolute, 100% BEST result you can achieve; in reality, it will be worse.

If these are important home-movies and such, you're probably going to want to do it anyway. If it's your treasured copy of The Land Before Time 6, just keep your vcr in a box somewhere, or buy the DVD.

 

[Ronstang]

I figured at-least a 480i res. I honestly haven't watched a vhs tape in years so I do not know what to compare it too currently.

Hook a VHS up to a modern HD TV. You will not be impressed, although you may be able to watch it. I cannot. Now remember that VHS is analog and you will be recording in real time and taking up a lot of space so compression will be necessary so the quality is going to look even worse. You will end up with file sizes around 70 gigs which means if you are trying to fit a rip on a DVD you will now need to compress it to almost 1/20th the size. Compression is lossy and thus VHS rips do not compress well because they start off at low resolutions. I have a few and the colors are off and the picture is fuzzy. The problem is there are some movies that are only available on VHS.

 

[mmntech]

I figured at-least a 480i res. I honestly haven't watched a vhs tape in years so I do not know what to compare it too currently.

VHS is 480i in a sense, but (big but) it has half the horizontal resolution of 480i, which translates to about half the total resolution (0.16 megapixel vs 0.35 for DVD) VHS also has a nasty habit of degrading quickly. The more plays and re-records the tape has, the worse it gets.

You'd probably have to encode it in a raw SD video file. DV I'd say if you can. 30mbps. Toss it on a 1tb external drive. Only then for important stuff. Don't bother with old TV shows or VHS movies. Just buy the DVD versions.

 

[Crow550]

I use a ATI 750 usb card for like $50 & a VCR with TBC. A JVC HR-S7800U I picked up at a second hand store for a couple bucks. Along with a S-video and analog audio cables at Monoprice.

Video looks pretty good. Just capture in raw AVI and use any filters to clean up any noise with like VirtualDub. I suggest asking in these forums: http://forum.videohelp.com/forums/10-Capturing?

The most important thing is a VCR with Time Based Correction (TBC).

 

[0roo0roo]

vhs is like youtube standard quality video...240i? The scaler from vhs to 480i dvd probably matters a bit, but it is polishing a turd. simplest way is to get a combo vhs ->dvd deck.


400 bucks for that canopus isn't going to make itlook any better...

 

[AnitaPeterson]

$400 is overkill. Serious overkill.

You might as well but a good DVD recorder and hook it up to the best VCR you can find - something with picture control circuitry... and you'll still end up by spending less money than that.

I've been using this device called ADS InstantDVD for the last eight years or so.... it still does the trick. If you can still find it, it's probably around $50, and it will do a perfectly serviceable job.

 

[Monster_Munch]

Just use an analog tv tuner card and a regular VHS player to rip it to your PC. Then you can apply filters to reduce noise and improve color/contrast. You can improve the quality so it looks better than the original VHS, but don't expect miracles.

 

[Crow550]

Get a VCR with TBC to reduce jitter and save on storage space. That jitter will just make an extra large file. Plus it does help the image a bit too.

Just keep an eye in second hand stores. You'll find one for a couple of bucks that works.

 

[piasabird]

You might have better luck recording older videos off of a digital cable box or just buying the videos on DVD or Blue-Ray.