VHS to DVD

[Slickone]

Places like this convert VHS to DVD for $10. How good would the quality be? As someone who's never done any conversion, can I get quality as good myself if I bought a DVD recorder and a video capture card (or USB?)? Considering I have several I want to convert, the cost might be about the same either way.

 

[beatle]

That could be a total crapshoot. They might have an inexpensive Asus TV tuner that captures straight to mpeg2. This quality would be decent (I have the Asus card) but not quite as good as a high quality card that captures in a lossless format. You might give them a call and see what equipment they use.

 

[GullyFoyle]

I've spent several weeks trying to get something near an original-quality capture from a VHS tape with the capture card I bought (Avermedia DVD EZMaker), and haven't succeeded yet. Seems to be a bit of a crap-shoot, unless you're prepared to spend several hundred dollars. The newsgroups I've visited in my quest are littered with sob stories around both the harware and software required to get the job done. I myself have installed 4 different capture programs, and gotten three additional CODECs without finding satisfaction.

I have been looking for one of those external devices that will do a lossless capture (not MPEG2 or DV output, which have compression by default), and haven't seen one under my self-imposed $300 limit. (If anybody has a recommendation, let me know)

Keep in mind there will always be trade-offs in space vs. quality. To get a truly lossless picture, I think you will only get about an 1 - 1.5 hours on a DVD. Two hours on a DVD says to me some compromises are being made.

 

[videoclone]

i Divxed 6 - 2 hours VHS movies onto 1 DVD .. only drawback is i can only watch them on a DVD-DivX Capable DVD player or a Computer with a DVD drive with divx installed

 

[gsellis]

There are new VHS/DVD players that do this as a stardard consumer electronics part. That is why it is $10. The video will never be better than VHS.

According to my codec listings, VHS is about 1000kbps as a digital video stream or about the same as VCD. DVD Constant bit rate is about 6000kbps with variable ranging 5000-8000. So, you fit inside the stream size, but it will not be better than VHS.

Of course, reality always trumps theoretical and I have not seen one myself.

Edit: BTW, the prices at the site are very good. It would be worth $10 to see the quality for one. They have a lot of other services that are cool too.

 

[sep]

I did PAL(VHS..BETA?) to NTSC (DVD-R). Quaility was okay, but audio was low. It was in german and I didn't understand it away.

Now all my will be converted over ATI Wonder Pro to MPEG2 for DVD storage. Will be setting this up over the holidays. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

-JC

Edit: It cost me $26 plus shipping to them. If you get your original back then it's worth it. I blow $10 a hour on computer hardware...bang, there just went $10 on some replacement LEDs for my case.

 

[pulse8]

According to my codec listings, VHS is about 1000kbps as a digital video stream or about the same as VCD.

How on Earth can you give an analog source a digital bitrate?

 

[gsellis]

Because that is the rough equavalent the digital rate presents is the final video and audio. I would still capture in DV, but if I compress a full DV stream down to WMV 1mbps looks like a VHS recording on the telly. VHS also compares to VCD, which is up to 1.5mbps MPEG-1. No, it is not a straight comparison.

 

[alexneuman]

I believe you could get a software on the internet that would help you with that.