VHS to MPEG 2 ?

[ZeroSleep]

I'm currently in the process of converting my Digital 8 tapes to my PC via MPEG and I want to know if the same thing can be done with VHS easilly? Do I need a special card for this? Any USB/Firewire devices that can handle this? AGP Vid cards?

I'm just looking for hardware at this point. I can handle the editing/converting part so I hope this isn't too ot.

 

[ZeroSleep]

Doh. Nevermind. I didn't realize I could transfer to my digital cam first. I'm such a dumb &#$!@

 

[ScottMac]

You could also get another device and just pump the VHS in through that. I have a Radeon AIW, and it works pretty well (but probably too much just to dump tapes).

Most of the TV tuner boards also do video in (composite and S-vid), and some of those are only US$50.00 or so.

Dumping to the camera, then the computer, will cause some generational loss (and you maybe limited to one hour, depending on the camera & tape).

FWIW

Scott

 

[ZeroSleep]

What's the best PCI based TV tuner card out there? (something with that sortof input)

 

[ScottMac]

I believe Happauge has been around the longest, and has a great rep. I know their boards have hardware MPEG encode, which should speed thing up. If you have a couple hundred bucks laying around, they also have a digital TV/HDTV-capable board (around ~350.00 I think).

It includes the usual digital VCR capabilities, and s-vid & composite in, not sure if it has output, but I believe it does.

The nice thing with the digital TV, is there's no video noise on the signal...no ghosting, no static, no fuzz...just clean video. So if you have a favorite broadcast show you want to record, and that station is broadcasting in digital, you can record something really beautiful....then dump it to VCD/SVCD. NOTE: it's gotta be broadcast DIGITAL/HDTV TV, or HDTV CABLE (digital cable is NOT the same thing). It also tunes the regular stuff (complete with ghosts, static, & other atmospherics).

Check it out on Happauge's site....

Good Luck

Scott