What's needed to transfer VHS tapes to DVDs?

[Ken90630]

Hey, All,

I have a number of old VHS tapes that I'd like to transfer to DVD. I've never done this before and basically have no idea what I need or where to get started. I have a VCR to handle the playback and I can use either my ATI Radeon 9600SE or X550 video card to receive the input signal from the VCR (if that's how things would work).

So what else do I need? Some sort of "video capture" box or card? Do I need any other software other than Nero to burn the DVDs? If yes to either of those questions, can you recommend a particular brand/model?

Alternatively, I could just buy a standalone DVD recorder to sit alonside my VCR and hook the two up to each other and do the direct copying and thus not involve my computer at all. Would this be better or inferior to copying the tapes to a computer DVD burner? If it matters, I'd prefer to copy in 480p format. And yeah, I know Blu Ray & HD-DVD are on the scene now, but the recorders are way beyond my budget & figure to be for some time.

Incidentally, there shouldn't be any copy protection issues here since my VHS tapes are all things I taped myself off of TV or from other VHS tapes (concerts, sports highlights & things like that). So the tapes themselves have no copy protection on them.

Any advice or points in the right direction would be much appreciated.

Ken

 

[themisfit610]

You need something that can digitize an analog composite (or possibly S-video) signal. Some video cards have built in video input (all in wonder, vivo), but their quality is generally very poor. A discrete capture card / capture box will give better results most of the time. Recommending a particular model isn't really my area of expertise. The Win TV series is generally well supported in the open source software world because of its Brooktree 8x8 chipset, which is very capable, and has well understood interfaces. I had a PVR-150 and was getting great results.

Basically (as you would think), you connect a composite (or s-video cable) to the capture card, and the audio to either your sound card or the capture card using an RCA -> 3.5mm adapter. Then you can use any of several capture software programs like VirtualDub, VirtualVCR etc... to (generally) record to an uncompressed or lossless compressed AVI, and then use an MPEG-2 encoder to make DVD compliant MPEG-2, encode the audio to an MP2 or AC3 (dolby digital), and then use a dvd authoring program to make a DVD image. There are lots of free, well documented tools available for this workflow. Doom9.net is a great place to learn.

No copy protection is a good news, though going through a DV camera will generally get rid of this.

All that said, a standalone DVD recorder is often a MUCH simpler solution. Hook it up, push record and walk away. The computer method will generally yield better quality, considering that you can do multiple passes in the MPEG-2 encoding, but VHS is such a terrible source anyway that it doesn't make much difference Also, the computer method is very time consuming and labor intensive. It's good fun if you're a video nerd like me, and it's mandatory if you want to do a standards conversion (make a PAL dvd from an NTSC tape).

You mention copying in 480p. This is possible, but it will probably look worse (on a standard NTSC TV) than if you maintained the interlaced structure of VHS. See - interlaced content is generally inferior to progressive content (except in motion, interlacing lets you fake 60fps, which is why people still use it) - but when you deinterlace, you loose a LOT of quality. Essentially half of the video information gets thrown away. It's a LOT more complicated than this simplified statement, but suffice it to say that you want to AVOID deinterlacing whenever possible.

Unfortunately, if you ever plan to watch interlaced video (VHS, cheap DVDs shot on DV, etc) on a progressive display (LCD HDTVs, your computer monitor) it HAS to be deinterlaced at some point. In this case, deinterlacing before you make the DVD can yield better results because you have time to do a really good (slow) job. When you have to do this in real-time while watching, you have to use an inferior (faster) method. Cheaper LCD TVs have correspondingly cheap hardware deinterlacers and quality will suffer. It's a complicated issue that exists solely because the video industry couldn't get it together to move beyond a 1930s era analog compression technique, and get to true 60p content sooner. Oh well.

 

[Ken90630]

Wow, thanks misfit. :beer:

Basically (as you would think), you connect a composite (or s-video cable) to the capture card, and the audio to either your sound card or the capture card using an RCA -> 3.5mm adapter.

Yeah, I figured that'd prolly be how it'd work. I'll be using a nice JVC S-VHS deck to do the playback of the vid tapes (both VHS and S-VHS). I'll be using the S-video cable, of course. And I'll run the VCR's audio outs to the inputs on my Chaintech AV-710 sound card. So far, so good.

Then you can use any of several capture software programs like VirtualDub, VirtualVCR etc... to (generally) record to an uncompressed or lossless compressed AVI ....

I'm really glad you mentioned "uncompressed or lossless" 'cuz that's really the route I'd like to take here. I'm more interested in quality than saving disc space or time.

So ... presumably I'll be recording that AVI file to my hard drive first? And presumably I'll need a capture box or card that specifically says it can create AVI files? Reason I ask is that while I was waiting for a reply to my post, I looked at some video capture boxes here, and most only list MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and DivX as available file formats. I haven't looked at any capture cards yet. Would a card be inherently better than a box, or vice-versa???

... and then use an MPEG-2 encoder to make DVD compliant MPEG-2,

From the AVI file that I saved on the hard drive? And if so, does the signal have to go back out thru the computer, thru the MPEG-2 encoder in the capture box, then back into the computer again to burn the DVD?

No copy protection is a good news, though going through a DV camera will generally get rid of this.

Not that it will matter now, but for future reference, are you saying I could copy a copy-protected DVD (or VHS tape) simply by running the source thru a camcorder's inputs and then out to the final recorder? How would that defeat copy-protection from the source material? (Just curious.)

The computer method will generally yield better quality, considering that you can do multiple passes in the MPEG-2 encoding,

Hmmm ... you'll have to clue me in here -- what do you mean by "you can do multiple passes in the MPEG-2 encoding"?

... but VHS is such a terrible source anyway that it doesn't make much difference

Yeah, I know. :laugh: However, I'll also be copying some S-VHS tapes I've made and they actually look pretty decent on my standard 24" TV. If I go the route of a standalone recorder, will I be able to make exact copies (resolution-wise) of my S-VHS tapes, or will the inherent compression of MPEG-2 result in some loss? (Keeping in mind that S-VHS isn't quite up to DVD quality in the first place.)

Also, the computer method is very time consuming and labor intensive. It's good fun if you're a video nerd like me,

Unfortunately, free time is not something I have a lot of these days. OTOH, ultimately I want the best quality I can get (reasonably speaking). If the quality difference will be significant, I can prolly spend the time to do it via computer.

You mention copying in 480p. This is possible, but it will probably look worse (on a standard NTSC TV) than if you maintained the interlaced structure of VHS. See - interlaced content is generally inferior to progressive content (except in motion, interlacing lets you fake 60fps, which is why people still use it) - but when you deinterlace, you loose a LOT of quality. Essentially half of the video information gets thrown away. It's a LOT more complicated than this simplified statement, but suffice it to say that you want to AVOID deinterlacing whenever possible.

Hmmm ... you're exactly right. I hadn't thought that thru before posting. Thanks.

Unfortunately, if you ever plan to watch interlaced video (VHS, cheap DVDs shot on DV, etc) on a progressive display (LCD HDTVs, your computer monitor) it HAS to be deinterlaced at some point. In this case, deinterlacing before you make the DVD can yield better results because you have time to do a really good (slow) job.

Another good point. Since it's not my preference to have to keep a 'standard' interlaced TV around for the rest of my life just to watch these old tapes on, I guess it's gonna be necessary to de-interlace at some point (like you say). So what's gonna be the best way to "deinterlace before I make the DVD"? With a computer-based DVD burner and capture box/card or with a standalone DVD recorder?

Thanks a mil for the education so far. :beer:

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I'm really glad you mentioned "uncompressed or lossless" 'cuz that's really the route I'd like to take here. I'm more interested in quality than saving disc space or time.

So ... presumably I'll be recording that AVI file to my hard drive first? And presumably I'll need a capture box or card that specifically says it can create AVI files? Reason I ask is that while I was waiting for a reply to my post, I looked at some video capture boxes here, and most only list MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and DivX as available file formats. I haven't looked at any capture cards yet. Would a card be inherently better than a box, or vice-versa???

Boxes usually give more inputs and are more convenient to access that cards. Both will render the same quality under the same specs. Hardware encoding will merely speed up the process. I would just do standard uncompressed AVI (Which any good capture card or box will do) and then convert it later to h.264 MPEG-4 for archiving. Can make a DVD out of it whenever I want. If you only do DVD, you'll still need some sort of DVD authoring software (I use Nero, but something might come with the capture box). Converting it to MPEG-2 alone wont be enough. You have to run it through DVD authoring software so it creats the correct .vob files etc. I would stay away from actually using the hardware encoding that comes in the box / card. It's inferior.

From the AVI file that I saved on the hard drive? And if so, does the signal have to go back out thru the computer, thru the MPEG-2 encoder in the capture box, then back into the computer again to burn the DVD?

You would use DVD authoring software (such as Nero) to put in the video files. The program will transcode them to the proper format and burn the disc.

No copy protection is a good news, though going through a DV camera will generally get rid of this.

Not that it will matter now, but for future reference, are you saying I could copy a copy-protected DVD (or VHS tape) simply by running the source thru a camcorder's inputs and then out to the final recorder? How would that defeat copy-protection from the source material? (Just curious.)

Copy protection works checking a key in a database before processing the image. If you run a DVD through a DVD player, the image is processed because the DVD player is allowed to. The video passing to the TV, computer, etc. is unprotected at this point and can be intercepted by a capture box, giving you a copy of unprotected video. (but you could just use DVD Decrypter )

Hmmm ... you'll have to clue me in here -- what do you mean by "you can do multiple passes in the MPEG-2 encoding"?

If you go with hardware encoding in the box or card, The box or card has to change that stream of video data into an MPEG-2 stream. To do this in realtime, it can only go over the video once. If you wait to encode it later, you can have it do multiple passes in which the video is encoded once, and then went back over and encoded again, looking for any more areas that can undergo optimizations.

Yeah, I know. :laugh: However, I'll also be copying some S-VHS tapes I've made and they actually look pretty decent on my standard 24" TV. If I go the route of a standalone recorder, will I be able to make exact copies (resolution-wise) of my S-VHS tapes, or will the inherent compression of MPEG-2 result in some loss? (Keeping in mind that S-VHS isn't quite up to DVD quality in the first place.)

The software will most likely increase the resolution to to the resolution of DVD. In Nero, you dont even notice it, may be different though in other software.

Unfortunately, free time is not something I have a lot of these days. OTOH, ultimately I want the best quality I can get (reasonably speaking). If the quality difference will be significant, I can prolly spend the time to do it via computer.

You wont be busy, your computer will. An hour and a half movie takes about 7 hours to do in MPEG-2 at top notch quality from an original AVI file on my 2.8Ghz Northwood P4. To do h.264 MPEG-4 at top quality, think more 20-25 hours per movie. You can do whatever you want. Its just that youll have to leave the computer on during that time and it will leave your computer fairly bogged down.

Hmmm ... you're exactly right. I hadn't thought that thru before posting. Thanks.

In my experience with Nero, I have not seen any bad effects from deinterlacing an interlaced source.

 

[Ken90630]

Thanks a lot, coolnessrune. :thumbsup:

Based on your thorough reply, I have a few more questions/comments:

Before I get to responding to some of your points, I have another question. Earlier I mentioned thinking I'd want to make the DVDs in 480p. Misfit610 pointed out what he sees as the folly in that idea (having to deinterlace and thus losing quality). For the sake of discussion, can I assume that as long as I create my DVDs in 480i, there won't be any deinterlacing going on? (Since the source tapes and DVDs will both be interlaced.) And that as long as I watch these new DVDs on a 'standard' TV (non-digital), the DVDs should look as good as the source tapes?

Now on to your comments:

I would just do standard uncompressed AVI (Which any good capture card or box will do) and then convert it later to h.264 MPEG-4 for archiving.

I'm glad you mentioned this 'cuz it's something I'm not entirely clear on. Is h.264 MPEG-4 superior or inferior, quality-wise, to MPEG-2? Reading up on it briefly, its claim to fame is "MPEG-2-like quality at a fraction of the file size." Or something like that. File size considerations aside ('cuz I don't care about that), is its quality really as good as MPEG-2, or close to it, or better, or ??? What's your professional opinion?

I would stay away from actually using the hardware encoding that comes in the box / card. It's inferior.

So what will I be using then to do the encoding? Does the DVD-authoring software do it, or ??? (Sorry -- this is all new to me. )

The program will transcode them to the proper format and burn the disc.

Is it during this process that I'd choose 480i or 480p?

If you go with hardware encoding in the box or card, The box or card has to change that stream of video data into an MPEG-2 stream. To do this in realtime, it can only go over the video once. If you wait to encode it later, you can have it do multiple passes in which the video is encoded once, and then went back over and encoded again, looking for any more areas that can undergo optimizations.

So presumably I'd be doing the hardware encoding via the DVD authoring software (Nero or whatever) and doing it to the AVI file that I put on my hard drive? If I'm understanding this correctly, I'm seeing the signal process like this:
1. VCR out to capture box/card (which "digitizes" the analog signal)
2. Digitized signal goes out of capture box/card, as an AVI file, to hard drive
3. Via DVD authoring software, I can now convert the AVI file to a 480i or 480p file and burn it to DVD (using multiple encoding passes?)

You wont be busy, your computer will. An hour and a half movie takes about 7 hours to do in MPEG-2 at top notch quality from an original AVI file on my 2.8Ghz Northwood P4. To do h.264 MPEG-4 at top quality, think more 20-25 hours per movie. You can do whatever you want. Its just that youll have to leave the computer on during that time and it will leave your computer fairly bogged down.

Thanks for the heads-up. I didn't know it would take that long, but I can manage that. I don't use my computer every day, so I can set it to run when I'm not gonna be using it. And my rig is actually similar to yours (I'll be using an Athlon 2600-based machine at the outset), so my times should be maybe just a little slower than yours.

In my experience with Nero, I have not seen any bad effects from deinterlacing an interlaced source.

Well, okay. Since you and Misfit610 have differing opinions on this, I'll just have to try it both ways and see what I think.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to educate me on this stuff.

 

[themisfit610]

Lots to say!

So ... presumably I'll be recording that AVI file to my hard drive first? And presumably I'll need a capture box or card that specifically says it can create AVI files?

Right. You save to an AVI first. The capture programs that I mentioned (VirtualDub / VirtualVCR) work with WDM or DirectShow, which are the software interfaces to the capture device. They will create AVIs. Of course, since it's an AVI you need a codec, and a good lossless codec is huffyuv. You should be able to capture to huffyuv in real time. Note that you might get better quality using a composite cable. I know it sounds wrong, but the comb filters on your capture card might be better than the comb filters in your S-VHS deck. This is frequently the case with laserdisc from what I understand. Note also that using a time base corrector (TBC) inline between the VCR and your computer will maximize quality. These are expensive, and some high end pro SVHS decks have them built in. They help a lot!

... make DVD compliant MPEG-2,

From the AVI file that I saved on the hard drive? And if so, does the signal have to go back out thru the computer, thru the MPEG-2 encoder in the capture box, then back into the computer again to burn the DVD?

Yes you are using the AVI as a source, and running it through a good software MPEG-2 encoder like QuEnc, or HC. 2 pass variable bitrate is generally the best method. Hardware encoders are real-time and therefore their quality suffers. Avoid whenever possible!

Not that it will matter now, but for future reference, are you saying I could copy a copy-protected DVD (or VHS tape) simply by running the source thru a camcorder's inputs and then out to the final recorder? How would that defeat copy-protection from the source material? (Just curious.)

Sort of. Not sure about a DVD (as I always do this in the digital domain directly on the PC with DVD decrypter and a whole toolchain of open source programs), but you can defeat macrovision with most Sony DV cameras. They have a DV passthrough option, so that you conect the RCA output from your VCR to the DV camera, then a firewire cable from the camera to your computer. You will then get a digital (DV) signal to the computer via firewire without macrovision, so that you can actually capture the otherwise protected content. Doesn't always work!

If I go the route of a standalone recorder, will I be able to make exact copies (resolution-wise) of my S-VHS tapes, or will the inherent compression of MPEG-2 result in some loss?

Compression always means loss of information. However, this doesn't mean that compression always means loss of perceived visual quality. With filters, and good encoding you can perfectly preserve the perceived image, if not improve it.

So what's gonna be the best way to "deinterlace before I make the DVD"? With a computer-based DVD burner and capture box/card or with a standalone DVD recorder?

Given those two choices, hands down you will get better quality with a PC. No doubt about it. Most standalone DVD recorders can't deinterlace, and if they do, it will be very poor quality. There are some really REALLY good free deinterlacers that approach the quality of Snell & Willcox standalone equipment (the best deinterlacers in the world, with an equally high pricetag). MVBob is an example of a REALLY good deinterlacer of the bobber category. MVBob works via AviSynth, which is a powerful tool that allows you to perform filtering operations on any video source (like the lossless AVI that you capture). It works with scripts, so a rough script would look like this:

#Load up the source
avisource("c:\lossless digitized source.avi")

#Bob Deinterlace (turn 29.97 interlaced to 59.94 progressive)
MVBob()

#Decimate down to NTSC frame rate
SelectEven()
# or SelectOdd() if SelectEven() looks screwy.

That probably looks strange to you, but its a (very) simple AviSynth script. Doom9 is a great place to learn about AviSynth, and I would be happy to answer questions for you as they come up!

h.264 MPEG-4 superior or inferior, quality-wise, to MPEG-2? Reading up on it briefly, its claim to fame is "MPEG-2-like quality at a fraction of the file size." Or something like that. File size considerations aside ('cuz I don't care about that), is its quality really as good as MPEG-2, or close to it, or better, or ??? What's your professional opinion?

MPEG-2 and H.264 (AKA MPEG-4 AVC) are meant for very different purposes. MPEG-2 is high bitrate. It's your only real choice for making DVDs. H.264 is great for keeping data on your computer. When you backup a DVD to an AVI, MP4 or MKV file, you are generally using some kind of MPEG-4 codec, be it an ASP codec like XviD / DivX, or a newer AVC codec like x264, Apple H.264, or Nero(ateme) AVC. These MPEG-4 codecs can certainly provide equal quality to MPEG-2 at much lower bitrates. They are more complex (slower) to encode and decode, and are not playable on most standalone DVD players. I would say that if you want to make a DVD, then use MPEG-2 obviously. If you also want to store these videos on your computer, then encode some MPEG-4 files also. I have my entire DVD collection backed up to Matroska (MKV) files with x264 video and Dolby Digital (AC3) audio. They are (to me) visually lossless to the original DVDs, and are generally less than 1/4 the size of the DVD.

So, I'm sorry if I've been waxing technical here for a long time, so let's get back down to earth. Your ideal workflow from my perspective would be as follows:

1. Capture from VCR using S-Video or RCA depending on how quality looks (try both) to a lossless (huffyuv) avi, using VirtualDub or VirtualVCR.

2. Make an AviSynth script that loads the AVI and deinterlaces it.

3. Load this AviSynth script into QuEnc or HC (MPEG-2 encoders), setup a 2 pass encode with a bitrate appropriate for the length of the video (use a bitrate calculator), and encode. You will get an M2V file

4. Extract the audio from your old AVI file. It will be an uncompressed WAV, and you can pull it out of the AVI (demux) with VirtualDub.

5. Use QuEnc's simple DVD authoring program to combine the M2V and the WAV. This will produce a series of DVD files, which are VOBs, IFOs, and BUPs.

6. Burn these DVD files with Nero or some other program that can create a video DVD.

I'm sure you will have lots of questions! Reply here and drop me a PM as I will probably loose track of this thread! Lurk a lot at Doom9!

~MiSfit

 

[thecoolnessrune]

There are two ways to go about making the video conversions. The free way which requires some research and lurking on Doom 9, and the $50 way thats very easy. Your call. Depending on which you choose, I'll have to get my twin brother in on this. Hes a guru in the workings of AVISynth like Misfit here is. I work more on keeping the computer hardware and software in peak condition for his work.

Here's my take on h.264 vs. MPEG-2. MPEG4 I find to be better in every single way except encoding time, and CPU usage for playback. For that MPEG2 wins by far. Here is a simple rundown... If you wish to save the video on you comp, make it MPEG4. Its smaller, and looks nicer than MPEG2 due to chroma and macroblock handling. For DVDs there is no choice. DVD was build around MPEG2 and you cant play any other. Unless your DVD player says it can play Xvid, DivX, (several companies offer players that can handle these with hit or miss results) or h.264 (VERY few support h.264), your only choice is MPEG2.

So this is how I usually do it. When I copy a disc, I use DVD Decrypter to make a make a DVD rip (all the .vobs and .ifos included) to my Harddrive. Then in Nero, I make a MPEG4 h.264 copy for archiving. I then use Nero and select "Make DVD" from the menu. I drag in the folder containing all the DVD files and it does the rest (Shrinking from the Dual Layer to Single Layer Disc size, audio tracks, etc.). Same thing for your videos. In fact, I have made an example for you on how to do it in Nero 7... I apoligize if this looks rough, im in a rush to hit the books again

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/1.JPG
Step 1: Open Nero Startsmart

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/2.JPG
Step 2: Select "Make your own DVD-video"

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/3.JPG
Step 3: Click on "More" in the window it brings up

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/4.JPG
Step 4: Select your region (should be NTSC but it supports nearly all of them so just select the country you want the DVD to work with) Additionally, make sure Nero's SmartEncoding is enabled.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/5.JPG
Step 5: Choose quality settings. Setting Max will get you about 60 minutes of video at best. So for longer movies its best to his automatic. Nero will lower quality as little as possible. There is a big difference between DVD and S-VHS. You have ALOT of headroom to lower quality without seeing anything different from the original.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/6.JPG
Step 6: Choose progressive or interlace. If you select automatic it will transcode to whatever the original file was. Otherwise you can tell it whether you want it to interlace it if you have a progressive file, or if you want it do deinterlace it if you have an interlaced file.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/7.JPG
Step 7: Select "2-pass VBR encoding" Provides the best quality. Additionally you can select "Automatic" for the aspect ratio.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/8.JPG
Step 8: Select the audio format. I still recommend automatic.

Close the options and the more boxes and we are back to the original area to add video. Click on the Add video files options and we go to step nine.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/9.JPG
Step 9: Locate your video. For these purposes I chose my Midori no Hibi anime series. Its AVI. If you can see the video, Nero supports it. Just click on one or more files and select open.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/10.JPG
Step 10: Video is now added. You can see at the bottom how much video you've filled. At max quality it takes 1.4GB to make the video. On h.264 its 120MB. See the difference between the two?

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/11.JPG
Step 11: Make a menu.. You can experiment here and put in image backgrounds and music. But I dont have the time to get into that.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/12.JPG
Step 12: A test. See how it would all look when you burned the disc.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/13.JPG
Step 13: A final summary and a place to tell Nero where to burn the disc to. Whether to a drive or your harddrive.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/DVD%20authoring/14.JPG
Step 14: A final picture of bro's comp transcoding. Thats a 24 minute video. Shows 34 minutes to transcode so you can see the ratio.

And thats it! It spits the disc out when its done. Nero is expensive ($70 although Nero Recode *might* do all this particular stuff and its $50). For all me and bro do, its money well spent.



Additionally, Nero can capture video. This is the video passthrough system could be used for. Though honestly, I would rather just drag the file off and convert it later. But I'll show you non-the-less with my craptastic Logitech webcam.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/Video%20Capture/1.JPG
Step 1: Gone into Nero Vision and selected "Capture Video to HD"

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/Video%20Capture/2.JPG
Step 2: It searches for video sources and finds my webcam. It then does various tests to see the available resolutions before bringing up options. Here you can select what video format to capture to (MPEG1,2,4, and AVI are the choices)

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/Video%20Capture/3.JPG
Step 3: Selecting the color space format (Honestly that varies too much depending on the codecs you have installed)

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/Video%20Capture/4.JPG
Step 4: Selecting the compression. I select none.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/Video%20Capture/5.JPG
Step 5: Audio compression. Once again I select none.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/Video%20Capture/6.JPG
Step 6: Press record. This is when you'd press play on the camcorder and the comp would be recording the video in a raw AVI format.

http://www.everythinganime.org/Nero/Video%20Capture/7.JPG
Step 7: Press stop. The video saves, and when you hit next you can do other things with it.

That is also the method you would use to capture video from the video capture box using Nero. VirtualVCR and Virtual Dub are two other good options as Misfit said. Try them all and see what you like best. We will be here each step of the way.

If you need to do this super cheap, then as MisFit said, there are many programs you can use under AVISyth to get the job done. It takes a little know-how and some time to get it right, but you would have the help of me, my brother, and of course MisFit to help you.
But if you intend to do ALOT of this, I would just suck up the loss and get Nero 7. Its your choice.

I have to go study now! Later guys!!

 

[Ken90630]

Wow :Q ... I don't know what to say except THANKS a lot for all the time & effort you guys put into your replies (and "thanks" doesn't seem adequate). I owe you guys big-time. :beer:

As lame as this sounds after I posted all those questions, I'm up to my eyeballs in home improvement projects and also a car restoration right now and I'm gonna be snowed for a week or two (maybe three). So I'm not gonna have time to dig into all this until those are off my plate. But I've printed this thread out and will definitely be in touch again as soon as I dive back into all this. I know I'm gonna have at least a question or two as I go.

Re cost, I can handle buying Nero or a comparably good program. I'm actually looking to buy my first DVD burner so I can do all this, and maybe I can get one with Nero bundled. If not, I'll just buy a copy separately. I also need a capture box. I wish I had the time to hang out at Doom9 and really soak this stuff up, but I simply don't right now. So I'll take the easy path.

Thanks again for everything.

Later,

Ken

 

[gsellis]

If you run out of time, but not money, WalMart will do VHS to DVD (unedited) transfers for $19.95 last time I looked. The above solutions are more fun and give a better end product (you get to fix the original stuff), but WalMart, et al, do it when you don't have time. Doing it yourself has a better output.

Oh, I did not see the Kworld card mentioned. It went straight to MPEG-2 and was inexpensive, but I don't remember if the quality was sufficient. I have a X800XT AIW which I use on the rare transfers I do. It is as good as the source. The Canopus boxes (now Grass Valley) do better as you spend more money.