I have a Computer Question.... How can I Transfer my VCR tapes to DVD?

self ^ | 1-9-2002 | self

[Delta-Boudreaux]

I have a Toshiba 800mhz, dvd-rom, 256k, 15gb notebook running Win Me.

* I am looking to purchase a IEEE 1394 FireWire adapter card and an external CD-RW.

I want to transfer video tape to DVD without any dedregation. Is this even possible?

I have seen a number of video capture products. All I have seen are USB. Is USB going to be fast enough to download full motion video and audio? (I have contacted some mfgs, without reply as yet.)

Are there any Video Capture products that are external based on the FireWire port (IEEE 1394)?

What type of special hardware and software will I need?

[Delta-Boudreaux]

Any help will be especially appreciated.

Delta

[Mad Dawgg]

Bump

(I am interested to know this also)

[PackerBoy]

Can't do it yet -- unless you have a writeable DVD drive, and I think they are still verrrrrry expensive.

[George from New England]

DVD burners are only $500. Pioneer DVR-A03 use pricewatch.com

[ArrogantBustard]

look at products from Dazzle multimedia and the video capture devices from Ati. Getting an affordable DVD writer will be a problem for some time, but you can write Video CDs on your CDRW. Nero does a very nice job of that. It will also do the DVDs when you finally get your DVD writer.

AB

[js1138]

Where are you going to get a VCR with firewire output??

Best bet: get a Creative Audigy Platinum sound/video system ($200 retail). It has S-Video inputs and presumably has video capture software. There are other S-Video cards that might be cheaper.

There are programs that will create video disks on standard CD-ROMS. A DVD burner will set you back $800 or more. You will need video editing software Make sure your hardware comes with it or be prepared to shell out a bundle for Adobe Premier or equivalent.

[toupsie]

You should check out the new iMac with the built in DVD burner and awesome iDVD software. As a bonus, you can edit your Home Movies with iMovie which comes with the iMac. There is a device that will allow you hook up an old VHS VCR to the Mac. You can read about here.

[George from New England]

I've bought my second unit from meritline.com for $519 a month ago. Watch out for the cheap DVD-Rs. Some are under $5 and usually have many bad sectors.

[krb]

* I am looking to purchase a IEEE 1394 FireWire adapter card and an external CD-RW

Well, if you want DVDs, you're gonna need a DVD-R, not a CD-RW drive. I'd check out the Panasonic DVD-R, or look at the new iMac that just got announced this week. It comes in 3 models, the highest one capable of DVD authoring.

Or, if you have just a few VCR tapes you wanted Xfered to DVD you could hire a service to do it for you. I've seen it for as low as $30 per tape for simple transfer, with hourly costs added for extras.

Or, if you want to transfer your VCR tapes to MPEG-1 files to CD-RW discs, or even to VCD (which will play on many DVD players) which is reasonable since MPEG-1 matches closely the resolution you get from VHS anyways, you could get a USB MPEG capture device such as the Dazzle DM-4100 DVC (the one I have which works great).

[WhiskeyPapa]

bump

[TomServo]

Take a look at StudioDV. Another really cool site is VCDHelp.com.

[stainlessbanner]

Ping! Have at it.....

[Leroy S. Mort]

Meritline.com has the Pioneer DVR-AO3 DVD recorder for $436 INCLUDING software.

[dead]

I've been thinking of doing the same thing.

After reading this thread, I've come to the conclusion that the easiest solution is just to wait three years, when it will be cheap and easy.

[George from New England]

It's $436 today.

[Delta-Boudreaux]

but you can write Video CDs on your CDRW

I have seen the term "Video CD's" before.

What is a Video CD? Does it have the same screen size? Does it have the same quality as VHS?

[Night Hides Not]

Sounds to me like the cheapest way to do this is to buy your favorite movies on DVD as they come out. As for personal videos, I'd be willing to bet that there will be a solution to that in a few years.

I bought my wife a Digital 8 camera for Christmas - does that mean the tapes can be 'written' onto a CD/DVD. I know, I should read the damn instructions that come with the thing, but I rarely do any taping myself.

Given the pace of technology, I'm sure that this situation (video transfer) will have a solution within months, because there's an obvious market for it.

[WhiskeyPapa]

Or, if you have just a few VCR tapes you wanted Xfered to DVD you could hire a service to do it for you.

I called a service here in Atlanta who wanted $4,000 for a 12 minute mpeg.

He had a straight face the whole time.

I guess that is different from what you guys are talking about, but jiminy cricket.

Walt

[John Jorsett]

You might want to check out this site for more info about this. There's lots of info there.

What sort of tapes are these (VHS, VHS-C, digital)? If they're analog, like VHS or VHS-C, the 1394 isn't going to be usable. 1394 is employed by digital camcorders to transfer the digital video to the computer. USB 1 (which yours almost certainly is, the faster USB 2 has just started coming out) is not really fast enough to transfer full-motion video. So if you're talking about analog tapes, you'd best use a video capture card like the ATI All-In_Wonder Radeon, and you'll need a fast computer to keep up with the incoming frames. A capture card will do about as good a job as possible, but there's no such thing as lossless capture. You'll get a bit of degradation no matter what, but probably not enough to notice. And you'll need a DVD burner as well. I think these are coming down in price, but they're still in the $600 range.

There is also the video format known as VCD (see the link I posted at the beginning for a site to get more info on this), which has been said to be of VHS quality, and is burned to a standard CD instead of a VCD. Most newer CD players can handle them.

Depending on your budget and willingness to endure hassles, maybe you'll want to consider a service. LifeClips will transfer many formats of tape to a DVD-R for $29.95 (for a tape of up to 2 hours. Plus shipping)