VHS to DVD

[jdjoubert]

I am looking for an easy way of putting all my old VHS and Hi8 recordings onto DVD. I would not like to loose the clear picture quality on my Hi8 tape. My wedding an Honeymoon is on those :- ) . The best I heard so far is to

1. Buy a DVD VHS combo recorder. I think they go for around R3000 still.
However I don’t know what the picture quality would be like.
2. I can play back the Hi8 tapes directly from my camcorder (Sony TRV 340E
with S-Video out and i-link DV out) and use software like winDVD creator
or something to make DVD's. I have tried this but the picture is very bad
and the sound trail behind.
3. Use a TV Tuner card. Would like more info if someone has tried this.

If anyone has any ideas for me, that would be great. I have about 150 hours of VHS I would like to convert to DVD.

 

[Ap0c]

What about DVD Rot? I always see adverts stating that DVD's will 'last forever' - which is just not the case.

I've lost quite a few cd's to this....

 

[jdjoubert]

I forgot about the rot..... But still better than keeping them on VHS. just the other day my wife recorded Egoli and 7de Laan on one of our tapes thet we watched over a weekend....... not good

 

[PearlJam]

I did it before and used a tuner card and connected a vcr to the pc and captured with moviefactory, sound was in sync and picture quality was fair. It was an old tape though.

 

[NoRulez]

A TV tuner card does the best job. Connect the VCR/Camcorder to the card and record to MPEG with WinDVR. The bundled software that usually come with tuner cards are no good.
I then use Sony's Vegas 5 to edit, add titles, fx and backing music on the poor sound parts and have only had excellent results.
Results all depend on the tape quality and I must add that you'll never get 100% DV quality from VHS.
I've been converting VHS to DVD for almost 6 years as a paying hobby and have many satisfied clients.
Good luck with this very time consuming venture!

 

[jdjoubert]

Good luck with this very time consuming venture!

Hey norulez. Thanx for the post. Yes I do remember that it takes like 4 hours to do a 2 hour VHS tape. (ps: you mean one can make money from this)?


Any idea what TV card to get?