VHS to DVD

[retusn]

I want to convert my home movies to DVD. I don't know if the tapes are 2, 4, or 6 hours.

I've briefly looked at VHS to DVD burners (getting less expensive; can they handle a 4 or 6 hour tape?), having it done professionally (expensive; don't guarantee DVD produced will play on my computer or DVD player), and Dazzle/Pinnacle (do I need both; looks complicated but might be a fun challenge).

Any thoughts, ideas, advice greatly appreciated.

Bob

[Steven Edwards]

Do you have a DVD burner and a fairly new computer? If so, you can do it yourself cheaply. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

-Steven
...only one may enter here... one whose worth lies far within

[Jeremy]

A dvd recorder might be a good idea it's just like a vcr, you could copy your tapes from the vcr to a dvd, but for good quality not more than 3hr's per dvd. Here's a good web site for more info http://www.videohelp.com/

[PN]

The prices of the VHS to DVD recorders have come down in price. This may be a good time to buy a stand-alone unit such as Panasonic PV-D4744 or the TOSHIBA D-VR3 Multi-Drive DVD Recorder. I also think that this would be an easier way to convert your tapes as Jeremy points out. Trying to take a VHS tape that is in 6 or 8-hour mode and create a DVD will be very difficult because it would take so much compression, it may not be viewable. I recall reading or hearing that some people were having problems with some DVD disks that they purchased and when they switched to Maxell DVD- or DVD+ they were able to watch the video that they had converted.

I will also be purchasing a multi-drive DVD recorder in about three months; so I can convert some of my VHS tapes to DVD and I expect to pay about $300 for the unit.

PN

[Steven Edwards]

Actually, since the VCR tapes would be at best 320x240 resolution, you could easily get away with encoding the mpeg's at that resolution with an acceptable constant or variable bit-rate and fit more than three hours on one DVD. In order to play it in a DVD player, set the audio sampling rate to 48000khz.

I do this quite often with tv shows I, er... record. I usually go with a constant bit rate of 1500, and it looks fine to me.

-Steven
...only one may enter here... one whose worth lies far within

[retusn]

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts.

I have a pentium 2.4 gig processor machine with a DVD burner and a DVD reader.

[garvey]

Does Roxio allow you to copy DVD movies to your DVD burner on PC?

[PN]

The DVD that you are attempting to back up is encrypted with CSS. CSS is an encryption mechanism used to prevent copying of DVD movies. The use of DVD decryption software is illegal in the United States and some other countries.

Many movies are not CSS protected. Some commercial DVDs, public domain movies, your homemovies and content that you have recorded on your set-top DVD recorder are not CSS protected.You can use Easy DVD Copy to make a backup of DVDs that you have created and of non-CSSprotected video or movies.Roxio support (http://www.roxio.com/en/support/edvdcopy/index.jhtml)

Movie DVDs can also contain Macrovision copy protection and Region Encoding.

[Bob]

I don't know if you have sorted your problem out as yet..but have you thought of hooking a GigaXtreme 3000 up to your pc and recording your tapes onto your computer..then after recording it's just the matter of hitting the DVD button on the WinAVI Video Converter then burning it to the disc...it works great for me..


http://shop.store.yahoo.com/shoptronics/2wiauvisebrt.html

http://www.winavi.com/en/products.htm