I would like to copy some stuff I taped off of television using my VHS videotape recorder and convert it to DVD. Does anyone know how to do that? I have Nero software. What hardware and software would I need to accomplish this task?

You would need a video capture device, such as a Pinnacle Studio 9 AVDV (about $95.00 US) or similar. Depends on what quality you’re looking for and at what price you’re willing to pay. I personally use a Canopus ADVC-100 that I paid $160 for, plus $40bucks for a good firewire card. It lets me record the video tapes onto the computer in DV format (Pretty High Quality but I then have to convert to mpeg2 for DVD).
There are also plenty of Capture cards that will capture in mpeg2 format so that you can then burn to DVD straight from there.

Fact is, there are so many options, that it's pretty hard to just say, get this and it'll do everything you need.

Just my 2Cents
SypherXx

What are your pc specs ? ie mpeg 1/2 capture cards use little pc power as they are hardware encoders. If you opt for software encoding you need alot more pc power. As stated above their are alot of options. I use the ATI AIW 9000 pro which is a combination/hybred software/hardware encoder. Also you have to look at the possibility of getting a TBC for copy-rite protection. That shouldn't be much of an issue seeing that you copied off of tv. Some pc specs would help.

I wondered about how to do this for some time, and settled on a simple, yet pretty high quality option, the WinTV PVR-250 (PVR-150 will also do the same job) and costs around $100. It has hardware MPEG-2 encoding, and with my 3.2GHz system it has no problem keeping up (don't know if it would on lower spec systems though). Defiantly does the job simply, and with minimum fuss, without the need for a new graphics card.

Ben

ps. if you VHS only has a Scart out you will need yo buy a Scart to RGB converter cable (about $10).

Good suggestion Ben, I've used the WinTV PVR-150 for a while now also. Although in my case, I need the ADVC-100 so I can import the videos in DV format for editing. I do allot of editing of weddings/birthdays and I still haven’t managed to talk most of my family into replacing their camcorders with either Digital or Hi8. Thankfully my brother (who happens to have a band) got himself a nice Digital Sony camcorder for their music videos. Saves allot of time and effort, plus quality is much better.
But anyhow. I will put in a good word for the PVR-150. Nice price on them also. Average price of around $60 US.

SypherXX

Thanks for all the advice everybody! I will definitely stop by Best Buy and Circuit City today to see what these things are like. I'm rather computer illiterate compared to most people on this forum. I have a HP pavilion 533w computer with an Intel Celeron processor, and I think it doesn't have enough memory or storage space to use for this kind of stuff, so I need some kind of external device that will do most of the work of converting VHS to digital format. For example, when I try to copy DVDs, I can only copy them if I use the Nero Recode 2 "Burn-At-Once" option, where the DVD is copied from the E: Drive (hp cd-writer) in my computer directly to an external Memorex DVD burner. That method doesn't store any of the DVD files on my hard drive. If I try to do it any other way, I end up getting recording errors on the blank disc and then a message pops up telling that the burning failed.

While doing some internet research, I discovered some DVD recorders, like the ones featured at http://www.cnet.com/4520-7384_1-6244097-2.html?tag=tab , which record VHS directly to DVDs without using a computer at all, but I've heard that DVDs made with this method will not play in computer DVD drives, and cannot be copied by computer software such as Nero Recode 2. Is this true of all of them, or are there some DVD recorders which produce DVDs that can be copied by computers?

I use a Liteon stand-alone recorder and routinely copy videos to DVD without any problem.

I have no problem playing any Liteon recorded disk on my PC (Windows Media Player works ok, but I recommend Cyberlink PowerDVD or similar, as you have much greater control).

I do have to use an older version of Recode as the newer versions do seem to cause an issue with the Liteon, but other (freeware) programs will easily copy DVDs to a PC hard disk and you can then use Recode on the hard disk version if neccesary

I would visit the Liteon stand-alone recorder and/or Panasonic forums for more information.

BTW: most stand-alone dvd recorders will not copy macrovision protected video tapes (commercial tapes e.g. films usually but if you have recorded the video youself - no problem).

Thanks for the info. I will visit those forums, too, and I will check out the LiteOn dvd recorders. I'm mainly trying to record some defunct television shows from VHS to DVD. They were sort of one hit wonders that didn't stay on t.v. very long, like "Wonder Falls", "True Calling", and stuff like that.

And we Liteon owners don't have that problem

So then, Liteon dvd recorders can get past the macrovision protection of VHS tapes?

Yes - do search on macrovision in Liteon forums where all will be revealed. The guys on the Liteon are really helpful (to nice people).

Mellon:
>>>>While doing some internet research, I discovered some DVD recorders, like the ones featured at http://www.cnet.com/4520-7384_1-6244097-2.html?tag=tab , which record VHS directly to DVDs without using a computer at all, but I've heard that DVDs made with this method will not play in computer DVD drives, and cannot be copied by computer software such as Nero Recode 2. Is this true of all of them, or are there some DVD recorders which produce DVDs that can be copied by computers?<<<<

You have been misled, on your first concern. Actually, you have been misled on BOTh concerns.

Those who have problems using a DVD Recorder and then finding they cannot play the result on their home players are most probably suffering from one of the following mishaps:

-They are using bad (cheap, low quality) media, and they would probably see the same result from a PC burn job;
-They failed to find out if their standalone player could handle DVD-R, and then they purchased a DVD-R standalone recorder; Or, similarly, they failed to find out if their standalone player could handle DVD+R, and then they purchased a DVD+R standalone recorder; This is somewhat common, since a lot of DVD players out there have limitations on which types of discs they will play.
-They are using DVD-R or DVD+R, and completely miss the step to "finalize" the disc, which is often hidden in a completely separate menu; many forget that this is necessary with DVD-R discs and with DVD+R discs. The computer software we use typically does this automatically for us, without asking us. Standalone units do not, since they often assume you might want to add more later, and that you might even just want to watch it on the same unit that burned it. So, no finalizing is suggested...

You can find out in advance which types of discs your standalone discs will handle okay. Then, you can make certain you buy a unit that will burn in that format, and also that you buy decent quality media.

I have SIX standaole DVD players, so this issue was vitally important to me. I had to find out what they all could play, before I bought my standalone DVD recorder. Because I work in a library, I have bought THREE different DVD Recorders, now. A Lite-On, a Panasonic, and a Sony. And, I can tell you that all three produce discs that play fine in all six of my home DVD Reecorders, with no problems. I did have to be careful, since I have two DVD players that do not like DVD+R discs at all. All three of these recorders have even produced discs that tested fine in the DVD player in my wife's mini-van.

Regarding your second concern -- not being able to copy a disc burned on a standalone using your PC -- , I have had no problems ripping the results of the Lite-On DVD recorder to my PC using both DVDShrink and also using DVDDecrypter. And, I have had no problems ripping the results of the Panasonic DVD recorder to my PC using both DVDShrink and also using DVDDecrypter. I have had no problems burning these results back onto a new blank DVD after some serious editing, re-authoring, creation of menus, etc.

I HAVE had problems doing the same with the stuff I burned on the Sony standalone DVD recorder. Not certain why, and I have not yet had a chance to really tackle this problem (since this should be doable, as long as they are "compliant," which they appear to be. In other words, I cannot honestly say i have done this with the Sony, but I have only tried once, and I suspect i will figure out what _I_ did wrong, eventually.

-Bruce

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