Any decent VHS/DVD/HDD combos for dubbing?
 

Hello,

I have around 100 VHS tapes recorded by family members between 10 and 30 years ago. I don't know what VHS Video Cameras they were recorded with.

I'm from Australia so the VHS tapes are PAL and not NTFC. They range from 30 minutes to 4 hours per tape.

I have an old LG RC895 VCR / DVD combo that I dubbed a couple of the tapes to DVD. The result was reasonable in XP Mode and 'just' ok in SP mode. However if I want to stick with 1VHS -> 1 DVD then anything above two hours would have to be recorded in an even worse quality.

Using a program called XMedia Recode I converted the DVDs to mp4 with a resolution of 640 x 480 with deinterlacing and they look better.

My first questions stands. Are there any decent VHS/DVD/HDD combos at all that give a good result? If so this would be so much easier.

For those VHS short enough to record in XP mode I would put directly onto a DVD. For anything else I would dub to the hard drive in the highest possible quality and then 'preferably' copy the dubbed file in its entirety onto a portable drive. I could then decide what to do with it.

I just want to do away with having to connect some capture device to connect to my computer and then run some software to try and create a digital video file. Am I dreaming? Do I need to keep taking the red pills?

If I am dreaming then I guess I should save my money up and get one of Lord Smurfs recommended PAL VHS Players rather than use my existing one right?

Or is there something very very simple like a VHS machine I can plug directly into the USB of a Computer and software pops up a message saying 'would you like to copy this tape to your computer as a high quality mp4 file' and I click yes? :laugh:


Anyhow thanks for any input. I am doing all the tapes that are less than an hour now on my combo. I worked out which ones are by fast forwarding them and seeing at what point the counter stopped.

Cheers,

Paul

If you say so. :huh1:

Technically there are external recorders, but the files they produce are either low quality or don't play in set-top boxes without conversion ("running some software").

There is no market for such a device that outputs in high quality. Even the market for mid-priced consumer capture devices targeted at converting videos dried up. Now it's all low-end USB sticks, devices aimed at gamers trying to make a living on Twitch/YouTube, and some DTV recording devices sprinkled in.

There's nothing technically preventing what you suggest. ION made a horrible model that could only do linear mono audio.

eye of the beholder
 

Thank you sir for the reply.

In regards to the 640 x 480 improving on the original dubbing. I swear it does :laugh:

But then again my eyesight is in the lower 10% of people in Australia so I defer to your judgment.

So I guess you are saying get a better VHS, get a decent capture device and use my PC?


Cheers,

Paul

You can go PC-free and create uncompressed or "lightly-compressed" files, but these would be enormous and this option is expensive and more time-consuming than doing good captures direct to PC. Since you have to transfer each file to the PC to compress it. Mainly I'm speaking about the Blackmagic Hyperdeck Shuttle 2 here, which I own (but never use and should sell locally!).

Attach a short sample of what you have produced in XP mode so far. Then we can see how much of an upgrade may be possible. Cut the sample using DGIndex. (Save D2V + Demux mode and post only the created M2V.) Audio not required at this stage, unless you suspect your combo does a bad job with that.

In theory you could get a DVD recorder that has a HQ chipset and that supports DVD+R DL. I think those exist. That's if you have no interest in doing any "restoration" and will only ever record straight to DVD.

Actually, don't they have BD recorders in AU? I know they exist in EU and JP. That should allow higher bitrates and more mins per disc even for SD, I would think.

If you can obtain the Spider-Man (2002) VHS from eBay, thrift store, garage sale, local 2nd hand internet listings, etc., you could compare with some PAL clips posted by another user (UK as I recall) and my many NTSC screenshots.

http://m.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw...spider-man+vhs

Thanks for that. Um we do have BD recorders in Australia. Since last year we even have electric light :D

I will do what you said probably early next week.

I thought I had a better combo deck yesterday as my neighbor has a JVC DR-MV5S he brought with him from the U.S. Unfortunately it only accepts NTFS tapes. Fortunately for him though the DVD part is region free.

Have a good weekend.

Paul

NTSC.

But I think I'm still the chief typo generator around here.
:(

I ask because they don't exist in North America.

Wow! Finally something we have and you guys don't. Wonders will never cease :huh1:

Ok. I've done more research and as it seem there is no such device available that will do what I want I am going to go with one of the VHS recorders as recommended by Lord Smurf along with a Capture card etc.

Almost every family I know has some old VHS tapes they would like to convert to DVD or digital "some day" I know it is dead technology but wouldn't you think somebody could make some money if they did come up with a VHS to Portable Hard Drive device? Unless the costs of making it produce "high quality" output would be prohibitive.

Anyhow have a great day.

Cheers,

Paul

MPEG or AVI?
 

Just an update. I have managed to get a Panasonic - NV-HS1000 VCR for a reasonable price. Have already tested it and VHS tapes play brilliantly.

As a reminder I am in Australia and we have the PAL VHS tapes here. Baring that in mind and the following quote from this page: http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/vid...rd-capture.htm

If I don't plan on doing advanced editing and am going to create digital files that can by played on a computer or converted to DVD using ConvertX2DVD which is also recommended on this website then should I go with the MPEG route?

Does the ATI MMC software allow capturing to MPEG? I read somewhere that the ATI USB capture cards don't.

Actually I just read here http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/vid...e-ati-mpeg.htm that I can capture in MPEG using the MMC Software but the PAL version of the card is required. I can't find a specific PAL version anywhere.

Am I better off using Virtualdub to capture in AVI and then encode to MPEG later? It is just one extra step of course.

Cheers,

Paul

Aside from being very old (VCD!!!) that article (Introduction to Digital Video Capturing, Recording TV) only makes passing references to VHS.

Most on-the-fly MPEG-2 encoders produce worse quality than DVD recorders, and this is exacerbated by the noise inherent in VHS.

Capturing in AVI and then encoding as a separate, slow process will always be higher quality. Particularly if you filter to improve the capture before compressing to your delivery format.