VHS casstte to DVD, best suitable option?

[zillah]

Dear Experts

I have read a lost about VHS to DVD converter and I converted two of my Panasonic mini DV Cassette by using whom he claims that he does conversions but I didn't like the quality of digital outcome!!! may be the origin source was not good quality I need to check that

I want to try to convert those mini cassette to digital by myself to compare the results.

Can I connect my

https://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.c...ideo-camera-(2)

Camcorder Panasonic NV-GS57 to PC directly ? and transfer Analog video to my PC and then use a software to convert analog to digital ??

If the above option is not doable either

I will try to get combo VHS/DVD on ebay but I found them pricey and beside that it might work for couple of hours and then might stop working ,,,,I used to have LG combo and it stuffed up although I hadn't used too much.

Or I might buy something
Roxio Easy VHS to DVD

Any advise which option should I go ?

Thanks

[lordsmurf]

The link you gave is 404.

Roxio is a low-end company, and none of the hardware (or software) is any good. You'd be much better off with an ATI 600 USB or similar.

You don't want a combo DVD/VHS player. Those are really low-end cheaply-made devices. Even the S-VHS combo decks can range from problematic (yet fixable via mods) to paper weights.

This is older post, so did you make any decisions yet?

[zillah]

Quote:

The link you gave is 404.

You are right but I forgot what was the link about

Quote:

You don't want a combo DVD/VHS player.

I have my camcorder

Quote:

You'd be much better off with an ATI 600 USB or similar.

Can you kindly refer me to which you buy if you were me ?

Quote:

This is older post, so did you make any decisions yet?

Not that old

Regards

[lordsmurf]

A camcorder may be even worse than a cheap VCR. Those tends to be attuned only to recording, and the playback was an afterthought. I've seen cameras do everything from mere give lousy/unstable picture to actually eating tapes.

Remember, you already disliked quality once, so no reason to do that again. Cheap hardware is what causes low quality.

You really cannot go wrong with an ATI, or one of the near-clones.
I actually have a few available, PM me.

Or are we talking about just a few tapes? In that case, consider outsourcing it (and note that digitalFAQ.com has video conversion services, Contact Us).

Video is all about getting a plan of attack that works right for your needs.

[zillah]

Thanks lordsmurf sorry for late reply I was busy with other things

I have windows 7 64 bit and I have 7 Panasonic mini DV Cassettes

As you advised Yes I need to buy ATI 600 with USB

What else do I need to buy/have ? Software ,Firewire cable,,,,?

Thanks

[sanlyn]

To capture analog VHS-C to digital formats properly you are going to spend nearly 4 figures, or in US dollars about $1500 - $2000 for the proper equipment. Your camcorder might offer satisfactory results and save you some cash, but on the other hand it might play poorly. Only you can tell. If it's not satisfactory, you need a VCR that's known to perform well with VHS-C adapters --this would mean a high-end Panasonic VCR. We do not recommend JVC players or any other make for playing VHS-0C adapters (forewarned is forearmed).

The VCR should have a builtin line-level tbc. If you can find a decent VCR in good shape but it has no line tbc feature, you can get this feature at lower cost by using a recommended DVD-R pass-thru device. The recommended pass-thru units are Panasonic DMR-ES10 or DMR-ES15 DVd recorders used between the player and the capture device, not for recording. Another DVD-R might be used for pass-thru (many cannot), but we know that other models have far less capable line-level ability for cleaning the distortion effects of the ubiquitous out-of-sync scanline errors that afflict all vcr's.

Obviously you need more than a player. You need a capture device such as lordsmurf mentioned along the lines of an ATI 600 USB (similar USB devices would be the Hauppauge USB Live-2 or the Diamond VC500, which are easier to find). We don't recommend cheap spinoffs like EZ-Cap/EasyCap (aka Easy-Crap) or $15 lookalikes.

In addition to a line-level tbc of some kind you will need an external frame-level tbc for cleaning up frame timing errors and preventing dropped/i9nserted frames and audio sync problems. While your TV play6back might not reveal these errors, capture devices are different. They expect a clean, perfectly timed signal to work properly. If you can't afford or find a frame-level tbc, one of the pass-thru devices suggested earlier will also have nominal but adequate frame sync correction. Be aware that a pass-thru device cannot defeat the copy protection effects found on retail tapes, but an external tbc such ss a TBC-1000 can do so. If you don't work with copy protected tapes, a pass-thru will suffice.

You will need capture software. I'd advise that with the suggested USB devices you have to install their capture and editing software, but don't use it. It's cheap slipshod generic stuff of poor quality. We suggest using VirtualDub or AmarecTV for capture. Capture to 720x480 frame size (720x576 for PAL) and a YUY2 colorspace using huffyuv lossless compression. We strongly advise that you do not capture analog video to lossy codecs like DV, MPEG, or h.264. You'll find that your capture will require some cleanup and filtering, even if moderately, before encoding for your final output format. Otherwise, capturing to lossy codecs seriously impair cleanup work and involves compression artifacts that are ugly and difficult to filter away.

The software and codecs mentioned are all 32-bit. 64-bit versions of the software are buggy and the availability of 64-bit plugins and add-ons is very limited compared to 32-bit. There is no problem running 32-bit software in 64-bit Windows. 64-bit does not make the software run "faster".

Recommended VCRs (NTSC and PAL): http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...ing-guide.html
What Is A TBC?
Who uses a DVD recorder as a line TBC, and what do you use?
Huffyuv lossless video codec v2.1.1 (used for capture)
Lagarith lossless codec (used for post-processing, can be used for capture but at higher CPU usage)
Note that huffyuv and Lagarith can be installed at the same time.
32-bit VirtualDub v1.9.11 download recommended for capture and processing.
Tutorial, basic to advanced: Capturing with VirtualDub [Settings Guide]

Of course, with only a few tapes it might be to your advantage to consider having a service make lossless captures for you, which you can process or re-encode to any format you want. Digitalfaq offers such a service and is highly recommended by many. And, no, I don't work here, I'm just a member. But as you can see, proper capture and digitizing involve investments in hardware, software learning, and time.

[sanlyn]

Excuse all the stupid typos in the above post, folks. Was in a great hurry and hit Submit before I was really ready.
Pretty busy around here for a Sunday.

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sanlyn

Excuse all the stupid typos in the above post, folks. Was in a great hurry and hit Submit before I was really ready.
Pretty busy around here for a Sunday.

I usually correct your stupid-est ones.
Mod duties = site janitor. Clean up on aisle 3. sanlyn spilled his alphabet soup again.

[sanlyn]

The devil makes my keyboard do it. Maybe I need a new one. Keyboard, I mean.

[zillah]

Thanks sanlyn and lordsmurf

[dpalomaki]

Just to be clear, are you talking about converting:
VHS-C tapes,
VHS tapes,
Mini-DV tapes,
or some combination of the above?
The above posts appear to mix all three.

If only mini-DV tapes you should be able to do a digital (lossless) transfer of the bits and bytes directly from the tape to the computer using IEEE1394 (aka: firewire) provided your computer has an IEEE-1394 port. At that point all processing can be in the computer without the losses of digital to analog (D-to-A) conversion in the player and then A-to-D conversion in a capture device. The resulting DV format file can then be converted to other formats as appropriate for low loss restoration/processing.

More recent computers do not include a built-in IEEE1394 port, but add-on cards are available for around $30 or less, and Win 7 came with drivers (Legacy driver usually works best).

Be aware that video containing a lot of noise (as is common with home video shot in low light and/or shot with modest cost consumer camcorder such as the Panasonic-NV-GS27) does not convert well to DVD because the noise eats up a lot of the resulting compressed data stream. (It will look kind of ugly, and that may account for some of your disappointment.) Some careful processing after capture, including noise reduction, may significantly improve your resulting DVD.

[sanlyn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dpalomaki

Just to be clear, are you talking about converting:
VHS-C tapes,
VHS tapes,
Mini-DV tapes,
or some combination of the above?
The above posts appear to mix all three.

Analog is captured, Mini-DV is copied.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dpalomaki

If only mini-DV tapes you should be able to do a digital (lossless) transfer of the bits and bytes directly from the tape to the computer using IEEE1394 (aka: firewire) provided your computer has an IEEE-1394 port. At that point all processing can be in the computer without the losses of digital to analog (D-to-A) conversion in the player and then A-to-D conversion in a capture device.

Correct.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dpalomaki

Be aware that video containing a lot of noise (as is common with home video shot in low light and/or shot with modest cost consumer camcorder such as the panasonic-nv-gs27) does not convert well to DVD because the noise eats up a lot of the data stream. (It will look kind of ugly, and that may account for some of your disappointment.) Some processing after capture, including noise reduction, may significantly improve your resulting DVD.

Yep. Mini-DV could probably stand some cleanup as well, just not as much.

[zillah]

Thanks dpalomaki

Quote:

Just to be clear, are you talking about converting:
VHS-C tapes,
VHS tapes,
Mini-DV tapes,
or some combination of the above?
The above posts appear to mix all three.

My case is

Quote:

My Panasonic mini DV Cassette

Quote:

If only mini-DV tapes

Yes it is only mini DV.
In this case I need to connect my Panasonic NV-GS57 via fireware cable ( Bought Belkin from ebay) to an IEEE-1394 port (got it as card from a friend) to do transfer right ?

Regards

[dpalomaki]

Quote:

In this case I need to connect my Panasonic NV-GS57 via fireware cable...

Read more: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=53211#ixzz594 BTbEeo

Correct. You mentioned using Windows 7, which could imply an older PC, so some of these remarks address potential issues that may or may not arise for you.
- You will also need to have appropriate software to communicate with the camcorder via firewire and store the video stream to your computer. If you intend to do any editing, most NLE program can do this.
- With Win 7 you may need to revert to the"Legacy" IEEE driver because some firewire devices have issues with the newer MS driver that Win 7 installs by default. Not all firewire cards are equal; firewire cards based on the TI chip seem to work better for many people.
- The DV stream runs about 25 mbps, so you will need a sufficiently fast hard drive, a potential issue on older PCs. Usually best to store the video to a separate drive from your system (most often C drive.
DV runs about 2 GB for every 9 minutes of video. (It is generally better to use a NTFS drive than a FAT formatted drive, and a 7200 RPM drive rather than a 5400 RPM or slower drive.)
- Some older USB-connected external drives may not be fast enough.

[zillah]

Thnaks dpalomaki

Quote:

Correct. You mentioned using Windows 7, which could imply an older PC, so some of these remarks address potential issues that may or may not arise for you.

Read more: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/newr...#ixzz594Pzqfml

No it is less than year old Desktop but I like to use windows 7 not 10,,,and I am using 64 bit

Quote:

You will also need to have appropriate software to communicate with the camcorder via firewire and store the video stream to your computer

Read more: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/newr...#ixzz594QJp7RS

Any recommended software if no editing required ?

Thanks

[dpalomaki]

WinDV might work for you. But I've not needed to use it.