I want to transfer home video to DVD, but am not sure of the best way
to do it...!

Source tapes are VHS and Video 8 (from Sony Video 8 cam). I have a
graphics card with DVI, but I assume I need some sort of analogue
capture card, so I can download to the PC, from which I can edit and
burn to DVD? I don't know if that's correct - it's all very
confusing, so any help would be much appreciated!

If I'm right and I need a capture card, then a USB one would be most
useful, so any recommendations, or links to good review site would be
nice too. (I've tried to find a good review site without much luck!)

--
Munch

Have a look ..............

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/VideoEdit...ly=24&Langue_I
D=7




"Munch" wrote in message
...
I want to transfer home video to DVD, but am not sure of the best way
to do it...!

Source tapes are VHS and Video 8 (from Sony Video 8 cam). I have a
graphics card with DVI, but I assume I need some sort of analogue
capture card, so I can download to the PC, from which I can edit and
burn to DVD? I don't know if that's correct - it's all very
confusing, so any help would be much appreciated!

If I'm right and I need a capture card, then a USB one would be most
useful, so any recommendations, or links to good review site would be
nice too. (I've tried to find a good review site without much luck!)

--
Munch

Munch wrote:

I want to transfer home video to DVD, but am not sure of the best way
to do it...!

Source tapes are VHS and Video 8 (from Sony Video 8 cam). I have a
graphics card with DVI, but I assume I need some sort of analogue
capture card, so I can download to the PC, from which I can edit and
burn to DVD? I don't know if that's correct - it's all very
confusing, so any help would be much appreciated!

If I'm right and I need a capture card, then a USB one would be most
useful, so any recommendations, or links to good review site would be
nice too. (I've tried to find a good review site without much luck!)


http://www.videohelp.com/capturecard...reCardRead=132

Set up any parameters you want like usb2, etc and see what people say.
After looking around a bought a canopus advc100 using firewire. No cheap
but it has done a superb job of converting over 300 videos so far.

The most common problem you can get with cheaper capture cards is the video
and audio lose synchronisation after a time, the longer the tape (i.e. a
film) the more the problem. THe Canopus does not have this problem. (you
can get cheaper models which are good)

also have a look at the forums and guides, this is not a sponsored site so
it is not as slick as say pinnacles site but you are getting unbiased
advice.

Hope this helps

Andy

"Munch" wrote in message
...
I want to transfer home video to DVD, but am not sure of the best way
to do it...!

Source tapes are VHS and Video 8 (from Sony Video 8 cam). I have a
graphics card with DVI, but I assume I need some sort of analogue
capture card, so I can download to the PC, from which I can edit and
burn to DVD? I don't know if that's correct - it's all very
confusing, so any help would be much appreciated!

If I'm right and I need a capture card, then a USB one would be most
useful, so any recommendations, or links to good review site would be
nice too. (I've tried to find a good review site without much luck!)

--
Munch

Aldi's had a TV and Capture card recently which I bought. I was so
impressed that I tried to get another but failed as I was too late. I have,
however, just bought one almost identical on eBay. Link to the shop:-

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/ALMAT-Computers

I got mine for £21 plus postage. It arrived yesterday and I will be fitting
it today so that I can capture the events inside one of my birdboxes for
this year's video/dvd. (It's the one in the green box. If you are lucky,
you may get one cheaper. They have infra-red remotes as well and double as
an extra TV which can record and time-shift live video. Great buy!

--
Dave Hall, Llangwm, Pembrokeshire.
Web:- www.daviv.com Webcam & videos of badgers and foxes on our patio
and bluetits in their nestbox.

Thanks for all the useful info everyone...

After doing a bit more research I'm beginning to think I might be
better off with a card that has a built-in hardware MPEG2 Encoder, as
I don't have the highest spec PC (1800 Athlon 512MB RAM). This one
seem to get some good reviews:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/articl...e=1600&head=39

Any opinions on it? TIA
--
Munch

On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 07:07:57 GMT, "Dave Hall"
wrote:

Aldi's had a TV and Capture card recently which I bought. I was so
impressed that I tried to get another but failed as I was too late. I have,
however, just bought one almost identical on eBay. Link to the shop:-

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/ALMAT-Computers

I got mine for £21 plus postage. It arrived yesterday and I will be fitting
it today so that I can capture the events inside one of my birdboxes for
this year's video/dvd. (It's the one in the green box. If you are lucky,
you may get one cheaper. They have infra-red remotes as well and double as
an extra TV which can record and time-shift live video. Great buy!

Thanks Dave. For that price it might be worth a go, but my PC is a
bit close to the spec needed for MPEG 2 encoding...
--
Munch

In message , Munch
writes
Thanks for all the useful info everyone...

After doing a bit more research I'm beginning to think I might be
better off with a card that has a built-in hardware MPEG2 Encoder, as
I don't have the highest spec PC (1800 Athlon 512MB RAM). This one
seem to get some good reviews:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/articl...e=1600&head=39

Any opinions on it? TIA

Alternatively you might consider the (supplementary) advantages of
getting a miniDV camcorder that has analogue pass-through. Once you're
in the realm of DV AVI the world is your oyster, so to speak.

Naturally the ultimate quality depends on the original source, but I
have grabbed video from VHS, SVHS, my Sky digibox, my Freeview box [1],
and the quality from the last three really does need seeing.

[1] My latest acquisition is a V-Stream Plus Freeview USB box
(it can't really be described as a box since its relatively
small). It comes with (as well as a tuner) a full-house
MPEG-2 video recorder (with timer/scheduled viewing
etc). It also allows relatively good still captures.
In addition it has a "not-bad" MPEG-2 editor (though
obviously not a patch on Vegas), and a VCD/SVCD/DVD
burner software module. They also do a PCI version that
includes S-video input.

Prior to going on long-haul holidays, BTW, I've transferred commercial
DVD movies to miniDV tape (two tapes per movie), and (with my spare
battery also being used) had myself in-flight entertainment of *my*
choice using my camcorder's 3.5" LCD. On holiday, I can re-use the
tapes used for the outward-bound movies.

--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info

On Sat, 5 Feb 2005 19:20:28 +0000, Tony Morgan
wrote:


Alternatively you might consider the (supplementary) advantages of
getting a miniDV camcorder that has analogue pass-through. Once you're
in the realm of DV AVI the world is your oyster, so to speak.

Thanks Tony. Are there any good review sites for camcorders that
would list whether they have the pass-through or not? It may well be
worth checking out as my camcorder is a bit of an antique! ;-)
--
Munch

Dave Hall wrote on Sat, 5 Feb 2005
Aldi's had a TV and Capture card recently which I bought. I was so
impressed that I tried to get another but failed as I was too late. I
have, however, just bought one almost identical on eBay.

Among the "Special Buys from 17 March" at http://uk.aldi.com/ is a
"High Speed DVD Creator" at 29.99. AFAICS, it's an in-line box
performing the functions of a (non-TV) capture card/transcoder. I've
not seen anything like it before. Is it just aimed at people who are
wary of installing additional PC cards?
--
Iain Archer To email, please use Reply-To address

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 00:05:00 +0000, Iain Archer
wrote:

Dave Hall wrote on Sat, 5 Feb 2005
Aldi's had a TV and Capture card recently which I bought. I was so
impressed that I tried to get another but failed as I was too late. I
have, however, just bought one almost identical on eBay.

Among the "Special Buys from 17 March" at http://uk.aldi.com/ is a
"High Speed DVD Creator" at 29.99. AFAICS, it's an in-line box
performing the functions of a (non-TV) capture card/transcoder. I've
not seen anything like it before. Is it just aimed at people who are
wary of installing additional PC cards?


it does all the work in software on your pc.
there are reviews that hint that 'bargepole' and 'touch' need to be
used in the same sentence



http://www.kworld.com.tw/en/product/...ker-USB-2.html

The device is not hardware capture, it is software capture only,
reviews have proven it is not very good even on a high end PC, cheap
at (ebuyer), you get what you pay for and in the case of this, spend
extra on a hardware capture device.

Gary MacKenzie
Video Editor