VHS to DVD

[AndysRevenge]

I want to backup some old home movies from vhs to dvd. Someone posted that all I needed was a VI port on my video card. As hard as I look I can find no such port on a BFG 6800 GT OC. The spec's say it has a DVI port and a VGA adapter. Will this fit the bill, will I need a diffrent adapter, or is the GT just not going to do this for me?

 

[AndysRevenge]

Waiting to click the order button at newegg... HELP! lol

 

[Childs]

All you need is something with a video in. You don't need a new video card, you can pick up converter boxes for like $50. Adaptec makes them, and they will even do hardware MPEG2 encoding. Also, TV tuner cards will get the job done as well, and they are fairly cheap.

 

[AndysRevenge]

I am building a new pc anyway, just wondering if my BFG 6800 GT OC will do it without anything extra? If not TV tuner sounds like the way to go?

 

[Childs]

The BFG GT OC will not do it, as it does not have video in, only video out. I would get a hardware encoding mpeg2 tv tuner or conversion box. Hauppauge, Nvidia, and ATI have some that are under $100. Adaptec also has their VideoOH DVD conversion boxes for just over $100.

 

[AndysRevenge]

Tyvm for your insightfull reply. My question now is, would the tv tuner or the conversion box give me the most for my money in terms of functionality?

 

[Childs]

Something like the PVR 250 would give you more bang for your buck, because you can also watch, and record TV directly to MPEG2 compliant streams. Good thing about the coversion boxes is that you can swtich them between machines by simply plugging it into the USB2 port of the machine you want to encode on. The software is generally better on the conversion boxes, but I don't have the ATI or Nvidia cards, so their software may be on par with what Adaptec offers. All depends on what you value, and what you really intend to use the video in for. If you don't plan on using the TV tuner portion of the card, you may want to go with a conversion box that bundles decent software, that way it does what its supposed to do very well out of the box.

 

[AndysRevenge]

Well my #1 reason is to backup my home movies to dvd. I doubt i'd make much use of the TV tuner seeing as I have a pvr in my entertainment system. Sounds like conversion box is the way to go for me. Any recommendations for a good conversion box?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: AndysRevenge
Well my #1 reason is to backup my home movies to dvd. I doubt i'd make much use of the TV tuner seeing as I have a pvr in my entertainment system. Sounds like conversion box is the way to go for me. Any recommendations for a good conversion box?

Text No hardware DIVX encoding but other than that nice, small, and portable.

 

[Childs]

I can only vouch for the Adaptec VideoOh! DVD, as its the only coversion box I personally used. I bought it for my aunt to convert VHS to DVD and she does it all the time. That should say something about the ease of use and software. At $83 its fairly reasonable. Check non-newegg reviews first tho.

 

[AndysRevenge]

Thanks for the recommendation's, I will definatly keep those in mind. Now my ultra n00bish self will ask another question. Why would I want DIVX encoding?

 

[gsellis]

The easiest solution that takes the least amount of time to implement is a Settop DVD recorder with a VHS drive in it. They are finally reasonable and cheaper than a 6800.

 

[AndysRevenge]

Im getting the 6800 GT OC regardless. As far as the settops, the two I have been recommended are quite abit higher priced than these conversion boxes. I belive it will be easyer to edit the vid's with my pc? Perhaps more options as well?

 

[Childs]

Originally posted by: AndysRevenge
Thanks for the recommendation's, I will definatly keep those in mind. Now my ultra n00bish self will ask another question. Why would I want DIVX encoding?

Normally you wouldn't, unless you want your video in a small file that you can send to others via the internet, or post on a web page. These files are only playable on a computer unless you have a special kind of DVD player, so ma and pa might not know what to do with it.

 

[AndysRevenge]

:laugh: Good call on that one, planning to backup the family vids and send them to ma and pa If its going to be $20 or so for the DIVX option i'd rather have it. *heads to newegg*

 

[bpt8056]

Originally posted by: AndysRevenge
Im getting the 6800 GT OC regardless. As far as the settops, the two I have been recommended are quite abit higher priced than these conversion boxes. I belive it will be easyer to edit the vid's with my pc? Perhaps more options as well?

You should consider the Canopus ACEDVio or the ADVC100 if you want to ensure your videos are converted to pure digital format. The PVR solutions especially the PVR250 is good, but it compresses your video in MPEG-2 format. While this saves you a bit of time, you may not achieve the best image quality or at least have control of what the final output would look like.

You can find the Canopus products for a very good price over at eBay. If you have more questions, let me know.

 

[AndysRevenge]

Well as they say time is money. However seeing as how im capturing my familys memories and not some action flick, I think ill opt for the best quality availible. This brings up another question. What is the acuall difference between best quality and good quality, and will I even notice this? Will the "best" quality even matter when converting analog to digital? What about digital to digital?

 

[AndysRevenge]

As if i have not ask enough questions

What interface should I opt for?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

You will still be able to do DIVX Andy, it is just that the CPU will do the work instead of the box, no BFD since you can start the project when you go to bed. The best quality requires a lot more HDD space; My 120GB will hold less than 6hrs of best quality using ULead.

 

[AndysRevenge]

Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I should have been. Surely the analog tape I plan to record doesn't even come close to digital quality? Therefore I would not "have" to have the best quality in order to record it at the best quality possible for the conversion? Or does it not work like that? What about digital to digital, is there a point of diminishing returns for the quality? I don't see HDD space being an issue.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: AndysRevenge
Well as they say time is money. However seeing as how im capturing my familys memories and not some action flick, I think ill opt for the best quality availible. This brings up another question. What is the acuall difference between best quality and good quality, and will I even notice this? Will the "best" quality even matter when converting analog to digital? What about digital to digital?

While it is possible to capture in an uncompressed format with some products and not others -- it's unlikely you're going to capture much in uncompressed 640x480 AVI.

The bitrate on 640x480, 30FPS, 24-bit color video is:

640 * 480 * 24 / 8 * 30 = 27,648,000 bytes (26.4 MB) per *second*. That's 1,658,880,000 bytes (1582 MB) per minute, and 99,532,800,000 bytes (94,921 MB = 93 GB) per hour. You might be able to capture at those settings, but you're certainly going to have to compress it for any kind of distribution -- and if you want to burn DVD discs that normal players can play, you have to compress to <=9Mbps MPEG2 (~4GB/hour) anyway. Frankly, I don't see any difference between ~15-20Mbps MPEG2 and uncompressed video, and even the differences between ~9Mbps MPEG2 (similar to a well-mastered superbit DVD) and uncompressed video are pretty subtle for most 480i material.

What interface should I opt for?

USB2.0 and Firewire are pretty equivalent, in terms of external boxes (USB1 is too slow for capture at decent bitrates). For an internal capture card, I think PCI is pretty much your only choice right now.

Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I should have been. Surely the analog tape I plan to record doesn't even come close to digital quality? Therefore I would not "have" to have the best quality in order to record it at the best quality possible for the conversion? Or does it not work like that?

Yes, it works pretty much like that. VHS tape is a pretty crummy source most of the time; at a very high bitrate (or with an uncompressed format), most of your bandwidth is going to just be displaying the same pixels multiple times.

 

[AndysRevenge]

That was an excellent reply, thanks a ton Mat! Sounds like USB 2.0 and MPEG 2 are all that I need. Any product recommendations or review links would be appreciated.

 

[babylon5]

I bought the Panasonic DMR-E75VS VHS/DVD Combo to backup my VHS to DVD. Just push a button, the result is better than the VHS itself because this unit reduce the noise.

 

[puddlejmpr]

Just another method:
if you have a digital camcorder with firewire to computer connection and S-video or composite video and audio in (as most consumer models do), you could make the transfer from VHS to hard disk by way of your camcorder without buying any hardware. I'd definitely rec: a 7200 rpm hard disk as your target drive, and of course, you'll need some sort of video capture and codec software for conversion from .avi to MPEG (comes with the digital camcorder).
Crude, but effective ...if you already have a digital camcorder.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...0&amp;threadid=1451185



Every now and then, somebody asks this question... and every time, my answer is the same:

Get an ADS USB Instant DVD 2.0.

It does excellent hardware MPEG2 encoding, and it can tweak the image quite efficiently. And you can always upgrade the videocard, and keep the device unchanged.

Over the week-end I made an experience. I ran a Laserdisc dub through FireWire directly into my computer, and converted the resulting 25 GB .avi file to MPEG2 with Canopus ProCoder (the best encoder, IMHO) at Mastering quality and 4800 Mbps VBR, in 18 hrs.

I also ran the dub through ADS at 4.5 Mbps VBR - obtaining DVD-compliant MPEG-2 file in real-time.

Much to my surprise, the Canopus output was WORSE than the ADS. That`s right, WORSE, although the bitrate was slightly higher. The ADS did a wonderful job with details, contrast, and overall image aspect, not to mention it produced no visible encoding artifacts.

I doubt ANY VIVO video card can attain this level of quality.