VHS to Digital?

[Binoculars]

I feel this is a question which should be so basic as to make a fool of me, but apparently it isn't.

Doesn't everybody out there have family videos that they want to burn on to DVD? I have tried searching all sorts of strings, and most seem to be related to attaching the digital camera to the DVD burner. But my tapes are all old VHS, so presumably have to be converted to digital for saving on hard drive as some sort of suitable file format then burned on to DVD.

My laptop is a basic brand new Dell with DVD burner included, which I haven't used yet. It has no special video card, nor any RCA plugs anywhere for my VCR to plug into, just USB ports.

So, so I need new hardware, software, or a combination?

Be gentle with me here please. I'm reasonably computer literate but I have no idea how to program a VCR. So a very basic introductory lesson, or even better, a URL I can go to to find out the basics, would be much appreciated.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Binoculars,

What you need is either a Firewire or USB Video Converter. Some options are:

USB

Leadtek WINFAST TV USB II





Hauppauge USB-Live



PLEXTOR ConvertX PX-AV100U





PINNACLE STUDIO MOVIEBOX USB VERSION 9





FIREWIRE

PINNACLE Studio MovieBox DV version 9





Canopus ADVC100(770-10072-100)





Take Care,

Richard

[Binoculars]

Arrrggghhh!!! Information overload!

Richard, this will be a one off task after which I'll probably never use it again, so what I really need is a recommendation for the most basic (therefore cheapest ) piece of kit that will do the job for me. No need for fancy editing capability etc, it will just be a straight copy of various parts of VHS cassettes. Any recommendations warmly welcomed, after which I can go shopping and see if it might not be just as easy to hand it to the professionals.

I assume they all come with their own software, or does the DVD burner's generic software do the job?

Thanks in advance.

Binos

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Binoculars,

The cheapest would be a PCI Card but that is not an option for you. The next Cheapest is USB 2.0:

Hauppauge USB-Live is about $46.00 in the U.S.



Take Care,

Richard

[Binoculars]

Thank you, kind sir. I shall proceed to the virtual shops!

Cheers, Binos

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Binoculars,

Always glad to help.

Happy Hunting,

Richard

[spannersatcx]

The problem will be the size of your hard drive, to capture, edit and then render and then convert to dvd format. At a rough guess for 1 hr of video you would probably need in excess of 40gbs of HDD space. It may be easier and cheaper to take it somewhere that will do it for you.

[Binoculars]

Spanners, I can't believe what the "experts" want to charge, so I'll give Richard's suggestion a go. It's all good for the learning process, and I've got a saleable piece of hardware if it all comes to grief.

[bonvol]

Binos,

I had exactly the same issue as you a couple of months ago.

I bought this gadget, Aver DVD Ez Maker. It's cheap but uses the computer to do the crunching so it helps if you have a fast computer. All my old VHS tapes are now on DVD and I'm happy with the result.

http://www.aver.com/products/dvm_AVe...aker_usb.shtml

Im sure all the other suggestions would do the job too but this was the cheapest thing I came across and its readily available in Australia. I paid around a hundred I think but I have since seen them at the markets for $75.

Cheers

[Binoculars]

Thanks, bonvol. Looks like just the shot. Off to do some searching!