VHS to DVD Hardware

Soldato
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Hi,

I have a few vhs videos that I wanna put onto my computer (wedding and some music ones). I've been doing a bit of digging around and found the Dazzle DVC90. Has anyone here used one and if so, is it any good? Is it the right tool for the job or am I better off with something else?

Cheers
 
If you aren't going to be doing many, would it be sensible to buy all that stuff? You can certainly get somebody else to do it for you pretty cheaply. Ring around some of your local PC / electronics shops in Yellow Pages.
 
Just buy a £25 capture/tv card and connect via s-video. Thats all you need, no point in spending twice as much on the dazzle, even if it had scart (which it doesnt).
 
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as mentioned any half decent TV card should do it, especially if it's only going to be used a couple of times and the PC is of a reasonable spec as it should just be a case of installing the card and finding the right software for the job.

When it comes down to authoring the DVD etc there are any number of freeware tools for manipulating the video file, then programs like Nero for the DVD authoring.

If your videocard has any sort of VIVO that might do the job in regards to hardware (check the cards manual if you're not sure), and check your software bundles for DVD authoring software as ASUS for example seem to bundle DVD Authoring software with some of their motherboards and video cards.
 
xirokx said:
wont he lose quality? from vhs to dvd? most software will convert to mpg2 wont they if I am right?

As long as the bitrate is high enough and encoder properly setup you wont lose quality. With software like virtual dub you can capture the file in whatever format you like.
 
zom247:

This will let you turn your VHS vidoes into digital video files.

You also could pick up one like this or similiar on a certain auction site for £10, but do make sure that it has the yellow video input.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. I have managed to borrow a USB WinTV from a mate which has S-Video In and Audio In/Out. My next question is, what cables etc do I need to make it all work with my vcr? It's only a bog standard vcr with a scart socket on it. Once again, any help greatly appreciated.
 
Right, I've had a dig round my "junk cupboard" and I have found all the cables to hook everything up. However, I only get a black and white picture when using the s-video option. If I switch it to the composite option the picture is colour. Is the s-video cable bad? I want to use s-video as I've heard it's the better option.
 
xirokx said:
wont he lose quality? from vhs to dvd? most software will convert to mpg2 wont they if I am right?

VHS is already pretty low quality, the transfer method and encoding won't be the limiting factor in the quality of the output.
 
zom247 said:
Right, I've had a dig round my "junk cupboard" and I have found all the cables to hook everything up. However, I only get a black and white picture when using the s-video option. If I switch it to the composite option the picture is colour. Is the s-video cable bad? I want to use s-video as I've heard it's the better option.

Only an S-VHS VCR outputs an S-Video signal. If you've got an ordinary VCR the only connections you can use to an analogue TV card are RF (via the aerial output-type connector) or composite (via red/white/yellow phonos).
 
zom247 said:
Right, I've had a dig round my "junk cupboard" and I have found all the cables to hook everything up. However, I only get a black and white picture when using the s-video option. If I switch it to the composite option the picture is colour. Is the s-video cable bad? I want to use s-video as I've heard it's the better option.


Your vhs doesnt support s-video, you'll have to use composite unfortunatley unless you buy a capture device with scart in, still it could be worse you could have to use coax.:p
 
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