Best product for transferring VHS to DVD?

Factual Questions
1

I have a lot of old home movies on VHS that I’d really like to put on DVD. I bought a product to do this about a year ago but when I tried it the audio was not synced up with the video. And it wasn’t just off like I could scoot it over… it was delayed in the beginning, synced in the middle, and too early at the end… so it’s like they were different speeds.

Ideally I think I’d like a box that you put a VHS tape and a DVD into and push a button, but if I have to go through my computer I will. I’d like recommendations of products you’ve actually tried and had success with, rather than just what you came up with on Google. I did the Google thing last time and what I came up with was garbage :frowning:

So if you’ve done this successfully, please let me know how! Thanks!

PS if this is in the wrong forum, please move it with my apologies.

2

I’m going through this process as well.

I borrowed a VCR-DVD dubbing deck.

Pros: it’s easy to use. Cons: it only records on DVD+R, and it inserts these cheesy menus on the disc. There are two levels of menu, one with a single starting menu, and the other where it analyses the disc and puts in chapter points (good) and then adds automatically-generated music videos created from random scenes (not good, because you can’t get the chapter points without the music videos). The menus are heavily branded with the maker’s name, and there’s no way around that either.

The machine does not seem to be in production any more, and the company website is gone.

I had originally gotten an Elgato Video Capture to plug a VCR into my computer, and the VR2940 is what my friend lent me as a VCR. Pros: very easy to use and set up. Gives good-quality video. Works with OS X or Windows. Cons: only digitizes incoming video as h.264 or MPEG-4 (what iTunes and YouTube use), so if you want to make a DVD, the video file needs to be re-encoded, which takes extra time.

After using the Elgato, I get a standalone video file, which I can then set up in my own video-editing/DVD creation programs. I’m trying to make as simple a DVD as possibly, one with NO menu, but just plays. It is possible; I’ve done it.

3

If you don’t want to buy a product for what is probably a one-time operation, there are lots of companies that will do this for you. Often local ones. If you are a member of CostCo, they will do this – it costs about $20 per videotape, and takes about 3 weeks.

4

If you’ve got a DVD recorder and a VHS player, then a length of SCART string should successfully interface the two.

Top tip (whatever hardware you use): Record the DVD at the highest quality setting if you can, as old snowy tapes don’t transfer well at higher DVD compression ratios, as the DVD algorithms find the analogue noise hard to process.

5

It shouldn’t be hard to find a cheap video card with a composite-video input (the yellow plug on the red/white/yellow RCA cables). If you get one of those you can just plug in any somewhat ‘modern’ (mid 90’s +) VCR. Then you can use whatever video capture program you want, do whatever editing you want, and use whatever DVD authoring program you want.

This will give you maximum flexibility, but of course it requires more research and setup-time on your part.

6

Gigaware makes a USB video capture dongle that you can get at Radio Shack. It works, but you’ll run into problems with Macrovison protected taps. I understand there’s a filter you can buy to deal with that though.

7

That would cost me several hundred dollars, and wouldn’t allow me to do it in the future without paying more money.

8

I haven’t tried interfacing the VCR with the DVD recorder… right now the way it’s all set up wouldn’t work; I’d have to plug things in differently, but I could probably do that… what is SCART?

9

I am on my fifth VHS-DVD recorder.

I bought my first DVD recorder in February. Lasted 30 days and just completely died. Would not even power up.

I took it back to the alliterative store where I purchased it, replacing it with the same model.

30 days later, it, too, died. Same problem. Would not even power up.

Took it back. Thought, “Hmm. . . maybe I’ll try a different model this time.”

And I did. And for four months it functioned flawlessly.

Then, occasionally a disk would not record properly. I could see that it had been written to, but I’d get a “disk error” when I tried to play it back. Also, the drive was making weird noises, as though some things were making contact that shouldn’t be.

But only off an on. Some (most) disks worked, some didn’t. Then, the frequencey of corrupt disks started increasing, and when I went thru 10 consecutive disks that were all bad, I knew it was shot, too.

The previous three DVD recorders were Panasonic.

My fourth DVD recorder, a Samsung, lasted a year, and then went bad.

My fifth one, a Magnavox, has lasted much longer, but I think that is mostly because I do my recording now on DVR. Previously, I recorded 2-4 hours a day on the DVD recorder, and they just did not stand up to that kind of use for any sustained period.

10

I’ve recorded a VHS tape to a digital video camera (DV tape). I then used my iMac to import from the DV tape and create a DVD using iMovie (for encoding) and iDVD (for chapters, etc)

A bit of a process compared with a VCR/DVD recorder, but you have more control over the final DVD.

11

I’ve been very happy with my Canopus. At $160 it’s a reasonable cost for what it does.

12

Thanks for all the suggestions–keep them coming! I’d also like to know what to avoid, so if you bought something that sucked, please tell me what it was so I don’t get one! :slight_smile:

13

I got a Samsung VR330 (a DVR/VCR). What a spectacular piece of crap. It was such a disappointment I vowed not to buy a single Samsung product of any kind for five years. And I proud to say my boycott is 3 1/2 years old now and Samsung has not seen a single penny of my money in all that time.

14

I went the VHS to DVD recorder route. I found it was quite easy to import the VOB files on the DVD in Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum if I wanted to edit it.

I found that sometimes I could edit the vob files in Windows Movie Maker, but this didn’t always work.

One thing I read, but haven’t tried to do, is to hook a SVHS deck to the DVD recorder using a S-Video cable to make the copies. S-Video has a better signal than composite and some SVHS desks have good noise reduction. I’d be interested in hearing from some one who has tried it. I keep my eyes open for SVHS decks on Craigslist.

15

Same here, VCR into the DVD recorder, Womble to edit if necessary. Pretty simple. I had previously used a cheap capture card, twas craptacular.

16

I’ve been doing this through my PC with a D-Link DUB-T210 device which takes the output from the VCR and plugs into the PC via USB and the microphone jack. The software that came with it encodes it as an MPEG.

The only problem is that it is a couple of years old now, and having upgraded to Windows 7, the software no longer works, so I’m just using an old XP machine which churns away in the corner…

Grim

17

This presumably answers a question that popped into my head when I began reading this thread-- whether DVD recorders had S-Video inputs. Good to know; I have a bunch of LDs that have never come out on DVD that I’d like to transfer someday.

18

I’m thinking about getting this. Inexpensive and most reviewers seem to be satisfied.

19

The Elgato has an S-Video in as well. And a SCART adaptor.

(SCART is a European connector for audio and video; I’ve never seen it on this side of the pond.)

20

Sorry OpalCat, didn’t know you were SCARTless in the US. Thanks to Sunspace for filling in the gaps there. SCART is a 21-pin connector that carries various types of video signal, stereo audio, a digital comms line and some other stuff I don’t remember. It’s a great idea, but the connector itself is a piss-poor design.

If you’ve already got the machines then buying the right interface cabling is the cheapest way of copying VHS to DVD, and it will usually be better quality than a dedicated copier, though the latter may have more choice in editing features etc.

You’ll probably have RCA/phono input and output sockets then, the same as the ones on the back of a hi-fi. A cheap set of these leads will set you back $5, but it’s worth paying a little more as the cheap ones are nasty. Don’t pay too much though, as there are high-priced leads out there that are a con. A professional lead will have nice gold-plated connectors and nice 75 ohm impedance cable (this is generally about 1/4" diameter, whereas the cheap leads are about 1/8").
Link up the “composite video out” socket on the VHS to the “composite video in” socket on the DVD recorder and then dig out the DVD remote and find the “input” or “source” menu and toggle through the options until whatever VHS tape is playing pops up on your screen via the DVD.

The audio leads will have the same type plugs, but here the cable impedance is not so important, at least not in your application. If both machines are stereo then they’ll come as a pair (2 cables, 4 plugs).

You don’t need any other connections to the VHS player (antenna, link to TV) as you can port everything through the DVD player, which in turn is connected to the TV.