I've been tasked with moving some old home movies from VHS to DVD for some relatives. I've done stuff like this before, but last time I did it I had access to my schools semi-pro-level video lab, so I've never done it at home. What do I need for:
Hardware? I've got a VCR, DVD burner, and PC, but I need some sort of capture hardware. I don't even know what terms to search for. "Frame Grabber" gives me all sorts of random stuff, "Capture Card" gives me TV tuners (which would do what I want but I don't need/want to pay for a TV tuner)... can anyone recommend a brand? I don't really care USB vs. PCI. Something that I could easily eBay or NewEgg would be preferable.
Software? I've got an old copy of Premiere 6, which should do the capture just fine. Is there any good free program for the DVD authoring part (encoding to MPG, making the stupid folders, etc) for me? I don't care about menus, and chapter marks would be nice but not mandatory. Free is good, but a nominal fee may be acceptable.
Also, 90% of the tapes are home-recorded, but there's some commercial stuff too (really random crap that you can't get on DVD). Are there any broadcast-flag type stuff I need to worry about or will it just work (yay analog hole)
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For DVD creation I've used something from Sonic (DVDIt I think, not free) that works alright. Before that I was trying to use a bunch of open source tools (DVDAuthor among others) and while they are extremely flexible, at the time (2-3 years ago) they weren't very user friendly. This certainly may have changed since then.
You shouldn't have to worry about any flags as you'll just be recording the same stream that the VCR would otherwise be sending to the TV.
I haven't found a place that will do it for less than $20 a tape. Around a dozen tapes that starts to sound like a lot. As far as time goes, I'm really not too concerned since all it will take for me is a few clicks before bed and a few clicks when I wake up (times number of tapes)
From what it looks like the old Hauppage WinTVs can be had for under 20 bucks. I don't need hardware MPEG encoding, so that looks pretty good. Sweet.
You may want to reconsider. I have both a software encoded WinTV Go(?) as well as the hardware encoded WinTV 150, and I would highly recommend the latter. You can get one for $60 or less depending on how much you look around.
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!
I'll download that episode and see what they say
$199 and you have 14 days to return it.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8742462&type=product&id=1202648740010
I'm not really sure how this would work, unless you're converting mini-DV tapes and have a DV camcorder. I can capture from my camcorder over firewire to my computer, sure, but there's no input to have the VCR run through the camcorder.
Granted, my mini-DV is an older model so maybe this functionality is common on newer camcorders.
If you don't like VirtualDub (which is kind of complex for new users, you can use many others such as VirtualVCR. I personally prefer ChrisTV Professional, but it costs money.
My Setup is :
VCR connected to TV Tuner Composite and Audio In using standard gold cables from Radio Shack.
If you want more options, you can visit this place:
http://www.videohelp.com/
Anyway, virtualdub's not that bad. What did you use to convert to MPG and to burn the DVD itself?
And of course, Nero Burning Rom to finally burn to a DVD+R disc.
The applications mentioned above are commercial, with the exception of TMPGEnc which is free. If you cannot spend any money on this project, I am providing links where you can download and test several applications and choose the one you like:
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/video-encoders-mpg-dvd
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/authoring-dvd
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/burn