Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (
More info?)
> Hi,
>
> I came across my old vhs camcorder the other day and was wondering what i
> need to do to transfer my old taped recordings onto my pc in order to edit
> then output to dvd.
>
> Any help most appreciated.
Depends how much you want to spend and what kind of quality you are looking
for. You can get cards with real-time MPEG2 encoding that will record a DVD
compliant file directly to your HD. The Hauppauge PVR cards are quite
popular and relatively hassle-free, but they are not as efficient in terms
of size/quality as certain other solutions.
Like other have suggested, the Canopus range of DV cards are very popular,
but perhaps a little bit more expensive than what some people are prepared
to spend. You will need to re-encode the resulting DV files to MPEG2 using a
software encoder. It can take quite a while depending on the specs of your
PC, but it's the best way to optimize your final output.
You could also grab a cheap capture cards with no hardware encoding, such as
Hauppauge's WinTV cards. They can be found for as little as $30-50. Like the
Canopus cards, the captured files need to be re-encoded to MPEG2, and it's
worth remembering that you need a pretty fast computer if you want to
capture at full 720 x 480/576 with one of these cards.
Have you looked into whether you main videocard might can do video capture?
Many new cards have that function build in.
There are obviously a lot of different opinion on which is the best way to
go, so I would suggest you go pick up a handful of different cards, try them
out, and take the ones you didn't like back for a refund. "compatibility
issues" is usually a good excuse... and very often true, as capture cards
are notoriously incompatible with lots of different PC hardware.
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