How-To Guide: Convert Analog to Digital

ugh. I have that exact same Pinnacle thing in the picture and Pinnacle software is horrible.

Keeps crashing, buggy as hell

One of the best ways to convert old VHS tapes is to do what i have done for years. Get a DVD recorder (home theater stand alone type) hook up the audio and video outputs directly to the inputs on the DVD recorder press play on VHS hit record on the DVD recorder. Use XP mode for the DVD conversion for best video results. If you have a recorder that does DVD ram you can do above process then with the ram disc you can make clean edits then burn ram disc to regular dvd-r. This does require 2 machines to do though but end results are worth it for special projects or archived memories.

Ionno why i would a computer enthusiast who reads this and is well versed in how to take apart and modify a computer not just use an internal capture card like from hauuppauge or another company that uses that same old composite or s video inputs for that same price it's not like i need multiple inputs and uncompressed video and audio at a professional level like something from Blackmagic.

Although not as easy quality and flexibility of use is a tad more important to me when it comes to replicating video and audio.

I do much the same as PLATTERMAN. VDR to TiVo and then over the home network to my PC, where I edit and burn to DVD.

Thats not new???!!!
Ive had one ever since windows 2000!!!

I never thought this would be such an involved process. Goes to show you learn something new everyday. I think at the very least converting pictures to digital is an excellent idea. Now you can share them with everyone anytime.

Monica
www.sebecomputercare.com

So is this article going to recommend anything... LOL. I would be really interested into getting recommendations from analoug to digital

I have an Sapphire Theatrix 550 PRO Tuner card which came with an input tuner block. Most of my old tapes were actually on S-VHS converted from camcorders. These were mostly tapes of the kids birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, etc. I simply plugged in my old JVC S-VHS recorder and (using S-Video, red, white) and set my GB-PVR software to record to my hard drive at 7500 Kbits/sec Video feed, Audo at 224 bitrate witha an audio sample rate of 48khz. That resulted in about 3.3GB per hour. But the quality was equal to the original source. Then I would use Womble DVD video editor to edit it down, add motion title screens to the menus. Each chapter has a window showing a segment equal in time to the main title screen. Worked perfectly. the only thing I was missing was an Epson printer that could print cover art for the discs.

wasn't that article out... like a week ago or something?

Should this be under the "Olds" catagory ? Or maybe archive. I was doing this 15 years ago on my Cyrix 166+ with 2MB video card.

The biggest problem with a lot of the analog to digital solutions out there, like the Pinnacle products, is that the sampling rate sucks. Sampling IS a-to-d conversion; you take an analog input and make numerous, discrete measurements (samples) of that input. The more samples you have, the more accurately you will be able to approximate the original input.

In the case of old video tapes, like Platterman suggested, the best way to copy them is using a DVD recorder. Use the high quality setting. This will give you only 2 hours of recording time, but you'll minimize the effect of copy degredation. You can then remaster the videos using a product like Adobe Premier Pro.

For photos... pretty much any modern flatbed scanner will provide more than sufficient resolution for a high quality scan (aim for a minimum of 10 megapixels). Then you can clean up the photo using Photoshop, just make sure to leave the original scanned image unchanged so you always have a pure source document to work with.

I use my archos for that plug it into base plug in a camcorder press play then record on archos after i transfer the file to my dvd coversion software on my pc and burn on dvd.

Lets see ipod/itouch or zune do that.

Sell your ancient homemade analog porn on the internet, because you're old now and since it doesn't look anything like you, no one will recognize you!

Avoid Pinnacle! I've tried two different versions over the past 5 years and both were junk.

Isn't Rachel the lady that bought the macbook pro for 2 grand when there's similarly equipped dell and hp for 1 grand {