Rip VHS tapes into .mpegs

[ohwell78]

Ive got some VHS tapes i want to rip into my computer, I am looking for a usb device that does this as cheaply as possible, since once ive done it ill never need the device again.

Any suggestions on a specific product would be appreciated.

 

[Megatomic]

Good idea. I want to do the same thing.

 

[T9D]

Im in the same situation. I need to do that too with some tapes from a few years back. I dont think it's going to be all the cheap to do it though.

 

[Dman877]

VHS = analog so you have to play the entire tape to get it on the comp. Easiest way to do that is a tv tuner/capture card, or a video card with vivo.

 

[Brian48]

I simply used a $30 ATI TV Wonder VE capture card and moved all my old VHS tapes, including a 2 hr wedding video, to mpeg. Once you're done, just take the card out and be done with it. You should check around your area, you may even find this card for $9.95 after rebates. I picked up a second one some time ago at this price for a friend. It's cheap and does the job. The only thing it lacks is the ability to record stereo tracks, not a big issue with me.

 

[xtknight]

I could have sworn I've seen 4 devices to do just that reviewed in PC World, but I don't know where to find them.

 

[Peter]

Any simple TV card that also has an SVideo input (like the $29 KWorld ones on newegg), a LARGE harddisk, and some DVD mastering software of your choice, and you're good to go.

There also are even simpler versions of such cards that don't have a TV tuner, but come with DVD mastering software straight away.

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: Peter
Any simple TV card that also has an SVideo input (like the $29 KWorld ones on newegg), a LARGE harddisk, and some DVD mastering software of your choice, and you're good to go.

There also are even simpler versions of such cards that don't have a TV tuner, but come with DVD mastering software straight away.

There have been other folks here talking about the KWorld card and liked it. I would check it out. Thanks Peter for remembering the name of it.

 

[Jeff7181]

There are some cheap USB 2.0 devices that has RCA inputs. Plug the VCR into the USB thingy... plug the USB thingy into the computer... viola!

 

[ohwell78]

How bout the software? Once its actually connected whats the EASIEST way to convert the analog to a basic mpeg.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: ohwell78
How bout the software? Once its actually connected whats the EASIEST way to convert the analog to a basic mpeg.

Uhhh... that happens automatically. You can't record an analog signal on your hard drive. If I had a choice I'd prefer a raw avi format over mpeg... rather than have the "original" on your computer already be compressed. Once you have the raw avi on the computer you can do pretty much anything you want with it... convert to MPEG2 for putting on a DVD... convert to divx or xvid or wmv... even use bink and make an exe file that will play on Windows, OSX, or Linux.

 

[Nanobaud]

Originally posted by: ohwell78
How bout the software? Once its actually connected whats the EASIEST way to convert the analog to a basic mpeg.

The cheaper capture devices capture AVI. The more recent ones convert the AVI to MPEG in software, usually as an embedded function in the front end. The supplied conversion software typically does not give great results. You're typically better off (quality wise) capturing to AVI then converting the file to MPEG without the 'real-time' constraints of recording directly to MPEG. Even if you have a very capable computer, the software that comes with the card prodces lower-quality MPEG because it is designed to accomodate lower-perf. computers. (There are plenty of good direct-to-MPEG solutions out there now, but they still tend to range from $100 up.) If I am still up-to-date on this, the best free MPEG2 encoder out there is at www.tmpgenc.net (make sure you use the .net, the .com is the commercial software).

nBd

 

[laurenlex]

dvdrhelp.com

This is an excellent forum dedidated to what you want to do.