VHS to DVD converters

I'm assuming you're talking about a video capture device that captures from a VHS source and automatically converts to MPEG-2 (the video standard utilized by the DVD format). You might be better off getting a cheap miniDV cam and using iMovie and iDVD. I don't know if iMovie will allow you to capture from VHS through the miniDV cam, but I do know that most miniDV cams now allow you to "pass through" a composite video signal (from a VHS) to your computer. I don't see why iMovie wouldn't allow you to do this. I do it often with Final Cut Pro. Then you just use iDVD to build your DVD.

oh, and you don't need another hard drive unless you need the space. An hour of full-quality video (before MPEG-2 encoding) takes up almost 13 GB.

which canpus models are you looking at and i will tell you the difference.

Don't go cheap, you will get artifacts and other junk.

I offer this service locally, and call my company "Video 2 DVD." If you are interesting, PM me.

An FYI: Have a seperate partition for your video stuff (if you plan to do a lot of it). Makes it easy to wipe clean, allow stuff to run fast, etc.

Many mini-DV camcorders have this ability, but they require you to record onto an internal tape and then play it. That way, you don't need to drop $300+ for a DV-analog bridge. The downside is you need to play it once to get it onto the tape, and then once again onto the computer.

ThatGirl said:

I am hoping someone can give me a little guidance about this subject. I am using an iMac G4, on Jaguar. I have been looking at several models of VHS to DVD converters and would like to know if anyone knows the difference between them.

The cheapest I found was the DataVideo DAC-100(DAC100). When I decided to order it, the operator at the online store told me that people are not usually happy with those and end up returning them, to buy the Canopus brand.

I looked up the Canopus models. There is one just slightly more expensive that the Datavideo. Then there are three other models. The prices range from about $200 to about $450. I tried reading the details to understand the difference, but I just don't know enough about the process itself, to know how to judge the advantages of the highest priced model over the lower priced ones.

Also, do I need to buy a peripheral harddrive to store the data while it is being processed?

I would greatly appreciate any insight anyone has to share about this.

Thank you.

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I use my PowerBook 12" to make DVDs from movies on my computer and from other VHS. I know that there are many apps fro this and driver... I use a cheap my TV to go and it works fine.

I can highly recommend the ADVC55 it's compact, bus-powered and does great DV captures. The other models are all great too though.

Go for the ADVC100 It will do audio sync if you are converting hrs of footage.

ThatGirl said:

Thanks!
These are the models I have been reading about:
Canopus ADVC55 Advanced Digital Video Converter (770-10138-100)
Canopus ADVC-100 A/D Converter (77010072100)
Canopus ADVC-110 CONVERTER
Canopus ADVC-300 (77010133100)

I found that the information seemed identical for the two middle models. It's just really confusing. Thanks, again.


Thanks to everyone else for your replies, also.

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I look at the ones, you wanted. the 300 is for very high quality conversion. Most likely you will not benefit from vhs to digital conversion unless you are using S-VHS. Standard vhs tapes you probably would not see the quality difference between 300 and the 100/110. I would however not choose the 55, because you noticed that it goes not have "Locked Audio" . What that means is the device makes sure the audio and video are synced.

Different cameras sync up audio and video using the same technique, however, some of the hardware suffers from a rounding error do to how they do the calculations. what all the garbage means is the lips and their voice don't sync up. have you seen a back the scene thing where you see hear them say action and they make a snapping sound with a board. the snapping sound is what professional use to line the audio and video since they are on seperate tapes. well the "locked audio" does all that nice stuff for you since they are the same tape and prevents "fade". if the device does not have that then you will need professional video editing software with the proper tools to fix it. like the other poster said it will only affect with hours of footage.

anyways, your choice is between the 100/110 in my humble opinion. first off, the 110 specs says it works with ilife. 100 probably does too, it is just probably older. the other difference is between the firewire bandwith is double the rate. from the price difference on the canopus website the extra $20 is worth paying for the double the bandwidth to get the most millage and out of your device. also having it work out of the box with ilife would make me happy as well.

The downside is you need to play it once to get it onto the tape, and then once again onto the computer.

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That depends upon the camera. My Canon ZR70 will convert in real-time without having to write to tape.

Upon reading reviews of the Canopus ADVC-300 it seems like this product has some video noise stabilization built in that the lower models don't have - can anyone confirm this? I would assume that if you're converting old decaying video tapes that you would probably want a built-in digital cleaning filter in your converter - yes? no? I to am on the fence on one of these Canopus products - not sure if I should get the 100, 110 or the 300.

Yeah, most of the tapes I want to preserve are 10+ years old and are starting to show some degradation. That's why I was looking at the 300 - their website says:

"featuring high-quality image enhancement technology including digital noise reduction and image stabilization using Line Time Base Correction (LTBC), ADVC300 instantly cleans, stabilizes and preserves old VHS and Hi8 videos in clean DV format."

It's a couple hundred more than the 100 or 110 but it may be worth it - I need to poke around the web for some com prehensive reviews before deciding.

ThatGirl - I'll bookmark this forum and post what I find in the next few days.