VHS to DVD question

I didn't know quite which forum to post this in, but hopefully this one is acceptable.

Just picked up some video tapes and I'd like to tranfer them to DVDs. Am in need of some tips and info on how to do this. Have both a VCR and a computer with dual CD/DVD drives. The way the puter is set up is that I can either dump the contents of a CD or DVD into memory and then edit it and finally dupe it onto a virgin CD or DVD......or.....I can make a direct real time copy.

I can only assume there's some way I can input the RF or perhaps the RCA jack outputs of the VCR into the computer, but there are no connections of that type, do I need to buy some snazzy video card or some other device? Help me Mr. Wizard!

Anthony

[Eric H]

Yes, you need a video card that can capture video.
Problem is that Macrovision will usually screw them up.
My ATI All In Wonder will record but the Macrovision ruins the result. None of the hacks I've found will disable it either.

I am experimenting with copying the VHS to an 8mm Digital camera then transfering that to the computer and burning it to DVD.

A short music video I did took 2 hours to convert to a DVD format and burn using Roxio, and then it looked pixilated. Obviously a 2 hour movie would take an eternity!

there is a function in Roxio to go directly from the camera to DVD but I havent tried it yet, doubt my P3 500 is fast enough to handle it.

i'd be interested in hearing any suggestions too.

[Celt]

Dittos on the Mackrel-Vision thing. I have several VHS tapes that I have made VHS copies of without any problem. When these same tapes are presented to a DVD Recorder (Panasonic) the recorder stamps it's little feet and refuses to copy saying that the item is **copyrighted**. Now, here's the pisser...it also refused to copy a VHS tape that I made ! It also refused to copy a TV program. So, what is the point of the stand-alone recorders existance? After a few days of this nonsense, I packed it up and sent it back from whence it came. I guess I'll keep my old VHS tapes, use the VCR for time-shifting and use DVD for new movies.

[Andyman]

I forgot where I heard this, but someone told me that you could buy an old, dinosaur VCR, you know the kind with the top load, piano keys, and individual tuning circuits, to bybass Macrovision.

Apparently, Macrovision hadn't been invented yet, and there is no circuitry there to be affected by it.

Could be an Urban Legend, but who knows. Those old VCRs are only a few bucks, so there's really zero risk involved.

Anyone know anything more on this??

[Chad Hauris]

I think the Macrovision acts on the video AGC (automatic gain control) of VCR's, causing the light/dark changes in the picture when playing/recording a Macrovision-encoded video through another VCR.

The Macrovision is something in the vertical blanking interval...if you adjust the vert hold on the TV you can see it puts white rectangles into that normally black bar.

There used to be some devices to remove the Macrovision pulse
("video stabilizer") that you could insert in the video line.

[Dave A]

MacroVision is in the vertical sync and you can see the white markers going in and out randomly as you play the tape. At it's max brightness, it is well above 100 IRE of video and the copying VCR AGC tries to correct for that. When it does, the sync level (from 0 IRE to -40 IRE) of the VCR also collapses and the recording is now unstable.

The copy guard boxes also inserted a box of it's own in the sync effectively covering up the white markers

Andyman is correct after a fashion. Betamax machines always inserted new sync pulses on it's recording, effectively stripping MacroVision right off. Most VHS' just copy whatever...including sync...is coming at it. You would have to look around at the schematics of older VHS to see if any did the new sync thing.

If you still have a Betamax around, but need tape stock, you can use broadcast Betacam Oxide tapes in the blue shell. Same thing.

Well, this is the deal....I doubt the tapes that I want to copy are Macro'd as one is a dupe of a TV news clip, another is an interview (of unknown source) of Peter Honda, and the last tape is a 6 hour loop that was shown at various trade shows.

I got these at the Indian motorcyle company's factory fire sale (they went out of business and I've been spending money faster than Prez. Bush)

My plan was to burn a DVD compliation that I could then sell on eBay as a fundraiser. Am more than willing to buy whatever hardware/software (within reason) but if these are encoded then it sounds like I be skrewed.

Anthony

[Richard D]

I bought a device from an electronic distributer that is for watching prerecorded dvds and vhs tapes that have a problem with the sync and agc for some reason. It works VERY well in fact one time I forgot to unhook it when I was making a backup copy of a tape for my own use and the copy looked fine. Here is the best Part, it cost $20.00 and will run for about 6 months on a 9 volt battery if you leave it on 24/7. If anybody wants to know where I bought it please pm me and I will look up the stock number and phone # of the distributer
Richard

I checked out the local Best Buys and Frys, they have these video editor devices that allow various inputs (VCR, DVD, camcorder) which then have a USB connection to your computer.

There are versions which range from stand alone external units to more sophisticated ones which come with a new video card. Prices run from about $60 to over $200 depending on features and level of software etc.

None of the info on the boxes address any copyright protection encoding issues (I guess for legal reasons if nothing else) so I dunno if these gizmos strip out that crap and re-stabilize the signal. Will have to search CNET.com etc for reviews.

Anthony

[ha1156w]

Be careful of the devices out there. Some of them are pure junk. I tried the Dazzle brand products but the output was so course and pixelated as to be worse than the original VHS. The Adaptec products consistently generated Blue Screen of Death on 5 different systems, 3 Windows 2000 and 2 XP. Another device (Don't remember the manufacturer, but it was a Pyro! somethingorother in the model name) did beautifully on all but video tape. The slack in the sync signals caused it to drop frames on a regular basis.

Try the Canopus ADVC100. You can get it at newegg.com. The reviews on dvdrhelp.com peg it as the best one out there bar none. No drivers are needed at all. Just plug it into a Firewire (1394) port and launch your capture application. Even the software that came with the Dazzle sees it. To the computer, it is a featureless manual-control DV camcorder. Your PC or Mac doesn't know the difference.

HA1156W

Thanks ha1156w, that's just the sort of info I needed. I've heard the same complaints about the Dazzle rubbish. It doesn't appear that my computer has a firewire port although it may have USB2 (or is that "B"?) Which is nearly as fast.

Will check out the site you mentioned. Thanks again.

Anthony

[ha1156w]

Firewire vs. USB....what a debate. Think of Firewire as SCSI on a 6 or 4-conductor cord, and USB as IDE. Firewired devices all have their own smarts to talk to another firewire device. USB depends entirely on the host for brains.

Additionally, USB was intended by Intel (and designed as such) to be ONLY for keyboards and mice, not high-throughput devices like drives, streaming data from AV devices, etc. They wanted to get rid of the PS/2 ports and the lack of hot-plugging capability. It's more of a "party-line" approach to mulitple devices on the same controller all time-sliced. Devices can talk over each other, and if you have a single USB1 device on the line, it can slow down ALL devices on that line.

The command set for USB communication is limited and does not allow for large block transfers as easily as USB. Firewire has all of the SCSI commands in its set. It's a significantly better traffic manager than USB ever could be.

Go spring the $30 for a good 1394 Firewire card. It's worth it. I have an Adaptec DuoConnect that added USB 2 and Firewire to my old (USB1 only) system with one card. Cool gadget.

Great info, thanks!

Looking at the back of my puter there a socket that looks like a larger version of a phone jack (this is adjacent to the USB ports).

This number is right next to this mystery socket: 012500

Might that be for Firewire?

Anthony

[Celt]

That is the LAN socket for a Cable Modem. The Firewire looks like a tiny USB port. (At least on mine it does.)

AHA, a LAN cable, eh? As for the small firewire plug, that sounds like one end of my printer cable (the other is a USB that goes into the computer)

Anthony