video to cd/dvd

[pip]

I want to transfer all my video collection to cd/dvd(running out of storage space).

I've been told you can do this by linking up a video recorder to your pc?

What hardware/software do you need?

Can you get a dvd writer for pc's?

If so, how much do blank dvds cost?

Has anyone out there got a dvd recorder, would they be better than the pc methord ?

Thankyou.

[jon]

Basically you need a fast PC with a large (and I do mean large) hard disk, a video input card (hauppage or All-in-One display card) a piece of software such as Pinnacle Express (c. ?35) and CD-ROM Re-writer.

You connect your VCR to the input card (and may need a separate sound card connection too), record onto a WELL defragged HD, then output via Pinnacle Express or similar to a blank CD-ROM. MUCH cheaper than DVD and quality should be similar. Email me if you want more help.

Good luck!

[Shaun]

DVD writers cost in the region of ?500, blank DVD-Rs cost around ?15-?20 depending on where bought for a 4.7gb hich although not enough for copying DVDs will be enough for copying video to DVD.

[jj]

What bytage is, say, a 90m VHS tape.......i.e., how many vids could I cram onto a CD?

[alec]

I have a couple of VCDs and they have one scene each; so it's more like how many CDs would it take to store one tape. I doubt whether much space would be saved using CDs.

[Justin Crane]

Very easy to do...

To not drop any frames, you will need a good PC, I would say at least a P3 500, with a nice helping of RAM,
128, 256 or above would be better though.

You will not need a lot of free hardisk space as mpg's are not huge files. It is roughly 10Mb a minute, so you can
expect a 60min film to take about 600Mb of disk space.
When copying to CD, do not look at the size a CD holds eg 650 or 700MB, look at the length of the CD :- 74, 80 or 90 mins.

Apart from the VCR and the PC, you will have to have a TV capture card. I use a WinTV Theatre from :-

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk

This comes with the leads required to connect the VCR to the card in the PC. Also I use WinXP and Win2000,
though I think 95/98/ME will work, there might be some stability issues.

For the software I use WinDVR 1.5.
Using the above software is simple, just like a digital VCR. The only thing to remember after installing the above software,
is when you go to choose a profile, which will be VCD PAL, I would create a excat copy of this profile and make a slight change.
The profile VCD PAL, has all the right settings apart from it will spit files at 650MB, and the 2nd file always has audio sync
problems. So in the copy, you can set it to not split anything, and then use the excellent TMPEng found at :-

http://www.tmpgenc.com/e_main.html

to split, encode, etc etc

Another good help and resource page is :-

http://www.vcdhelp.com

HTH. Justin.

[jj]

It doesn't seem worthwhile, does it? I heard about zipping the files and saving to CD, but I'm an ignoramus in these matters (as in so many....).

[magoo]

You can get recordable DVD players now. And JVC have a vcr with a built in mini-DV disc recorder thingamyjig.

[pip]

I know there are dvd recorders out on the market,
and the cheapest ive heard of is ?1000.00!!!!!!!
Does anyone know if there are any cheaper than
this one?

[jon]

Not true. Most commercial length movies (c.1hr 30m) can be got onto 2 CDs