egafd.com

I want to transfer some of my old VHS tapes to digital and then to DVD.

I know you can buy devices to do this, Dazzle and Magix are two I've looked at.

Anyone here done this or have any recommendations on which device to buy?

Good plan but I don't have a DVD recorder.

That's why I wanted to do it via a PC.

It is MUCH MUCH harder to do it via a PC than it is to do it via the method above.

As you say, with a PC you need to buy a video capture card.

Also you also need a very large hard disk (video files are huge), and it is more complex.

Going from VHS player direct to a domestic DVD recorder connected via a scart lead is so simple.

If you need to buy a video capture card why not put the money towards a DVD recorder instead, then you can also record from TV direct to DVD as well, or direct from a Sky+ or Virgin to DVD as well (if you have Sky or Virgin).

You can pick up a decent DVD recorder with out hard drive on Ebay e.g. Pioneer DVR-3100 or Panasonic DMR-ES10 for less than a decent capture card.
A DMR-ES10 went today for ?25 + ?12 delivery.

Both have flexible recording time which is important to get the best balance of quality to recording time. The quality loss from a good tape of say 1h 20min recorded in SP / 2hr to fill DVD is noticeable.
Aim not to put more than 2hr on a DVD even from VHS.
At LP / 4hr quality loss is really noticeable, more so now with LCD TV's than CRT ones.

Just record to a rewriteable DVD then load in to your PC to tidy up start and end, cut adverts if from TV etc before add titles, chapters and menus then burn your DVD.

When DVD recorders were ??????? I had a Dazzle capture card that created MPEG files. It crashed if there was a glitch on the tape and results less good than DVD recorder as well as PC tied up for hours.