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ph0ust · Mar 5, 2003, 11:42 PM

i have a slightly different question than the other vhs post... like many, i have a ton of vhs tapes. getting rid of them would be real cool, so the notion of recording them all to dvd is pretty appealing. i am getting a new 17" imac with a superdrive shortly, and i am wondering if there is anyway to plug in a vcr that can capture my video and let me burn it to dvd-r. thanks for any input.

Mark E · Mar 6, 2003, 06:30 AM

yes, you'll need a DV bridge, like the canopus advc-100, or the dazzle hollywood. they convert the signal from your vcr (or anything with audio and video outputs) to a DV stream. you can just plug them into the firewire port and they're recognised as DV cameras.

i've just bought the canopus advc-100, i've read so many reviews that say it's miles better than other bridges. you can get them on eBay for $260-270, the SRP is $300.

hope that helps!

-Mark

ph0ust · Mar 6, 2003, 12:12 PM

Originally posted by Mark E:
yes, you'll need a DV bridge, like the canopus advc-100, or the dazzle hollywood. they convert the signal from your vcr (or anything with audio and video outputs) to a DV stream. you can just plug them into the firewire port and they're recognised as DV cameras.

i've just bought the canopus advc-100, i've read so many reviews that say it's miles better than other bridges. you can get them on eBay for $260-270, the SRP is $300.

hope that helps!

-Mark

thanks!

Mark E · Mar 6, 2003, 05:20 PM

just found the perfect link!

VHS Archiving with the iMac and Canopus ADVC-100

-Mark

ph0ust · Mar 6, 2003, 05:33 PM

Originally posted by Mark E:
just found the perfect link!

VHS Archiving with the iMac and Canopus ADVC-100

-Mark

wow. that about covers it perfectly! great find. thanks.

tr · Mar 6, 2003, 10:05 PM

i've been archiving VHS tape i have to DVD, but i'm using ADS USB InstantDVD for Mac. This product gives me the fastest VHS-to-DVD solution. I have a G4 450, and mpeg-2 encoding takes way too long. this box takes video and converts the signal in real time to mpeg-2 via hardware chipset, and saves the file to your HD. you can edit the files and create a DVD (included software is similar to iDVD).

i was originally going to get an ADVC-100 (i use one at work, and it's great), but what bothered me was the enormous amount of HD space i would need to capture my stuff. 1 hour of DV is about 12GB; 1 hour of mpeg-2 is only about 2GB. i have a 160GB RAID that i store my files on, and that gives me around 80 hours of footage. will all that room, i find myself often using the InstantDVD box as a second VCR, to record stuff while i'm watching and taping something else.

the ADVC-100 is a great box, and it allows you to use iMovie and iDVD with your footage. however, if you don't like to wait for encoding (which you probably won't, since it'll be a fast machine), you don't mind not using iMovie/iDVD, and you don't have a lot of HD space to store DV, this might be a good solution. just a suggestion...

tr

vmpaul · Mar 16, 2003, 10:18 PM

Originally posted by tr:
i've been archiving VHS tape i have to DVD, but i'm using ADS USB InstantDVD for Mac. This product gives me the fastest VHS-to-DVD solution. I have a G4 450, and mpeg-2 encoding takes way too long. this box takes video and converts the signal in real time to mpeg-2 via hardware chipset, and saves the file to your HD. you can edit the files and create a DVD (included software is similar to iDVD).

Being a USB device, is there any drawback to that?

The way you describe it sold me but I'm wondering if the USB aspect would be annoying.

SirCastor · Mar 17, 2003, 02:12 AM

Originally posted by vmpaul:
Being a USB device, is there any drawback to that?

The way you describe it sold me but I'm wondering if the USB aspect would be annoying.

A USB 1.1 device isn't capable of the through put to capture fullscreen video. It looks like this device does encoding for DVD on the fly and then pushes that data out. Not functional as well for a DV bridge, but as a DVD encoder it might work well

I bought my DataVideo DAC-100 for $180 (New at MacMall). It works flawlessly. I haven't found one review on the web though, which I thought odd, but there was a big long unedited letter from a consumer who was really happy with it. It's not a pro-level converter, but it's the best priced one I've ever seen, and works very well. (I wish I could find PVR software though)

I've found it to be perfect for my video work.

tr · Mar 17, 2003, 10:04 AM

Originally posted by vmpaul:
Being a USB device, is there any drawback to that?

The way you describe it sold me but I'm wondering if the USB aspect would be annoying.

as SirCastor noted, a usb connection can't do fullscreen video, BUT the usb connection from the ADS box to the computer is only used to transfer the data. all processing is done outside the computer, so the usb connection only has to transfer the data, not input the full screen capture for processing.

i was kinda concerned about the usb thing when i first saw this product, but i was convinced that it would be fine. the highest bit rate mpeg-2 capture the box is capable of is 6 Mbps; usb 1.1 bandwidth is 12 Mbps. it's no big deal.

tr

Eug · Mar 17, 2003, 10:20 AM

A easier way is to buy a standalone DVD recorder (eg. Panasonic DMR-E30 or E50) for about $400. Or else spend a bit more for one that has a Firewire input (eg. DMR-E60).

Press play on VCR and press record on DVD recorder and come back in an hour.

Then name your files with the on-screen "keyboard", and then finalize by simply pressing a couple of buttons.

The DVD recorder automatically creates a simple menu and adds chapter stops every 5 mins or so.

The main problem is that while the discs work fine on OS X.1 and OS 9 Macs and on DVD players, they don't work in OS X.2's Apple DVD Player. They play fine in VLC in X.2 though. The VIDEO_TS folder is fine (because if you reburn it with Toast with the same VIDEO_TS folder, the disc plays fine with DVD Player). It's an issue with DVD permissions - X.2 broke support for it.

By the way, there is NEVER an issue with dropped frames, and the audio is automatically converted to PCM stereo (for 60 min discs) or Dolby Digital AC-3 2-channel, depending on your preferences. The quality is awesome up to 60 minutes per disc and great up to 90 minutes, but does start to diminish with longer record times.

These recorders won't allow recording of Macrovision-encoded tapes though. I would suspect the same is true for the add-on converters for Mac too, but I'm not 100% sure. My way around it is to buy a $20 Macrovision defeater for the rare times I need to do this.

macbarry · Mar 18, 2003, 09:10 AM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Eug:
[B]A easier way is to buy a standalone DVD recorder (eg. Panasonic DMR-E30 or E50)

The main problem is that while the discs work fine on OS X.1 and OS 9 Macs and on DVD players, they don't work in OS X.2's Apple DVD Player. They play fine in VLC in X.2 though. The VIDEO_TS folder is fine (because if you reburn it with Toast with the same VIDEO_TS folder, the disc plays fine with DVD Player). It's an issue with DVD permissions - X.2 broke support for it.

Eug,
Thanks for sharing this info about the DMR-E30 and OSX. I had talked to Apple about the inability to play DVD-Rs burned from these machines (I've heard a Sony DVD-R has this issue as well) but they simply said they were "aware of the problem". Any idea if Apple will fix the "permission" issue?

You write about "reburning the VIDEO_TS folder" from the DMR-E30 burned DVD-Rs using Toast.

I'd realy like to make backups of the DMR-E30's DVDs but the only other DVD-R burner I have is the superdrive on my new OSX only FW800 PM... Do you think if i mount the DVD-R to be copied on my iMac (OS9.2) that i'd be able to burn to the superdrive via ethernet?

Eug · Mar 18, 2003, 09:23 AM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by macbarry:
[B]

Originally posted by Eug:
A easier way is to buy a standalone DVD recorder (eg. Panasonic DMR-E30 or E50)

The main problem is that while the discs work fine on OS X.1 and OS 9 Macs and on DVD players, they don't work in OS X.2's Apple DVD Player. They play fine in VLC in X.2 though. The VIDEO_TS folder is fine (because if you reburn it with Toast with the same VIDEO_TS folder, the disc plays fine with DVD Player). It's an issue with DVD permissions - X.2 broke support for it.

Eug,
Thanks for sharing this info about the DMR-E30 and OSX. I had talked to Apple about the inability to play DVD-Rs burned from these machines (I've heard a Sony DVD-R has this issue as well) but they simply said they were "aware of the problem". Any idea if Apple will fix the "permission" issue?

You write about "reburning the VIDEO_TS folder" from the DMR-E30 burned DVD-Rs using Toast.

I'd realy like to make backups of the DMR-E30's DVDs but the only other DVD-R burner I have is the superdrive on my new OSX only FW800 PM... Do you think if i mount the DVD-R to be copied on my iMac (OS9.2) that i'd be able to burn to the superdrive via ethernet?

Burning thru ethernet would be a bad idea I think. Too much chance for a buffer underrun, although theoretically it could be done. However, what you could do is copy the VIDEO_TS folder over via ethernet (or Firewire target mode), and then burn.

The other option is accessing the root account, but it doesn't seem to solve all problems as easily as just using OS 9. Maybe you can try with the root account, but personally I don't like fiddling too much in there.

Blazer 77 · Mar 25, 2003, 09:52 AM

If I may join this discussion, there is a "zero cost" option. (1) Connect the RCA jack of your VHS recorder to the RCA jack of your digital camera. (2) Then connect your digital camera by firewire to your iMac. (3) "Play" the VHS recorder and your movie gets converted to DV straight to your iMac. You won't need to even record the movie on your digital camera.

I used a Sony TRV 27 digital cam to convert my Video 8 analog tapes.

byteseller · Mar 25, 2003, 10:18 AM

Another couple of options (free if you already have the HW:

Alternative 1: use any one of a number of DV or Digital 8 Camcorders that can convert the analog signal from your VHS to a digital on that you can import into iMovie or other editing SW. The camera is used as a "pass-thru" converter - well documented in most manuals I've seens. I've done this quite a bit using my Sony Digital8 cam and have had excellent results as long as the original tapes (VHS) are fairly good.

Alternative 2 - I've also used eyeTV a USB TV tuner and MPG1 compressor that has analog inputs. Works great as a sort of Mac TiVo and can double as a device to capture from VHS and other analog devices. Downside it burns to VCDs (CDRs) at quality that is lower than DVD but still very good.