VHS to DVD Transfer

X-STech

X-STech

Member
A few years ago I began transferring some stuff from VHS to DVD. I got a device called a Dazzle, from a company called Pinnacle, which acts as the interface between your VCR and your computer. You play the tape, it goes through the Dazzle box, and winds up on your computer in a digital format. The burning process sometimes took a while, as there was still some compression to be done when I combined more than one program onto a single DVD. Once I got the hang of it, it was simple enough, though still required a lot of time. Anyway, I haven't had time to work on transferring in about a year, and thinking about getting back to it, I'm wondering if a DVD/VCR Combo is an easier method. I assume I would wind up with a DVD with just content from one tape, and if I wanted to combine things the way I have been I assume I'd need to extract from these DVD's and combine/compress just like I always did. One other problem I've been having is some of the tapes are older and warble a bit as they play, with the picture jumping and problems with the tracking. Someone mentioned to me way back when what would be needed to eliminate this problem, something which used a Time-Based Corrector, though I don't quite remember the details. Anyway this is all coming up again because I need to invest in a new DVD player anyway and keep seeing deals on DVD/VCR Combos. If anyone has any experience with these Combination devices I'd love to hear what you think about them. Thanks!
 
I'd say stick with the pinacle stuff (it worked fine for me) but the problem with investing in the DVD player is that you're already buying outdated tech made more expensive by the VCR. At least with the PC transfer you can edit before burning rather than having to burn, extract the images, edit, then burn again.
 
I have a large collection of VHS tapes and I bought my VCR/DVD combo player/recorder as a backup VCR; i.e., I didn't buy it with the intent of tranferring from VHS to DVD.  I knew VCRs were becoming obsolete and I didn't want to get stuck trying to find a decent 4-head Hi-Fi VHS deck to play a tape at some point in the future.  Then I saw a request for the Disneyland 25th Anniversary TV special and that was the very first time I used the combo player to make a dub.

The combo player makes transfers very simple.  The single-button press convenience of dubbing from VHS to DVD really appeals to me.  If you've downloaded any of my DVD transfers from MouseBits, you can see that the picture quality of the dub is very close to the quality of the source VHS tapes (all the tapes were recorded in SP mode).
 
Pixelated, yes yours come out just fine. I wish I had been more careful when I was recording- most of my tapes were recorded in EP mode and some were not clean tapes to begin with. As a kid, I'd grab whatever was handy and if it was a choice of using a previously recorded on tape or not getting to record something at all because there were no tapes around, I'd use the used tape. And a few times my VCR was getting old and developing problems with tracking. I was happy to at least preserve things as best I could, instead of not at all. You and I seem to have taped a lot of the same things from Vault Disney- I should gather a list of the programs that I've been unable to transfer due to poor quality and see if you have any of them. That Disneyland 25th Special was definately one of them.
 
I only have a few more VHS dubs to post and then I'm done going through my Disney-related tapes.  The other Disney tapes are either commercially availalbe or are already here on MouseBits.  The remaining transfers are "50 Happy Years", "The Mickey Mouse Anniversary Show", "The Wonderful World of Disney: 40 Years of Television Magic" and an episode from an LA community affairs TV show about DCA and Disneyland's Downtown Disney when those two areas first opened.
 
I use the VHS/DVD combo as well. I find it far easier to transfer the tapes to DVD and then use other software to rip the part I need to the PC or just rip the whole thing (I did that with the "lets go to Disneyland Paris" I uploaded here. It was a well worn tape but it came out better than I thought it would. Wish I'd bought two copies and kept one unused but DVD recorders hadn't been invented then!  Connecting the VCR player to the PC Is not on for me (in different rooms and I'm not lugging stuff around the house). I also use RW DVDs so I can add bits if required rather use a burn  once disk. It seems to work with my setup anyway but, of course, I've never had a PC that had the ability to handle video very well (have now  ;D ).
I have had the odd problem with the tapes but I doubt they could be corrected with anything as it's often damage/wear to the tape that causes the problem and that can't be fixed.
 
The easiest and best quality method for this is to buy an old Sony Digital 8 camcorder with what's called 'passthrough'. Not all do it so you need to do your homework, and of course none are sold anymore. It'll convert the incoming analog cable signal (composite or SVHS) into Firewire on the fly. You plug the VCR in to the camera, then run a firewire cable from the camera to the PC. The camera does all the conversion on the fly and the quality is the best possible, plus no real worry of dropping frames since the hard work of conversion is done in the camera and not the PC.

Many of those cameras are sought after due to that feature, though, so prices range wildly on eBay. The Sony TRV-120 is a good one, that's what I use.
 
Sounds interesting. Let's make sure I have this right.
You put the VHS into the player and connect the camera to it and then also plug the camera to the PC. Then you play the tape (recording?) onto the camera and also outputting to the PC? The camera converts the analogue signal (from the VHS player) and the PC captures the video. Have I got that right?
I think I understand (somewhat) about the pass through as many early VHS recorders didn't have it so you had to watch the TV via the player (I had one with pass through on and it meant you could watch (via the pass through aerial signal) the TV program while playing a video to a second set for my son.
 
Yeah, that's right. The setup is -

VCR > RCA or SVHS Cable > Digital 8 Cam > firewire cable > PC

Hit play on the VCR tape you want to dub, and in real time it'll show up in a capture program on the PC. You probably know what to do from there.
 
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