VHS to DVD conversion

[tranman]

I'm thinking about converting my personal VHS home movies to DVD. I've got lots of questions:

Can this be done "on the fly", directly writing to the DVD? If I am just making copies, should I buy a "console" type DVD burner instead of installing it into my computer? If that's the case, can I just hook up my VCR to the DVD input?

How many hours of video will fit on a DVD? Can you recommend a DVD writer? I've browsed newegg but I would like some opinions from Mech. In a few of the reviews, they said that some of the burners don't work well with AMD systems. Can anyone comment on that? Also, in one of the reviews, it said that the newer version of the Pioneer DVD was coming out in Dec 2002. Should I wait?

Thanks...

tranman

[pam123]

I knew I'd seen this question before. Try this thread.
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...ght=vhs+to+DVD

HTH

[RJ]

Hi,

yes you can do that "on the fly". However, if you want the best quality, I'd first capture the VHS tape and then encode it and then author and burn it.
Anyway if you want to do that "on the fly", you first need a DVD+R/+RW burner. Don't get a DVD-R/-RW burner, coz DVD-R/-RW don't support that feature. Make sure you get the one with "+" in its name. + is better than - anyway. Pioneer only makes - burners so don't get a Pioneer, you won't be happy with it.
If you are not sure there are also 2 combowriters (Sony DRU500 and a NEC) which can write to both + and -.

Ok. The realtime video recording format while maintaining DVD video compatibility is called DVD+VR. You need a DVD+VR capable software. I only know one so far, that'd be neoDVD.

It depends on the bitrate how many hours of movie will fit. At max. bitrate only 1 hour will fit, with a standard bitrate of 6mbps you'll get 2 hours on it. The 2-hour setting is the recommendable, as lowering the bitrate more will decrease the quality. It should be ok to lower to 4mbps, but that should be the limit.
This will also only work if you encode audio to AC3. neoDVD Plus does it, neoDVD standard doesn't. So be sure to get the right software.

RJ