Re: Questions That Should Have Been Asked Before Buying Equipment

Thanks for the response and advice Graham. I am going to do some information
gathering and pricing on both appropriate camcorders and on the better
quality analog to digital converters. Thanks again for responding. I am still
open to other advice and opinions from anyone that is willing. It will
definitely be appreciated.

"Graham Hughes" wrote:

> I'd go with either a good digital camcorder with pass through facility, or a
> good external analogue to digital convertor.
> Pro's for the camcorder, has other uses, like a camcorder!, generally easy
> to manage and connect.
> Cons, cost, need to ensure it has av-in and supports pass through, otherwise
> you'll be recording to mini-dv tape and then into pc, long winded and wears
> the cam. Doesn't always guarantee video/audio syncronicty.
> Good A>D convertor, such as canopus or miglia. Pro's, have chips in which
> virtually gurantee syncronicity, cheaper than cam, gives excellent quality,
> easy to use and set up. If you buy higher end they will also do D>A
> Con's, no other uses.
> As you have quite a bit to do and it is very precious, I'd go for one of the
> canopus convertors.
>
> Graham
>
> --
> Graham Hughes
> MVP Digital Media
> www.myvideoproblems.co.uk
> www.dvds2treasure.com
> www.simplydv.com
>
>
> "Big Mac" <BigMac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1218F79C-198B-431A-80D7-8EA18D6BE121@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >I just bought a Gateway 825GM. Specs are P4 550 (3.4 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 1MB
> >L2
> > cache), 250 GB SATA HDD (7200 RPM, 8MB cache), 1 GB DDR (dual channel
> > memory), ATI Radeon X300 SE (128 MB PCI-Express Card), Avermedia M-150 TV
> > Tuner Card, 8.5 GB Double Layer 16X DVD+/-RW and 16X DVD Drives, 8-in-1
> > Digital Media Reader, 2 Firewire and 7 USB ports, Win XP MCE 2005.
> > I bought this unit for the purpose of capturing, editing, and converting
> > VHS
> > video to DVD. Advertisement in paper and salesman said that it was just
> > what
> > I needed for my desired purpose. I have spent the last three weeks
> > downloading driver updates for the various hardware and software that are
> > included with the package and trying to make them all work together. After
> > much aggravation and pulling of hair, (I am now completely bald), I was
> > able
> > to make my first attempt at capturing and converting my VHS video.
> > I bought a new Toshiba VHS/DVD combo player to play my source videos on. I
> > used the component (yellow) video output and used an inline converter
> > (Radio
> > Shack Analog/Digital A/V Signal Converter) to convert it to Svideo that
> > would
> > input into the Avermedia M-150 card. I used the RCA audio (red & white)
> > and
> > input those into the M-150 inputs also.
> > To start simple, I just wanted to capture and entire 2 hour VHS tape in
> > Movie Maker 2 that came with the computer and burn it onto a DVD for an
> > archive copy. I set the video capture format to "best available for
> > display
> > on my computer" which defaulted to .wmv at 720 x 480 and 30 fps. I
> > captured
> > the entire tape and choose data format for viewing on my computer when
> > burning to DVD. After the project was complete, I noticed a few problems.
> > The
> > 2 hours of captured video had been broken into over 300 individual clips
> > even
> > though I had only hit start capture at the beginning and stop capture at
> > the
> > end. I have since been told that there is a setting that I need to change
> > in
> > Movie Maker that will prevent this from happening. I also noticed that in
> > both the captured video in Movie Maker and on the DVD+R that I had burned,
> > there were many places that had distortion in the video that was not seen
> > in
> > the orginal VHS source tape. Some video looked ok, but there were a lot of
> > places that had distortions. There would be a horizontal band of
> > distortion
> > that would appear across the middle of the screen and then go away. There
> > would also be vertical distortion were the outlines of characters would
> > morph
> > and bend and them clear up somewhat.
> > My question is where do I begin in eliminating these problems. One
> > suggestion was that I needed to capture the analog video in DV-AVI format.
> > I
> > see this option in Movie Maker but it is not available to me. Help says
> > that
> > the option is only available when capturing from a digital VCR or digital
> > camcorder. Another suggestion is that I need to buy a digital camcorder
> > with
> > pass through capability and output my VCR into the digital camcorder and
> > then
> > into the Fire Wire port on my computer. Other suggestions have said to buy
> > an
> > S-VHS VCR and various hardware filter devices and run the VCR output
> > through
> > these before inputing into the computer.
> > I am new to video capture, editing, etc and am also not a computer genius.
> > I
> > just want to be able to get a good a product as possible without spending
> > any
> > money that is not necessary. That being said, these VHS source videos do
> > mean
> > a great deal to me and I would like to do a good job. I have 20 2 hour VHS
> > tapes of my son that died in an auto accident a few years ago at 19 years
> > of
> > age. I want to take these videos and hundreds of scanned photos and place
> > them on DVD to distribute to family members that I will not allow near my
> > original sources. I want to share without endangering my originals.
> > Do I have the necessary equipment for doing a good job of this or do I
> > need
> > to acquire additional equipment or software? I am asking those who have
> > experience for their advice and suggestions. Please help.
>
>
>
.

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