So lets say I wanted to convert some old VHS videos to a digital format...

[Marcos]

What are your suggestions?

I've come accross this:

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo...0&pid=45&tid=2

I have USB 1.1, would this work fine?

[Clingy]

What are your suggestions?

I've come accross this:

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo...0&pid=45&tid=2

I have USB 1.1, would this work fine?

Resolution is very poor. If you have a lot to do then buying a VHS-DVDRW would be a good option. Other than that search out someone to do it for you.

[subucni]

a couple of other things, yes it would work with USB 1.1, but as Clingy pointed out it has poor capture resolution at 320x240, also it works on NTSC not PAL which is the UK standard with a resolution of 720x576, so unless your videos were recorded in the US and you have a US vcr to play it from it shouldn't really work anyway. Which is strange for them to be selling it from a UK retailer.

[Marcos]

Hmm....so whats the cheapest good option? I have firewire on my laptop but only USB1.1.

The thing is im planning to move out soon and i wont be taking a VCR, and i dont have many videos anyway, but i would like to convert those videos to digital format so i can still watch them.

[subucni]

Had a look at the pinnacle/dazzle website for you and sure enough it does seem like they do do 2 different versions of each, a PAL/SECAM version and an NTSC version, so a PAL/SECAM version shouldn't be too hard to find over here. To be honest they may have just put the details down wrong on the savastore site and it may be PAL they have, but i'd check with them on that.

with that in mind and checking out this comparison table here are your options.

DVC 80 : Will do USB 1.1 but only has poor resolution, your call really
DVC 90 : Does full 720x576 resolution but wont do USB 1.1
DVC 120 : Will do both USB 1.1 and full resolution, so but cost around £90 (according to their site, can probably be found cheaper)
DVC 150 : Will do same as DVC120 but also is the only version that outputs to analogue too, no point as you only want to output to disc so a waste of extra money, unless you feel you may want to use it for that in the future.

As far as alternative brands go i've only looked into the Pinnacle movieboxes etc.. and all of them cost more than the DVC120, So the DVC 120 would still be your best bet in that case. There are quite a few other brands of capture devices about and some may be cheaper, so you could still look around a bit more. But just bare in mind the things you'll need; must do PAL format, USB 1.1 or firewire for obvious reasons, and 720x576 resolution if you don't want to compress the video quality

1 other really important pieces of imformation to consider is your harddrive space on your laptop as captured video takes up a lot of room.

hope this helps

[harlequin]

To save time and hair i would suggest you buy an external unit to do the whole job.
Buy a panasonic e55 dvd recorder , multi-region from www.dvdplayers.co.uk
feed vhs to dvd-recorder
put from 1hour at 720x576 @ 8Mbs to 8 hours at 352x288 onto a single dvd-r.
quality for a dvd with up to 6 hours will be as good as vhs.

[Marcos]

Had a look at the pinnacle/dazzle website for you and sure enough it does seem like they do do 2 different versions of each, a PAL/SECAM version and an NTSC version, so a PAL/SECAM version shouldn't be too hard to find over here. To be honest they may have just put the details down wrong on the savastore site and it may be PAL they have, but i'd check with them on that.

with that in mind and checking out this comparison table here are your options.

DVC 80 : Will do USB 1.1 but only has poor resolution, your call really
DVC 90 : Does full 720x576 resolution but wont do USB 1.1
DVC 120 : Will do both USB 1.1 and full resolution, so but cost around £90 (according to their site, can probably be found cheaper)
DVC 150 : Will do same as DVC120 but also is the only version that outputs to analogue too, no point as you only want to output to disc so a waste of extra money, unless you feel you may want to use it for that in the future.

As far as alternative brands go i've only looked into the Pinnacle movieboxes etc.. and all of them cost more than the DVC120, So the DVC 120 would still be your best bet in that case. There are quite a few other brands of capture devices about and some may be cheaper, so you could still look around a bit more. But just bare in mind the things you'll need; must do PAL format, USB 1.1 or firewire for obvious reasons, and 720x576 resolution if you don't want to compress the video quality

1 other really important pieces of imformation to consider is your harddrive space on your laptop as captured video takes up a lot of room.

hope this helps

Thanks for the informative post.

I find strange that the firewire units are not common

For the hard drive space, I hear its 4GB per hour. I'll onlybe doing one tape at a time and then straight burning it to DVD so i think i'll be ok. I have 40GB total.

To save time and hair i would suggest you buy an external unit to do the whole job.
Buy a panasonic e55 dvd recorder , multi-region from www.dvdplayers.co.uk
feed vhs to dvd-recorder
put from 1hour at 720x576 @ 8Mbs to 8 hours at 352x288 onto a single dvd-r.
quality for a dvd with up to 6 hours will be as good as vhs.

Seems like quite an expensive option, minimum £160.

I only have a coupld of videos to encode, and since im going to uni i dont think i'll have much use for a DVD recorder when i cant even get Sky

[Flibb]

you can add USB 2.0 ports to a laptop via a pc card. I got my Bro-In-Law one for xmas. Think it was from ebuyer, around £20.

[Marcos]

you can add USB 2.0 ports to a laptop via a pc card. I got my Bro-In-Law one for xmas. Think it was from ebuyer, around £20.

£20 , If it was a fiver i probably would

[Marcos]

Found the 90:

http://www.misco.co.uk/productinform...20DVC%2090.htm

If i get a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card will this one be just right? Full quality videos?

[Zak33]

does that have a certain Afflilation twang to it, that link?


removed and replaced

[DavidM]

Change it to this

http://www.misco.co.uk/productinform...0~/product.htm

[Marcos]

does that have a certain Afflilation twang to it, that link?


removed and replaced

No idea, didnt notice it, i found it on kelkoo or something

[Zak33]

its ok matey..just be carefull is all we ask

[Marcos]

Just found this in my email:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10163_7...1.html?tag=nav

But $205 is pretty steep for me ,