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hi guys,
my boss is wanting me to copy some of his home videos to DVD but i have no idea how to do it. ideally id like to do it via a PC rather than get a seperate DVD recorder
also, is there any way of upscaling the quality before it goes to DVD?
any help would be much appreciated
yes you can write the videos to dvd quite easily using software roxio or alcohol let it be auto played on a dvd player use google to be sure
Well you obviously can't improve a video's quality when it has been recorded to a set quality that is simply impossible to my knowledge but you can optimize the video you do have using tools like dr divX
Matt
First off - you cannot improve the quality of original VCR footage.
It is, however, quite easy to capture VCR footage.
First thing you're going to need is the ability to capture incoming video. For this you'll need either:
1) A VIVO video card with suitable cables.
2) A TV tuner card usually has a video capture facility.
3) A dedicated breakout box, such as the 'Dazzle' series, they work well and plug in a USB port, cost about 40 to 50 quid.
Then, you may need video editing software. Pinnacle Studio 10 is good, in my experience, and if you're using Win XP, there is their own inbuilt Video editing system which, whilst basic, works well.
Adobe's Premiere is top of the range, but expensive.
Lastly, you'll need burning software and here Nero wins hands down. You can get an OEM version of V6.0 dead cheap if you shop around or the full blown latest version, Nero 7.0, is about 50 quid.
It is good though.
A good DVD burner and some quality blank discs and you're set to go.
Do bear in mind though, that it's a lengthy process and the all-in-one video to DVD recorder really isn't such a bad idea if you don't want to spend hours paying attention to detail.
I have a couple of Lifeview FlyDVB-T duo Cardbus cards at work for doing exactly this on our laptops.
I've converted over a hundred VHS tapes of work we have done to DVD. The bundled software is Ulead DVD Movie Factory, and although it isn't the best software out there it works well and is easy to use.
If you want to do it without having to spend hours or days tweaking and playing then get a capture card that has similar bundled software. They usually have direct to DVD functions as well, so they only take the time required to play the footage to create the disk.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Funkstar
this sounds like just the ticket, can you recommend any cards (PCI)?
not had any experience with them to be honest. sorry :)
why not simply go to argos and try out one of there video-dvd burners for 30 days and if you don't like it :rolleyes: rn return for full refund :vacant:
If you're after simplicity then I'd recommend using dvd recorder to do this, the quality should be just as good as the original.
You can use a cheap tv card but I've personally tried around 3 diff makes to date and the captured quality for me was worse then the original. There are software around to then improve this but it means spending hours messing around.
Another way that people never suggest is to use a dv camcorder that has av-in and bypass, hook the video player to the camcorder and then use the bypass feature to capture in avi format direct to your PC. This method gives really good results and the AVI is then ready to play around with using something like Premiere Pro.
A good VHS players would be crucial as well, although that might be the hardest part to come across as well.
Going into a computer will probably mean going via composite or S-video which will loose quality compared to scart(rgb) [video player -> dvd recorder] or the internals of an all in 1 dvd-video recorder.