PC Buyer Beware! - Computer information website - Don't get ripped off - Forewarned is forearmed

Forewarned is forearmed...

Custom Search

This website has lost 75% of its visitors due to Google's search-algorithm update called Panda, which now favours Google's own ads and products, business sites and Wikipedia on the first page of search results, making finding information sites like this one difficult, so if you value it as a source of computer information please bookmark it.

What is the cheapest and easiest way to use my PC/computer to copy VHS video tapes on to DVD/Blu-ray discs?

CLICK HERE! TO RETURN TO THE CD/DVD/BLU-RAY DRIVE PROBLEMS PAGES

CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive/writer Question: How to convert VHS video to DVD and Blu-ray disc formats

I need to know what the easiest, cheapest way of copying VHS video tapes on to DVD or Blu-ray discs is.

Answer

Read the following Q&A on this website on converting VHS video to the DVD and Blu-ray formats and burning them to discs: Which is the best way to convert videos in various digital formats into DVD or Blu-ray formats and burn them to discs?

I assume that you have a relatively recent desktop or laptop computer that has at least 128MB or 512MB of RAM memory so that it runs Windows 98/98 SE or Windows XP (respectively) comfortably. If you have a computer running Windows Vista, it should have a minimum of 2GB of RAM memory. The 32-bit versions of Windows 7 can run comfortably on 1GB of RAM memory. Note that the 32-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 cannot use more than about 3.2GB of RAM memory. The 64-bit versions can use up to 128GB.

Simply capturing VHS video and burning it on to DVD discs won't be a prohibitively expensive business, but you will require some hardware and software. Of course, you'll need to have a DVD writer and the software that can burn files to DVD discs, and the software that allows you to edit video.

The easiest but not the cheapest way to convert analog video content to a DVD format is to make use of a combined VHS and DVD recorder, which costs about £150. Using one of those, you can play the video and record it to a recordable DVD disc in real time.

If you don't have such a machine and don't want to spend £150, luckily, video-capture devices are cheap. If you still have a standalone VCR machine, the cheapest way to capture VHS video and transfer it to a PC that I could find (April 2009), is to buy a Kworld USB2800D DVD Maker, a USB 2.0 device that costs only £20 from http://www.scan.co.uk/. The device has a USB connection that you plug into your PC and a phono connection that plugs in the VCR machine. It comes with Cyberlink PowerProducer that enables you to to create DVDs and PowerDirector, which allows you to edit videos.

DVD Maker records video to DVDs, but does not allow you to save the results to your PC's hard disk drive. If you want to save your videos in MPEG2 format on your PC, you need to use a DVD-ripping program, such as the free DVD Ripper from:

http://www.freewarezoom.com/archives/free-dvd-ripper

Alternatively, you can use a TV adapter card that supports MPEG2, which you may already have. The Leadtek WinFast PxDVR3200 H PCI Express TV card (currently under the Multimedia heading on leadtek.com) is just what you need. Costing around £63.00 (April 2009), it comes with DVD authoring software, and, more importantly, also a video-editing package. - "DirectBurn: Provide you a simple and direct way to transform home videos and movies from camcorders, VHS tapes, and personal DVDs into polished CDs and DVDs. As you watch TV, you can record and burn it into VCD/SVCD/DVD synchronously. Save your time and valuable hard-drive space." The Leadtek WinFast PxDTV2300 H is another PCI Express model. If your PC only has an elderly motherboard with only a free PCI slot, you could probably find a PCI TV card that provides the same capabilities, such as the Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP Expert, which at the time of writing (April 2009) was still available from a seller on amazon.com for $30. eBay is another good source for second-hand PC components. Note that CardBus (PCMCIA) and ExpressCard cards are available for use with a laptop PC.

External devices are also available that can capture and convert analog video to digital video (DV), such as the Leadtek WinFast VC100 U Video Editor (USB 2.0) device.

You can make use of the Google search box at the top of this page (enable the Web Search option on the first search page) to conduct a search for information on these or similar products and sellers by using suitable search term.

You can use a computer with a 450MHz processor for video editing if you want to waste a lot of time (very slow by today's multiple-core standards which typically fall between 2GHz and 3GHz with the processor housing two or three or four identical processing cores). A computer used for video editing should be as fast as possible, and have as much free hard-disk space as possible. Visit the Desktop PCs and Laptops sections of this website for buying advice and current reviews.

A new dual-layer DVD writer can write to CD-R and CD-RW discs, and single-layer and dual-layer DVD discs. The dual-layer DVD discs can store up to fours hours of video or film.

The new Blu-ray standard, created by Sony, also has write-once (BD-R) and rewritable (BD-RE) discs. Single and dual layer (DL) discs are available that have capacities of 25GB and 50GB respectively. Most Blu-ray drives/players can also play CD and DVD discs. Note, however, that not all of the current Blu-ray writers can write to the 50GB discs. If you want to write to the 50GB discs, check the drive's specifications before you make a purchase.

50GB is enough storage for 9 hours of HD (high definition) movies, 23 hours of standard definition content, or 72 CDs on a single disc. Moreover, Blu-ray Disc gives you playback of MPEG2, the native compression technique for HDTV broadcasts, or even more capacity with advanced codes such as AVC.

The maximum disc-capacity of Blu-ray discs will soon be 10 times the current 50GB:

Pioneer Increases [Blu-ray] Disc Size to 500GB -

"August 5, 2008.- "About a month ago, Pioneer announced that they had developed a 400GB Blu-ray Disc. Not satisfied that they had exhausted all avenues, they continued developed and found a way to add four additional layers, bringing the total disc capacity to 500GB. As with the 400GB version, the disc is compatible with current Blu-ray drives found in computers, players, and recorders." - http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1616