Very new and requesting help for VHS to DVD

[gottaflynow2]

Hi,

I've read a lot of posts but still need help for my situation with my equipment. I'm very new to this and wish to take my old vhs tapes and convert to DVDs.
My equipment is as follows:
Burner: NEC DVD+RW ND2100AD
Capture device: Avermedia DVD EZMakerPro USB 2.0 (has built-in MPEG2 hardware encoder)
Software: Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2 SE (downloaded patch upgraded to 2.12.2166.000SE)
Software: Ulead Video Studio 7 SE DVD

I'm trying to get the best quality picture but would like to fit 3-4 hours of video on one 4.7GB DVD. What is the best way to accomplish this?

Also, if I have 2 vhs tapes, one 2 hours long and one 1 hour long how do I get them on one DVD? What I've tried so far is changing the MPEG setting in Movie Factory to accommodate enough minutes, went direct to disc, changed the tape out of the vcr without stopping or pausing capture (as there is no way). I received an error.

Good news is I did copy one vhs tape which was one hour long using direct disc, so I know at least everything is functioning.

I really appreciate any help I can get!!!

Thanks!

[T_Scheen]

Well, if you want best possible picture quality, you can only put +- 1 hour on a standard 4,7 GB DVD.
For that I use MF3.5, (PAL) 720x576 at 9256 kbit/sec VBR, interlaced. Never had any problems so far (on my PC nor during playback on a stand-alone DVD-Player)

[lwolff123]

If you do lower the bitrate down enough to get more than about 90 minutes on a dvd, you won't be happy with the results. I always use 8000 constant bitrate. You can also combine your two different videos once you encode them and bring them into MF3.

lwolff123

[steeleye]

Encode at half DVD resolution (352 x 480) and use (variable) bitrate of 4000 kbps. This will capture all the useful information available at VHS resolution and result in at least 2 hours of video that will fit on a single-sided, single-layer DVD. If you need to fit more, lower the bitrate in 250 kbps increments at a time, checking resultant file size.

[VHS Burner]

Steeleye,

Will those settings give you an exact copy of VHS quality wise?

[maddrummer3301]

The only way you can get close to an exact copy is as
T_Scheen posted.

Experiment for yourself and see what your happy with.
Try both formats as an experiment.
Remember that in the future you will be viewing this video
on a large screen which will show any imperfections.

Hope this helps,

MD

[steeleye]

I agree. Try both ways and check it out. I have done so and see no significant difference with my old beta, VHS, and Hi8 tapes on my 50" Samsung DLP monitor.

[gottaflynow2]

Thanks for the help! I may give it a shot playing with the settings, but not really technically oriented, was hoping to just click, click, click and voila, there's my dvd using direct to disc (as advertised). I may just stick to 1 hour per dvd and then down the road if I ever want to buy a dual layer dvd burner I can consolidate them.

Again, appreciate all your help!

[tenax]

i'm using direct to disc to backup a variety of vhs tapes (varying quality)...generally find that movies under the 1:50ish range will copy using the "good" setting and that while if i'm up close to my 43 inch hdwidescreen, it's grainy, it's adequate (if not " best") from about 8 ft back, my normal viewing distance. i find on both the 26 inch tv's i have downstairs, good is absolutely fine with no complaints.. i started to muck with advanced settings and more i played with them, more i realized that until i can get my hands on dual layer media in my kneck of the woods in canada, the options are what they are..live with 4.7 gig limitation or wait to do more transferring once i have the dl media.

[Bandit]

4.7gb

Just a word of caution - 4.7gb is almost correct. However I suggest through personal experience to limit using more than 4.2gb. That leaves a safe buffer for all the other data that has to be include to make the dvd work. I have burned 100s of DVDs and everytime I try and get past the 4.2gb mark I get a error message a couple of hours into the "burn".

Is there any editing you can do to the two vhs tapes to get them down to the 4.2gb mark? This may or may not apply to you but in a lot of my vhs tapes there usually is a large amount that can be eliminated. Just a thought. good luck.
Bandit

[shanangough]

i'm using direct to disc to backup a variety of vhs tapes (varying quality)...

Does direct to disc allow you to add your own chapters before burning the disc? or are they done automatically?

[tenax]

all auto...i've started to use the the more advanced selection (can't remember which it is on the initial menu) rather than direct to disc as it was burning my dvd's at 12x and my older dvd player was struggling a bit ( my new panasonic had no issues) went to "manual" and backed off the speed to 8x write on dvd-r's with no issues now:)