How long should VHS capture sessions be?

[jddealer]

I want to capture vhs, edit and burn to dvd. Is it easier to edit by capuring small segements to work with then putting them together to make a longer dvd or just capturing the whole tape and then edit?
Thanks for your help.

[maddrummer3301]

Hi,
It depends on how much editing you want to perform.
The best method is to use a device that converts the analog video
into what's known as DV-Type 1 format.
This is the most reliable/editable frame by frame format used.
There are many devices that can convert analog to DV. The transfer
process should be using FireWire connection (also called ilink/IEEE1394).
DV-Type1 uses about 13gig for an hour of video and requires lots of disk space.

The other format is direct to Mpeg2. If recording to Mpeg2 I would transfer the whole tape to have one continuous file. Mpeg2 isn't a
reliable editing method.

If you have many VHS tapes like I do then a dvd recorder such as Panasonic or Sony is a useful tool. Immediate results when you use one
and you can import the video's from the dvd into MF3 or MF4 and
then create custom dvd's.

Hope this helps,

MD

[DVDDoug]

Is it easier to edit by capuring small segements to work with then putting them together to make a longer dvd or just capturing the whole tape..

It's really a matter of personal preference. If I wanted two or three 10-minute segments off a tape, I might capture them separately. If I wanted to remove commercials from a program, I'd capture the whole thing at once. It is much easier to jump-around in a digital file than to fast-forward & rewind an analog tape. (Hence, "non-linear editing!")

...like I do then a dvd recorder such as Panasonic or Sony is a useful tool.

If you already have a DVD recorder, fine. But, do not buy one for this purpose! Several users have been unable to import video from their particular DVD recorders. And DVDs are MPEG-2. Like maddrummer said, you should avoid editing MPEGs.