DVD Recorders with VCR

[Spirit Flyer]

Anybody have one of these?

[Zelönka 22]

How about, VCRs hooked up to TV Tuner with a DVD burner?

[grandeped]

I do have one.  Just because I needed both and both of my old ones broke at the same time.

[Spirit Flyer]

How about, VCRs hooked up to TV Tuner with a DVD burner?

I have a VCR hooked up to a TV tuner and a DVD burner. But the problem I have is that the capture gives me shakey frames. It's like a visual stutter.

You should also mention which brand DVD Recorder you have and if it's any good.

[Zelönka 22]

Well, I have a TV Tuner from 2004 - it definitely is not as good as they are now, but works for VCR quality.
I've never had any "shakey frames" or anything of the sort, sounds like the video playback to me, perhaps you just gotta turn the mod wheel thing.. whatever it's called, on the VCR. ?

I don't know why a DVD recorder brand would matter that much... But mine is a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-108 SCSI.

[stshores24]

perhaps you just gotta turn the mod wheel thing.. whatever it's called, on the VCR. ?

Tracking?

[Spirit Flyer]

The Video capture thing is tricky. I have a ATI Wonder 2.0 USB TV Tuner. It is a middle-of-the-line device. I think where it succeeds is capturing from a cable TV signal. I use the composite input (RCA) because my VCR has no S-Video and the coaxial cable doesn't seem to work. I get shakey frames on older tapes. I also get it from the TV since I don't have cable. The other thing about capturing is I think you need a higher quality VCR for the conversion.

My Grandma has an older Sony RDR (forgot the model number) DVD Recorder with VCR. It actually does a decent job. It has a bit of a steep learning curve, which has been frustrating (the remote has a separate compartment where the recording features are hidden). I've read the manual several times and I am just beginning to understand how it works. It's pretty good for capturing video from a camcorder or from the VHS tapes. It should also work well recording live TV from cable. The DVD recorder is must faster making a DVD than the TV tuner way. TV tuners make AVI files, which are decent but require compression. Plus to make a DVD you need a program like DVD Flick to make the necessary conversions.

I like capturing tape on DVD because I feel like the DVD will last longer. I don't mind watching things on a computer, but I think most people like watching a DVD on their TV better than sitting at the computer all the time. I've made a bunch of videos for YouTube, but my new goal is to make videos that will look good on a DVD. 

[Zelönka 22]

Well, more and more TVs are being replaced with PCs.
And the life of a HDD is longer than of a DVD rom.
Lastly, you don't need to compress the recorded video file (it also depends on what software you record it with), use a DVD burning software that does it for you like DVD-Shrink or Nero.

I'm sure the VCR-to-DVD is much faster, not so sure about quality though. ?

But yeah, I need to replace the family tapes and such with DVDs (or buy another HDD for them as videos), as far as I know tapes go down in quality.


Tracking sounds like it.

[Spirit Flyer]

I know people like to watch videos on YouTube and stuff, but I can't see people scrapping the home TV for the computer. The computer is nice, but the screen size holds it back. I think the next big thing will be an integration of the computer with the TV.

I'm not sure what the life of a DVD will be. But hopefully it will last longer than VHS. VHS tapes are crap. I've captured from them with TV tuners and DVD recorders and crappy video is crappy video. The DVD Recorder will probably make it look a little better. But if the tape is more than 10-15 years old you'll know immediately when you watch the captured version.

That's the thing that's amazing about film is that it continues to be a popular format. Sure computers are a bigger part of the cinema, but film still looks good. And with the new digital age film can now be preserved better than ever before.

I don't have Nero. I think it takes up too much space anyway. I have DVD Shrink, but do you have any idea how much it really compresses? DVD Flick basically takes your video files and converts them into a format that you can burn to a DVD. It takes a couple hours to convert a disk, but I have no complaints.   

[Zelönka 22]

Computer + TV = Just that.  Buy a 40+ inch TV and hook up a computer to it, simple as that. That's what my sister in San Diego did, she has a 47" TV hooked up to her computer, it's pretty cool.
Especially now that there are DVRs, which record TV shows on a HDD, but works like a VCR/DVD player, just with a more complex menu and remote.
So technically, you can just get a good HD TV Tuner (if you want TV) and a big HD TV, and a PVR software (there are some good free ones too, at least it's what I heard). And you have your complete digital media center. There are a lot of issues with TVs and graphic cards though, gotta do your research before buying anything, but today every single little thing is the same way.

I have DVD Shrink, but do you have any idea how much it really compresses?

What do you mean?

I know nothing of DVD Flick, but I do know that everytime you convert something it loses quality, but I'm sure no one could ever tell the different with VHS tape quality.

[Spirit Flyer]

To my knowledge DVD Shrink rips DVDs and you can author DVDs if the files are in DVD-ready format. I don't think you can just take a regular .avi or .mov and turn it into a DVD file with DVD Shrink.

If you take movie files like .mov, .wmv, .avi, .flv and others those files can be converted with DVD Flick into a format that can be burned on a disc (Audio TS and Video TS). I've made a bunch of disks. I find that not much is lost in the conversion. The VHS files look the same even if you have a 320x240 format file. I put a YouTube video on there and it pixelated because it was 320x240. But if the video file was 640x320 or higher I didn't notice any issues. What I was pretty surprised about was how good the 320x240 Quicktime movies looked.

My feeling is that if you start with quality files then you're going to be better off in the end than starting with mediocre or subpar-quality files.

 

[Zelönka 22]

It depends really. On a TV is may looks great, but it you watch it on an LCD (which is more clearer) chances are it'll be blurry and/or pixelated.

You're right about DVD Shrink, the thought didn't pass my mind fully.

I really don't see why you would want to download videos from the internet and burn them on DVDs, especially for formats like flv.
I record on DVD-RAMs with my camcorder, then transfer the videos to my computer into MPG format. Then edit and burn to a DVD if I would like. But that's more family kind of footage.

[stshores24]

I really don't see why you would want to download videos from the internet and burn them on DVDs, especially for formats like flv.

My dad burned a downloaded video file of (the one done to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra song) to a video CD last year so we could show it to the whole family on the DVD player. That was pretty cool.

[Zelönka 22]

lol. That's awesome.. Good video..

[Spirit Flyer]

I really don't see why you would want to download videos from the internet and burn them on DVDs, especially for formats like flv.
I record on DVD-RAMs with my camcorder, then transfer the videos to my computer into MPG format. Then edit and burn to a DVD if I would like. But that's more family kind of footage.

NBC shows the latest episodes of their TV programs in .flv format. And those .flv files are excellent quality. So if you make a DVD of one of those it's going to look great. The majority of the stuff on YouTube will pixelate big time because the files are so small. But widescreen stuff doesn't pixelate as much because it doesn't take up as much of the screen.

Right now I'm watching the Wonder Years on DVD. The Wonder Years is not released on DVD. Thanks to DVD Flick all the avi files I have can go on a DVD. And it looks pretty good on my TV.

Sure things will distort on higher quality TVs, but it's going to be a couple years before the new TVs saturate the market. I don't know many people who have money to blow on an expensive TV. I'd love to have a cool TV, but I don't have cable so it's not like it matters to me anyway.

Also people are going to be ticked when over-the-air broadcasting stops. That will be a good time to buy a new TV.

The thing I like about making DVDs for people is that they can watch something a disc I created on their TVs. And the quality is so much better than web video.