I am VERY NEW at this but I have a bunch of rare video tapes that I want to transfer over to VCD (to preserve quality) and I was wondering if anyone could give me step by step instructions on how to accomplish this? I have gone through this board and I have not been able to find the exact information that I need. If anyone can help please email me privately for I would love to get this done and all of your help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks In Advance

-- Cale Ferguson (5150@onramp.net), January 31, 2000

Answers

Maybe I can save you some headaches. I have spent the last 6 months trying to accomplish exactly what you want to do. The first thing you have to do is to capture the video to your computer. This is best done by capturing to an AVI file and encoding to MPEG1. In order to play them on a DVD player they must be in MPEG1 format that meets the white book specs. There are software encoders that do a good job but most are time consuming Xing makes a faster one but must take about 20 minutes to encode one minute to MPEG1. There are software/hardware combinations that can do it in real time.

Once you get the video encoded you need a software package to burn it to a disk in the right format for a DVD player to read. The most popular software is EZ CD creator 4.0 by Adaptec.

-- Al McCraw (amccraw@ix.netcom.com), January 31, 2000.

I am new at this as well; I have an ATI All-In-Wonder 128 32Mb AGP and EZ CD Creator. I've been able to capture video from VHS to Mpeg1 in realtime with good quality (as good as the input). Be warn that you will need a fast processor to do this, since the best Mpeg1 encoding on the fly needs processor power! 600Mhz-700Mhz for best result. As for EZ CD creator, it has problem with ATI Multi-Media software and CD writer(s). EZ CD Creator is very picky on what you put into the system. It doesn't like anything new! Technical support on Adaptec does not exist, so don't count on getting help there.

-- lnguyen (wingstarzz@hotmail.com), January 31, 2000.

I have converted my VHS to VCD by the following: 1)I bought a DVC(Digital Video Creator) www.dazzle.com 2)CD-Writer HP7500 plus.And it's working fine... 3)VHS Panasonic NV HD680,wonderful. 4)PIII 450mhz computer. 5)Adaptic Easy CD creator delux software..

If you have collected any, please let me know then I'll send u some more details

sharing info is fun...:))

-- Treeshada (adahseert@excite.com), February 01, 2000.

I originally bought the DVC by Dazzle and returned due to a fair at best picture quality. I bought the Broadway Pro 4.0 and am happy with it but it cost around $700. If you can live with less (in my case much less than VHS quality) than VHS quality video get the Dazzle and save some money. Also with thte Dazzle I had to capture in MPG which menat no editing. It is considered best to beable to capture in AVI first , do you r editing , and then compress to MPG. With most software encoders it takes about 20 minutes to copmpress 1 minute of avi to mpg. A hardware assisted encoder, such as Broadway, Matrox, Vitec can do it in or near real time.

-- aL mCcRAW (AMCCRAW@IX.NETCOM.COM), February 02, 2000.