jimster Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 my ancient dvd recorder crapped out today. I'm thinking about buying an external one for my desktop pc with lightscribe and the works, but my biggest questions are- Can I record/transfer something from my vcr to dvd? IS there a way to connect the vcr to the recorder or pc? How would I record something from TV? Would I be better off just buying another dvd player/recorder for my tv? Thanks to anyone who can help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Jones Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 my ancient dvd recorder crapped out today. I'm thinking about buying an external one for my desktop pc with lightscribe and the works, but my biggest questions are- Can I record/transfer something from my vcr to dvd? IS there a way to connect the vcr to the recorder or pc? How would I record something from TV? Would I be better off just buying another dvd player/recorder for my tv? Thanks to anyone who can help. First, that is a lot of questions. The best video help site I know of is ironically www.videohelp.com. Other good reference sites: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/ http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/capture/start.html http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.11 It has been a while since I looked into this but you are going to need: 1. Video capture device - Hook your VCR, camera ect into using standard cables. Hauppauge, Dazzle, Pinnacle, Canopus are just some that make cards and external devices. Canopus products are expensive but one of the better manufacturers. http://www.videohelp.com/capturecards 2. Need good capture software from companies like Ulead and Pinnacle. The hardware capture cards bring in the data and store it on a harddrive but the software converts it, edits it and organizes it depending on what is needed. 3. You need to learn some definitions for example Bitrate Bitrate or Bit Rate is the average number of bits that one second of video or audio data will consume. Higher bitrate means bigger file size and generally better video or audio quality while lower bitrate means lower file size but worse video or audio quality. Some bitrate examples in common video and audio files: MP3 - about 128 kbps (kilobits per second) VCD - about 1374 kbps DVD - about 4500 kbps DV - about 25 Mbps (megabits per second). VBR – Video Bitrate Variable Bit Rate – The bitrate can vary at any part of a single video or audio stream. VBR can is used to increase bitrate during high motion scenes in a video or to reduce overall file size. DVD, MPEG-2 video is often variable bit rate. CBR – Constant Bitrate Constant Bit Rate – the bitrate is the same at any part of a single video or audio stream. VCD standard MPEG video and audio are constant bit rate as are most MP3 standalone audio files. 4. If you are talking HDTV you need to make sure the cards and software can handle it. I bet most do. 5. Need a BIG hard drive or drives. Basically, you plug your VCR, Camera or whatever into the capture card. The Card can be just another Card in a PCI slot or an external box sitting on your computer hooked via USB or Firewire. Using the software you simply play the video device and capture the video onto you hard drive. You need to set bit rates and decide on a format. Putting it in .avi format allows you play on most computers, but you need a DVD that understands that format to play. However, .avi allows you to shrink the file size unlike standard DVD format. More Information Remember, garbage in equals garbage out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimster Posted July 2, 2008 Author Share Posted July 2, 2008 Thanks much. I know those sounded like some idiot questions, but I bought my first dvd recorder several years ago, which was basically just a dvd player that could record and didn't have many features. Now there is so much available, I don't know where to begin. - Thanks for taking the time. :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergasun Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 For you it sounds like you'd be better just getting a new DVR... but these sound rare since most TV/Cable companies are marketing them and DVRs do not have the monthly fee. So your options are using a HTPC or getting one of the few DVRs. I did some quick research and it looks like the Philips DVDR3575H/37 is a good model and goes for ~ $250 at Amazon. I'd recommend this for you since it is easier to set up, but I'm not sure about how easy it is to transfer files to your computer. The other option for you is a pre-built MythTV box. I've seen one offered by Monolith... you could probably get a preconfigured HTPC if you look at the classifieds at places like missingremote.com or avsforum.com. Going the HTPC route will be more configurable, but also more pricey and could be time-intensive setting one up. I think the other downside of a HTPC is it takes a bit more power consumption. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergasun Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 I've actually had experience with just installing a TV card in my computer and recording using Freeware software GBPVR. I was using an old 800 Mhz P3 computer, but the signal didn't look all that great since I was recording from analog cable. So it doesn't have to be as hard as Fred Jones made it out to be... although it can be a lot more complicated if you decided to make your own PVR going with a Linux build. This is why for you I think just going with another standalone PVR is best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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