Recommendations for VHS to DVD Copying

JiveTalker

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Hi, I'm a newbie to this particular forum and I was hoping that somebody can give me some advice?

I have a collection of around 200 VHS tapes mostly recorded from 1987-1997 that take up lots of shelf space and I would like to transfer them to DVD. Almost all of them were recorded on a first generation JVC NICAM VCR. A large number of these tapes consist of recordings of pop videos and live tv performances on TOTP and similar.

I am looking for a machine that would spot the beginning of each recording and separate the tape into separate chapters for each recording. Is there a maximum number of chapters allowed? Do machines re-adjust the tracking for each separate recording on a tape? Some of my tapes may have up to 100 recordings. Ideally I'd be able to manually create additional chapter markers on longer recordings and edit out bits that I no longer want so I guess that would require an internal hard disk. Do any machines allow the content to be recorded in Divx/Xvid or do discs always have to be MPEG2 DVD video format?
Is there much difference in quality between the machines from the big guys (ie Panasonic, Sony, JVC, Toshiba etc.) I see that Panasonic claim to enhance the picture a fair bit. Does such a feature perform well?

If the machine also had a freeview tuner and HDMI output that would be good to.

One final thing I'd like is for a component video input. I have a TeleWest TVDrive which allows me to record from BBCHD but it doesn't allow any digital copying to be perfomed so I was wondering whether there was anything that could record from the high def component output? Alternatively I could use scart but that would be downscaled to SD.

That's a lot of questions, I know. From my research so far, the Panasonic DMR-EX95 looks like my best bet although it doesn't seem to meet all the requirements but I'm open to alternative suggestions, perhaps a shortlist of 3 or 4 candidates and anything significant that I haven't thought of.

Before anyone suggests it, the one thing I really don't want to do is use my pc as I know within a week I'll have a hard disk full of "work in progress" files and no space left for anything else.
 
I have a collection of around 200 VHS tapes mostly recorded from 1987-1997 that take up lots of shelf space and I would like to transfer them to DVD. Almost all of them were recorded on a first generation JVC NICAM VCR. A large number of these tapes consist of recordings of pop videos and live tv performances on TOTP and similar.
Make sure you choose the right disk format to archive to in the first place as such an undertaking is a big time investment [ DVD-R is recommended. - Not any form of RW's ... You could use RAM's - but that limits where else you could play them. ]
When making such a time investment there is a good argument for having a RAM master and user DVD-R copy.
I am looking for a machine that would spot the beginning of each recording and separate the tape into separate chapters for each recording. Is there a maximum number of chapters allowed? Do machines re-adjust the tracking for each separate recording on a tape? Some of my tapes may have up to 100 recordings. Ideally I'd be able to manually create additional chapter markers on longer recordings and edit out bits that I no longer want so I guess that would require an internal hard disk. Do any machines allow the content to be recorded in Divx/Xvid or do discs always have to be MPEG2 DVD video format?
Is there much difference in quality between the machines from the big guys (ie Panasonic, Sony, JVC, Toshiba etc.) I see that Panasonic claim to enhance the picture a fair bit. Does such a feature perform well?
Tracking issues are a feature of your source tape player, not the DVDR. These are obviously collections of recordings from different times so will likely have interrupted sync tracks... You cannot do anything about that.
But for ease of transfer that would cost you the least time I would suggest the following method.
[ I am assuming here that you end up with your stated current choice of the EX85 ]
I assume also that your tapes are typically Nominal 3 Hrs VHS [ Typically 3 hours 4 minutes long ] .. and that you are looking to get a whole cassette onto a single disk [ ?] ... If you wish to transfer 4 hours cassettes, different methods are recommended.

I'll not go into detail at this stage, but broadly speaking I recommend recording in FR mode - in one sweep - The whole cassette - to hard disk in FR mode , which involves pre-specifying the recording length on the DVDR. This you can leave to 'cook' while it is doing and doesnt waste your time.

Then you can go back later and edit as necessary. Removing glitches, adding chapter marks etc. You could also split the recording up into separate titles

However there are other considerations here. A 3 hour recording is a huge amount to consider editing in one session and it is specifically recommended to do editing sessions in one sitting, or transfer to DVD can be problematic or impossible later.
So you may have to consider splitting the rcordings into 'bite-size' chunks anyway and deal with them as separate titles.

If you do do that then it may be better thinking in terms of transferring at SP quality and aiming to get 2 hours max per disk.


If the machine also had a freeview tuner and HDMI output that would be good to.
Yes - That applies to the EX85.
One final thing I'd like is for a component video input. I have a TeleWest TVDrive which allows me to record from BBCHD but it doesn't allow any digital copying to be perfomed so I was wondering whether there was anything that could record from the high def component output? Alternatively I could use scart but that would be downscaled to SD.
Not at present. You are limited to SD and future restrictions on HD recording will be so intense it is debatable whether it is worth even aspiring to.. but in any event you could not record in HD so an input is needless.

That's a lot of questions, I know. From my research so far, the Panasonic DMR-EX85EB-S looks like my best bet although it doesn't seem to meet all the requirements but I'm open to alternative suggestions, perhaps a shortlist of 3 or 4 candidates and anything significant that I haven't thought of.
I recommend limiting yourself to either Panasonic, Sony or Pioneer.
Before anyone suggests it, the one thing I really don't want to do is use my pc as I know within a week I'll have a hard disk full of "work in progress" files and no space left for anything else.

I wont then :)


But back to an earlier point. - Transferring material from one format is difficult enough and time consuming - MPEG encoding already throws away data - but DivX does it to a much greater degree - It seems to me - not a good idea to make all that effort and lose quality on the way so I recommend sticking to MPEG [ Make DivX copies of them if you must. ]
 
Hi Gavtech, thanks for your detailed response, it is very helpful.

Make sure you choose the right disk format to archive to in the first place as such an undertaking is a big time investment [ DVD-R is recommended. - Not any form of RW's ... You could use RAM's - but that limits where else you could play them. ]
When making such a time investment there is a good argument for having a RAM master and user DVD-R copy.
I've never been keen on RW discs, I was planning to use DVD-R and also to keep a backup on a hard disk. I don't have any need to playback on a standard dvd player, just the pc or a networked DivX player such as the Snazio 1350 that I already have. The Snazio does a very good job of upscaling Xvid content to 720P for my projector.

Tracking issues are a feature of your source tape player, not the DVDR. These are obviously collections of recordings from different times so will likely have interrupted sync tracks... You cannot do anything about that.

I revised my additional post to the Panny EX95 which has a VHS deck built in with "The VHS Refresh Dubbing feature utilises two technologies that literally 'clean-up' the signal from the VHS tape. The Time Based Corrector reduces the jitter commonly found on ageing VHS recordings whilst the 3D DNR technology detects and eliminates randomly generated noise and colour irregularities". Whether this is any better than any other combi deck is hard to tell and I can't find any objective review of this feature anywhere.

I assume also that your tapes are typically Nominal 3 Hrs VHS [ Typically 3 hours 4 minutes long ] .. and that you are looking to get a whole cassette onto a single disk [ ?] ... If you wish to transfer 4 hours cassettes, different methods are recommended.

Yes, most of my tapes are E180 but there are some that are longer and some shorter. Copying only 2hours onto a DVD would be fine, I'm more concerned about maintaining the best quality rahter than maximising how much I can fit on a disc. So, for example, could I put an E180 tape in and ask it to save it as around 6-7GB in MPEG2 onto the hard disk then choose 2 hours worth (or however much fits within the disc capacity limit) of the chapters created to output to a DVD?

I'll not go into detail at this stage, but broadly speaking I recommend recording in FR mode - in one sweep - The whole cassette - to hard disk in FR mode , which involves pre-specifying the recording length on the DVDR. This you can leave to 'cook' while it is doing and doesnt waste your time.
Then you can go back later and edit as necessary. Removing glitches, adding chapter marks etc. You could also split the recording up into separate titles

So if I went for the EX95, I guess that it would find most of the chapter marks automatically and I'd just have make the odd tweak?

...A 3 hour recording is a huge amount to consider editing in one session...
consider splitting the rcordings into 'bite-size' chunks anyway and deal with them as separate titles.... it may be better thinking in terms of transferring at SP quality and aiming to get 2 hours max per disk.

Sounds good to me.

You are limited to SD and future restrictions on HD recording... you could not record in HD so an input is needless.

So I guess the only way to record HD from a British broadcast is to output component from the cable/satellite box into a suitably equipped pc graphics card? I have a Radeon x1950 Pro but as I'm currently running Vista :suicide: I'm having difficulty getting it to do the basics let alone analogue video input :rolleyes:

I recommend limiting yourself to either Panasonic, Sony or Pioneer.

Excellent, the Panasonic is looking like the strongest contender unless I can find anything that suggests I'd be better off using my existing VHS deck as a source (although it only has composite output) and maybe getting the Sony which doesn't have a VHS deck.

Transferring material from one format is difficult enough and time consuming - MPEG encoding already throws away data - but DivX does it to a much greater degree - It seems to me - not a good idea to make all that effort and lose quality on the way so I recommend sticking to MPEG...

I think DivX gets a bad press for quality as most people tend to compress too far with it. A 2 hour movie that is 7GB looks almost as good in DivX at half that size but usually people try to get it down to the size of a cd (or two) and there is a noticable drop in quality. I agree though that compressing to one standard (MPEG2) then compressing a second time (to Divx/MPEG4) will lead to a mediocre result.
 

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