What about Media Center PCs for video capture

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What about Media Center PCs for video capture

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rnsmithad

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17. October 2005 @ 06:51

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I am going to help my father-in-law get set up so that he can copy all of his home VHS tapes to DVD. I don't want anything complicated for him, he couldn't handle it. I want to get everything on a DVD first, and then worry about the editing. He needs a computer upgrade (still using Windows 98).

So, would these Media Center computers (HP, Gateway, etc.) you see at Best Buy with built in tuner cards be adquate to capture VHS tapes (non-digital) from either his old camcorder or from a VHS player. (I do want a good quality capture to DVD)

OR, should we find him just a plain PC and purchase the capture card separately. (And is there a bandwidth problem with the external capture devices as opposed to in internal card (PCI or AGP, whatever AGP is).)

--
Ron in Round Rock

[ + quote]

Ron in Round Rock

rebootjim

AfterDawn Addict

17. October 2005 @ 15:14

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Those PC's you mention will NOT copy any copy protected tapes. They also record in a proprietary format, not standardized mpeg-2, so extensive work is needed to convert them for DVD.
A barebones system, with a basic XP install, and a hauppauge PVR-150 (with the bundled software) will work better, and simpler, than the MCE bunch, AND totally bypasses copy protection (macrovision) on VHS.

[ + quote]

Black holes are where God divided by zero...
Cheers, Jim

rnsmithad

Member

17. October 2005 @ 18:30

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rebootjim -- I was hoping to make it clear when I said "home" VHS tapes (guess I failed) -- anyway, I/we have no interest in copying copyrighted, copy-protected materials, I guess not having to worry about that would be good.

However the rest of your comments are pertinent. Yes, copying from VHS into a proprietary format is not something I want either. So would these proprietary formats not be acceptable to most/any video editing programs.

I (He) will want to do some simple video editing, but wanting to keep it simple. The most important thing is to get the VHS tapes saved on a DVD, while they are still hopefully good, although many are probably 10-20 years old.

I(He) will worry about the editing later. To be honest with you, I was thinking about using the MS Movie Maker 2 for editing. It appears simple to use, appears to have all of the editing capabilities that he will need, and it's free (he likes free).

Is the hauppauge PVR-150 a PCI card -- it seems that this approach a lot of people are recommending -- although I would also like to consider an external device with a firewire connection (again here, many people seem to be poo-pooing the USB connections). What kind of file formats are offerred with the hauppauge.

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Ron in Round Rock

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