camcorder to dvd

anyone know how to do this? I just got a camcorder, and i want to know how to move the c-vhs format into my computer so i can burn 'em as dvd's......anyone?

Video capture device...there are many, and most are now USB or Firewire. Dazzle makes a nice variety of such solutions. I've got an old one on my computer, and it does a decent job. Capture your video via RCA outs from your camera, convert to .mpg movies, find yourself a nice DVD burning program, and go to town.

The other option is an actual DVD recorder. The media center where I work has one and I borrowed it over a long weekend to copy all our stuff onto DVD. It's probably simpler than doing what Elspode describes, but you lose a lot of flexibility in how you can edit things. In my case it was simply a quick & dirty way to get a backup of 8mm videotapes that were as much as 9 years old.

Originally posted by Elspode
Video capture device...there are many, and most are now USB or Firewire. Dazzle makes a nice variety of such solutions. I've got an old one on my computer, and it does a decent job. Capture your video via RCA outs from your camera, convert to .mpg movies, find yourself a nice DVD burning program, and go to town.

can you be more specific? i have a dvd burner and program. is the video capture device an adapter that takes the video cables ( red, white, yellow) and converts them into usb? i'm almost totally ignorant about this, so speak in small words. thanks!

go...to...this...url...

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage_n.asp?Product_ID=1427&Langue_ID=7

The device converts standard video output to something that can be digitized by your computer, and subsequently processed onto hard disk, CD or DVD. It comes with software to do all this for you, I believe.

I don't have a DVD burner, but I'm sure that once you have the .mpg or .avi file made from your video, it is a simple matter to burn it to DVD standard.

Oh...and you can also edit the resultant digital files, and make them into a cogent film if you wish, adding subtitles, effects (fades and stuff), dubbed music, the works...

thanks, spode! that looks like the ticket!

Cool! Except for all the 8mm stuff here... (no not the Mauser kind)

Originally posted by Elspode
Video capture device...there are many, and most are now USB or Firewire. Dazzle makes a nice variety of such solutions. I've got an old one on my computer, and it does a decent job. Capture your video via RCA outs from your camera, convert to .mpg movies, find yourself a nice DVD burning program, and go to town.

Are you doing this thru USB 1.1? I'm surprised that USB 1.1 could keep up with video transfer. I would have thought that it would need USB 2.0 or Firewire.

I use a DVD Recorder (Panasonic). It's simple, but expensive. It's very convenient for recording DVDs from ReplayTV recorded shows. This really rocks.

The Dazzle thing looks so cool that I would get it also, if it works with USB 1.1.

All-digital copying of video is difficult because of varying formats; the ReplayTV format is notorious. Going digital-to-analog-to-digital solves these problems easily. So, both a DVD Recorder and Dazzle win here.

Now with the Xmas rebates, you can get one of these for like $120 (the 9000 model).

The only reason I mention this is because the capture utilities have features to clean up old video, called VideoSoap.

That, and the capture can capture at DVD-level resolutions, and hardly takes up any CPU for post-processing.

I've used this as a digital VCR, and to also capture from videotape. Since it's working mostly on-chip, it's FAST.

And yes, you can burn the MPEG from there to DVD using any Video CD publishing tool :).