Need advice on Video Capture devices

[Darren]

I have the need to convert several old VHS tapes to digital video for editing and saving to DVD. I have all the equipment except the video capture device. My video card doesn't support capture so I'm considering a USB or similar capture device. The problem is I know nothing about the different devices and their pro's and con's.

I've seen several on-line for $39 and one at Radio Shack for $99 and a Pinnacle system for $99.

Any suggestions? I'd like to buy local if possible but will order on-line and wait if I have to.

Darren

[mechman]

If you're talking about the Pinnacle Dazzle, I know a couple folks who've tried it and liked it.

[wbassett]

Canopus has some of the best video gear, but it can be a bit dicey price wise. Ebay usually has a variety of their capture cards for sale at any given time, but they don't always have the software, cables or things like that so if you are interested in one of their cards make sure to check that everything is included.

Tiger Direct also has wide variety of capture devices. Pinnacle has had good reviews but I have never personally used one of their capture devices.

The biggest problem you are going to run into is audio sync issues. Make sure to read the specs and ensure they include audio sync. What will happen is everything is fine for small files, but for large files the audio starts out fine but drifts as the file plays.

You might want to check Walmart too. They have been having some good closeout sales on their DVRs that have both a VHS player and the DVD burner built in. These work very well for converting tapes to DVD. Once on DVD you could then transfer it to your computer for editing if need be, but some of the good DVR units have a hard drive and let you do some basic editing but nothing fancy.

[Darren]

Thanks for the info guys, I'll check those out.

[bob1029]

I would also look for devices that have a built-in mpeg2 encoder, as this will provide for least dropped frames on slower-mid range computer systems, and probably eliminate all audio sync issues that can be caused during the encode process.