How long to tape a film on DVD

 

New member
Username: Pappyon

Post Number: 2
Registered: Feb-05
Please don't think this is a facetious question.

I would like to to transfer my collection of home made VCR movie tapes to DVD. Is there a quick dubbing method, or does each tape have to be transferred in real time to the DVD hard drive or DVD disc.

In other words if a film I have taped from the TV is 2 hours long, will it take 2 hours to transfer it to DVD
 

New member
Username: Justav6

Ottawa, KS USA

Post Number: 2
Registered: Feb-05
As the signal from a tape is in analog format, you will have to transfer the tape in real time. Plus, since the VHS tape is in 352x480 resolution, capturing and then burning the dvd at a higher resolution will probably give you a grainy picture that you won't like. Remember, you can't make the picture better than what you have on the tape without a lot of time and very good (professional) editing equipment.
 

Silver Member
Username: Samijubal

Post Number: 610
Registered: Jul-04
Not true about not being able to make the picture better. Any decent quality standalone DVD recorder in SP mode will make the picture considerably better than the tape.
 

New member
Username: Justav6

Ottawa, KS USA

Post Number: 3
Registered: Feb-05
I disagree. Your vcr can only put out a certain resolution of picture, the DVD recorder can only work with the signal that is provided from the vcr. If you have a progressive scan dvd player, which, in simple terms, doubles the lines of resolution you will probably see a better picture.
 

Silver Member
Username: Samijubal

Post Number: 611
Registered: Jul-04
You can disagree all you want, I've used 5 different standalone recorders and done dozens of tape to DVD recordings, the picture quality is far better on DVD. Standalone recorders have filters and noise reduction for copying from low resolution sources which clean poor quality sources, some of them do a very good job. They also have 525 or so lines of resolution, over double the 230-240 of VHS.
 

New member
Username: Justav6

Ottawa, KS USA

Post Number: 4
Registered: Feb-05
You can disagree all you want with me. As I really don't care if you do or not. I was reflecting my experience from moving my VHS tapes to DVD through my computer. I will not argue that a DVD recorder can help the picture quality.

A dvd is still a series of still pictures, just like film, that are captured at a given rate and then played back. If you capture at a higher bit rate you will get better quality video, as you are capturing more snap shots per second, which increases the sharpness of the obejcts, most noticeable when there is a large amount of motion in the picture.

I agree that dvd recorders can output higher numbers of line resolution, but if the original source does not have the same number of lines of resolution as you are trying to copy too, you can end up with a grainy picture where the recorder's software program tried to fill in the additional lines. Much of this is dependent upon the dvd recorder's built-in software abilities.

I have moved home movies that were originally film from the 40's thru the 70's that had been moved to vhs 15 years ago, onto dvd and the picture quality is much better. This was done by using a high capture and burn rate at vhs resolution and adjusting color and other picture balances. Any time I tried to increase the lines of resolution to that of a standard dvd, the picture became grainy.

By all means, I believe moving vhs to dvd is the right thing to do, but you can't always expect miracles when you do.
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