Is there any kind of software program that will help improve the quality of a video that has come from a VHS and been converted to a DVD? I'm planning on making a DVR rig out of my computer and would also like to convert over a number of VHS tapes I have. Am I stuck with VHS quality or is there any way to make the picture look a bit better?

You may find some digital filters but I would say garbage in garbage out.

Quoted: You may find some digital filters but I would say garbage in garbage out.

+1 You're not going to get 400 lines of resolution form a 200 line source.

I hate to say it, but "garbage in, garbage out."  Sorry, but the VHS quality is the rate limiting step here.

Damn.

Roboman:  I can't help with your question, you are one or two steps ahead of me already.
At the risk of stepping on your thread, can I ask:

How did you get as far as you did?  Assuming I have a VHS player, and a computer with
a DVD burner, what other hardware/software is needed to make a DVD from VHS?

I have plenty of home movie VHS and 8mm tapes that I'd like to get onto DVDs.

Thanks,  DanM

Howdy Dan. I'm still in the planning process myself.

What you'll need is some kind of capture card in order to get the data off of the 8MMs and VHSs that you have. I'm looking at a model from Hauppauge that seems to be very good. For maximum quality you're going to want a hardware encoder/decoder as opposed to a software solution.

You slap the card in your computer, connect the coax from the vhs to the card, and run the necessary program to capture the data. From there it's a matter of putting it on a dvd and burning it.

As I said, I'm still in the planning stage myself, so I could be wrong about this, but am pretty sure I'm right.

Quoted: Howdy Dan. I'm still in the planning process myself. What you'll need is some kind of capture card in order to get the data off of the 8MMs and VHSs that you have. I'm looking at a model from Hauppauge that seems to be very good. For maximum quality you're going to want a hardware encoder/decoder as opposed to a software solution. You slap the card in your computer, connect the coax from the vhs to the card, and run the necessary program to capture the data. From there it's a matter of putting it on a dvd and burning it. As I said, I'm still in the planning stage myself, so I could be wrong about this, but am pretty sure I'm right.

I've tried using my video card's video in feature to capture video, complete with WDM drivers, etc. Even with an Athlon 64 @ 2.4ghz, Raptor 74gb hard drive, and 1Gb memory, I was still getting dropped frames. After awhile, the sound and video became grossly unsynchronized and it was unwatchable. Since I didn't have a monsterous hard drive, I had to try to convert the video to another format while capturing; if I'd have had a 300GB hard drive, I might have tried a raw capture (no compression to speak of), then converted it later.

Good luck.

Quoted: Quoted: Howdy Dan. I'm still in the planning process myself. What you'll need is some kind of capture card in order to get the data off of the 8MMs and VHSs that you have. I'm looking at a model from Hauppauge that seems to be very good. For maximum quality you're going to want a hardware encoder/decoder as opposed to a software solution. You slap the card in your computer, connect the coax from the vhs to the card, and run the necessary program to capture the data. From there it's a matter of putting it on a dvd and burning it. As I said, I'm still in the planning stage myself, so I could be wrong about this, but am pretty sure I'm right. I've tried using my video card's video in feature to capture video, complete with WDM drivers, etc. Even with an Athlon 64 @ 2.4ghz, Raptor 74gb hard drive, and 1Gb memory, I was still getting dropped frames. After awhile, the sound and video became grossly unsynchronized and it was unwatchable. Since I didn't have a monsterous hard drive, I had to try to convert the video to another format while capturing; if I'd have had a 300GB hard drive, I might have tried a raw capture (no compression to speak of), then converted it later. Good luck.

The best way to capture VHS is to use a GOOD Firewire Analog-to-Digital converter… pricy, $250 for a good unit but the difference is visible. If you are keeping memories it well worth the cost especially considering that the VHS is eventually going to fail and you will lose it all.

I use a Canopus ADVC110 it is rock solid no dropped frames no audio sync problems. And get a big hard drive or 2 if you are serious… 200GB hard drives can be had for $70 or less with rebates.

Quoted: Quoted: Howdy Dan. I'm still in the planning process myself. What you'll need is some kind of capture card in order to get the data off of the 8MMs and VHSs that you have. I'm looking at a model from Hauppauge that seems to be very good. For maximum quality you're going to want a hardware encoder/decoder as opposed to a software solution. You slap the card in your computer, connect the coax from the vhs to the card, and run the necessary program to capture the data. From there it's a matter of putting it on a dvd and burning it. As I said, I'm still in the planning stage myself, so I could be wrong about this, but am pretty sure I'm right. I've tried using my video card's video in feature to capture video, complete with WDM drivers, etc. Even with an Athlon 64 @ 2.4ghz, Raptor 74gb hard drive, and 1Gb memory, I was still getting dropped frames. After awhile, the sound and video became grossly unsynchronized and it was unwatchable. Since I didn't have a monsterous hard drive, I had to try to convert the video to another format while capturing; if I'd have had a 300GB hard drive, I might have tried a raw capture (no compression to speak of), then converted it later. Good luck.

My immediate guess would be it was using software encoding/decoding to do the work, and can lead to drop frames if there isn't enough free resources available to work with. I hope the hardware encode/decode doesn't have this problem.

Quoted: ... I have plenty of home movie VHS and 8mm tapes that I'd like to get onto DVDs...

I’ve got a Sony VRD-VC20 recorder – though I’m hesitant to wholeheartedly recommend it.   It’s expensive, quirky, and inflexible.  www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7161876&type=product&id=1110266453869

OTOH, literally all you have to do is hook it up to your player and push the “start” button.   No computer is needed, though it can be hooked up to one.

It will easily do what you want using decent quality single layer DVD’s (like Sony, Fujifilm or Verbatim).

Admittedly, there are occasional hiccups in the software.  The Sony website has some software and firmware updates that solved most of these problems, but it took hours to download them via modem.

However, I still periodically have totally inexplicable problems with double layer DVD’s.  Sometimes they come out fine, sometimes they don’t.

Note that the recorder automatically goes into pause whenever it detects a lack of signal.  This can be very convenient at times.  OTOH, if you’ve got a lot of short gaps on a tape it can be a pain.

It also doesn’t have an easy way to monitor what’s being recorded (i.e., no output), though you can fairly easily get around this if your VHS player has multiple outputs or by putting a suitable camcorder between the VHS player and the recorder.

While not designed for that purpose, you can also record shows off your TV with it.  However, it doesn’t have a timer or remote.

Despite it’s issues, it has allowed me to fairly easily preserve all sorts of tapes that were simply degrading with age.

FWIW.