Best way to put VHS on DVD with GBPVR?

[mkuyper]

OK. I need to transfer a bunch of home movies and hopefully some store-bought movies to DVD and I'm looking for the easiest way to accomplish this using GBPVR. But it needs to be easy enough for my wife to do it also. She uses GBPVR regularly, so I'm hoping there's a way to do it all within GBPVR

I have a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2. The approach I'm thinking of taking is this. Use RCA audio/video cables to connect from our VCR to my WinTV-PVR-USB2 and set that input as it's own channel on GBPVR. Then, in GBPVR, just go to that channel, hit play on the VCR, hit record on GBPVR. Then when it's done, have some GBPVR plugin that converts the file to DVD format and stores it somewhere on my PC. Then, once they're all in DVD format, I can pick and choose files that I want on a DVD and burn it.

Now, if someone can help me with how to accomplish this and what plugins or utilities I would need, I'd really appreciate it. I see bits and pieces scattered throughout the forum, but my experience level in GBPVR is not good enough to where I can put the pieces together.

Also a side question, on my WinTV-PVR-USB2, if I have coax connected to it coming from my antenna and also the RCA cables connected as described above as a second input, does that work? Can it have two inputs or will it just pick one?

Thanks!

[Carlito]

This should be possible. I have done similar using my pvr-150.
if you add a new capture source in config using your rca inputs (composite, external tuner) this will give you a new channel. when you tune to that channel you can play your vcr and it will show on screen. You can then hit the record button in gbpvr and it will record onto your harddrive.
The recording should already be dvd compliant.

Can it have two inputs or will it just pick one?

you can have two but only use one at a time. therefore if you are watching tv you will not be able to record from the vcr and vice versa.

[mkuyper]

Can anyone confirm whether or not this is the case? Can the file it creates go right to DVD? Does it have to be demoxed or something? Is the file too big? Are there GBPVR plugins to do this and burn the files to DVD?

[Carlito]

Showburner is one utility that integrates into gbpvr and allows you to burn files to dvd with menus

[Braklet]

I guess yours and Carlito's method is about as slick as you're going to find, but IMO for simple things like encoding VHS tapes, WinTV2K is easier to use. But if it works for you and your wife, more power to you.

Do you plan to edit the video before burning? If so you'll need an MPEG2 native editor. I like VideoReDo Plus; it has the added advantage of compatibility with the Microsoft DVR-MS wrapper format (if you ever get around to adding a digital tuner to your system).

You didn't say whether you wanted to burn the MPEG2 files in PC storage format or actual DVD Video. If the latter you'll need some way to author the DVD. Let us know how Showburner works out for you.

[pz1]

@Mkuyper'
Have a look at this http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=10761 thread if you have not done so yet

[mkuyper]

OK - changed my plan of attack a little. I'm going to let the wife create the recordings using manual record on GBPVR, with my VCR hooked into the composite inputs on my Hauppauge WIN-TV-PVR-USB2. Then, I will convert the resulting files into DV files and edit them from there...

Question #1: What specific format are the files created by the Hauppauge WIN-TV-PVR-USB2? Just need to know specifics so I can figure out which freeware (hopefully) to download and use.

Question #2: Do you know of an easy program that converts this format into DV? I know there's a lot out there, but I hear about SO MANY programs that don't work like they say they'll work. Anyone?

[Braklet]

will convert the resulting files into DV files and edit them from there...

Question #1: What specific format are the files created by the Hauppauge WIN-TV-PVR-USB2? Just need to know specifics so I can figure out which freeware (hopefully) to download and use.

Question #2: Do you know of an easy program that converts this format into DV? I know there's a lot out there, but I hear about SO MANY programs that don't work like they say they'll work. Anyone?

I wouldn't recommend converting. I would recommend directly editing the files created by your USB2 box. They are standard MPEG2.

Converting would allow you to use tools dedicated to DV but would also consume up to 10x the disc space and take a lot more resources to edit. Not to mention the time to convert to and from DV.

There are a few low priced but good _frame accurate_ MPEG2 editors out there. There may be some free non-frame accurate MPEG editors but you'd be limited to editing at I-frame boundaries.

In my case, I was unwilling to deal with any conversion issues and wanted to cut commercials etc. at individual video frame boundaries. So finding the right native MPEG2 editor was essential.

Out of the shareware I tried, I liked two. Both of them cost around US$50:

Womble MPEG2VCR

VideoReDo Plus

I actually preferred the MPEG2VCR interface as well as its additional multiplexing tool, but ended up buying VideoReDo because it did a fantastic job automatically cleaning up some barely-compliant MPEG2 test files. It even fixes my HD DVR-MS files after they lose sync.

Also, VideoReDo's programmer participates in his support forum nearly as much as Sub.