VHS Video To USB device

[esecallum]

I want to get my old pal secam VHS videos transferred to a gigantic 750GB hardrive using a cheap USB FROM EBAY costing £10.

in mpg 2 format.

examples:-

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trk..._nkw=usb+video+

i have about 60 to 100 tapes and intend to use a setting of ABOUT 50 megabytes for 3 minutes of VHS this will translate to 1 gig per hour.each tape carries from 3 hours short play to 6hours long play of video.

i intend to leave IT playing at night and record whole tape to hard drive which will also be plugged in via USB.

I see a few problems though.the hard drive will HAVE to be formatted in NTFS due to 4 gig file limit in windows me.

the operating system will be widows me.

it will have 48 bit LEXX patch to address large hard drives.does it really need this patch?

but i take it even though the input will be from usb vhs to usb 2 750 gb ntfs hard drive it will not be possible to record unless you use a win2000/xp?

i would prefer to use fat 32 on 750 gb hard frive but the 4 gig file limit prevents me unless the software breaks them automatically to 3.5gb etc...

also i note the software for usb to video capture is always win2000/xp....

can i use different software to capture usb video stream like virtual dub etc??

also is the encoding to mpg 2 done on usb chip or by cpu....?

i want to have basically about 80 X 6 gig mpg 2 files which i can store without burning them to dvd until i have more time for editing/burning.

vhs tapes are decaying.

can anyone help?

thanks.

Edited November 24, 2008 by esecallum

[Dave-H]

I foresee a whole host of problems trying to do this under Windows ME.

Is the 750GB drive USB or IDE?

Does Windows ME recognise it?

Even if it does, will you be able to get ME to recognise an NTFS formatted drive, even with patches?

Are there any ME drivers for the USB dongle?

Does the capture software even run on ME?

Personally I wouldn't even think of trying this, the problems will be horrendous, and the whole setup is likely to be very unreliable for doing long unattended captures, even if you can get it to work.

You'd be far better off buying a DVD recorder with a built-in hard drive, transferring the VHS tapes to the hard drive, editing them as necessary, and then burning them to DVD.

Much less grief, and almost certanly a better quality result at the end of the day.

[esecallum]

I foresee a whole host of problems trying to do this under Windows ME.

Is the 750GB drive USB or IDE?

Does Windows ME recognise it?

Even if it does, will you be able to get ME to recognise an NTFS formatted drive, even with patches?

Are there any ME drivers for the USB dongle?

Does the capture software even run on ME?

Personally I wouldn't even think of trying this, the problems will be horrendous, and the whole setup is likely to be very unreliable for doing long unattended captures, even if you can get it to work.

You'd be far better off buying a DVD recorder with a built-in hard drive, transferring the VHS tapes to the hard drive, editing them as necessary, and then burning them to DVD.

Much less grief, and almost certanly a better quality result at the end of the day.

the 750 gb drive is a sata drive but to make it work i have connected an usb adapter to it so it functions like an external drive...

i was hoping that software would automatically split the input mpg2 into 4gb chunks...so i dont need to format to ntfs which i hate anyway.

i would love to get a hard disc recorder but i hear they break down very quickly after only 1 or 2 weeks and also the hard drives are only 80 gb to 160 gb and that bigger hard drives push the cost to £600.

hard disc recorders seem very fragile and keep breaking down after only a week or 2 and cannot be repaired or are too expensive to get them repaired.

also you cannot replace the hard drive without complicated formatting.

also they are very delicate and breakdown or freeze for no reason...due to heat in the hard drive box...

[Dave-H]

the 750 gb drive is a sata drive but to make it work i have connected an usb adapter to it so it functions like an external drive...

Ah, right.

i was hoping that software would automatically split the input mpg2 into 4gb chunks...so i dont need to format to ntfs which i hate anyway.

I have a DV firewire capture card which does exactly that, with avi files.

I would love to get a hard disc recorder but i hear they break down very quickly after only 1 or 2 weeks and also the hard drives are only 80 gb to 160 gb and that bigger hard drives push the cost to £600.

hard disc recorders seem very fragile and keep breaking down after only a week or 2 and cannot be repaired or are too expensive to get them repaired.

also you cannot replace the hard drive without complicated formatting.

also they are very delicate and breakdown or freeze for no reason...due to heat in the hard drive box...

Well none of that it true in my experience.

I have two DVD recorders with hard drives, one Liteon 160GB and one Sony 80GB.

They are both going strong after several years of use.

The Liteon hard drive will hold 66 hours of material at SP, which is quite good enough for ex-VHS recordings.

Look on eBay, I'm sure you'll find plenty of DVD recorders at a very good price which will do exactly what you need.

Cheers, Dave.