[EJ]

I have a Panasonic E80H stand-alone DVD-R recorder w/ a built in hard drive. I have a large collection of VHS and Hi8 tapes to transfer digitize. Is the Panasonic the way to go, of would I get a better image with a video capture device connected to my pc?


Is there a pc device that comes highly recommended?

 

[olyteddy]

Yes and no. It all depends on how much work you want to do. For instance, if you plan to edit the video one of the cards that captures to your PC in the DV codec makes it easier to edit (all 'I' frames). If you plan to filter and clean up your VHS then you'll want to capture lossless to a codec like HUFFYUV. Since you have a large collection, I'd suggest using your DVD recorder because it's a lot more convenient and you're more likely to get it done. I used to capture to a PC using a Hauppage USB box that has a hardware MPEG2 encoder but once I got a DVD recorder I actually got a lot of my vids transferred. You can always import the DVD video into your computer if you do want to edit. HERE is a list of various capture cards if you choose to go that route.