Has anybody here used RTV for capping VHS?

Yes, I have done it a few times with great results. I've never tried it with a commercial video though.

I've done this with both OTA and pre-recorded VHS tapes going from PAL to NTSC, but have not burnt to DVD yet (I'm just interested in building a DVA library to watch at will). Results have been very satisfactory even at standard quality. I have done the same with a Panasonic E85 and have had good results, too.

Thanks for the input so far, guys.


Fussy-if you are planning on burning to DVD, Ive had great success with my friends HQ files using Womble Video Wizard & TMPGEnc DVD Author (one of the few dvd authoring progs Ive tried that creates a playable disc with the non standard HQ RTV stuff). Womble is an excellent MPEG editor, smooth transitions, etc, and doesnt ***** about the RTV HQ files at all and doesnt re-encode.


I've seen many people suggest that you record in medium quality for DVD compliant files, but w Womble & TMPGEnc DVD, HQ files are fine and dandy.

I have done this and it works GREAT! My computer is relatively slow so using it as a direct capture device is not practical. I dump the VHS to the RTV, transfer using DVArchive, then edit using VideoReDo and burn to DVD using DMF2.


Be careful of pre-recorded tapes. I tried with one that had macrovision and the RTV FREAKED!! Video blinked, digital signal skipped like a scratched CD and it took 5 minutes to reboot. Didn't hurt anything but it was ugly.

I transfered many VHS rock concerts to my RTV and then to DVD (using DVDLAB). Several of these tapes came from my brother in law and he swears the DVD looks better than the VHS ever did. Most would say the DVD copy can't look any better than the original source, but I attribute this improved quality appearance to Womble and the use of an high quality SVHS player.