Bit of a length reply
& written off the top of my head, but should cover everything that’s important - TiM.
3 mains ways of doing it which all have their own advantages & disadvantages –
1. a TV card/TV USB decoder w. RF (aerial) socket – this is the cheapest way of importing from VHS on to a PC however it has 2 major limitations – (i) an RF connection is more prone to interference & provides a significantly lesser quality signal than SCART. (ii) it would require a reasonably fast/modern PC to be able to capture at the highest quality the card/software will allow & nothing else running (as it’s capturing in real time it’s prone to skipping if the PC can’t keep up).
2. a ‘stand-alone’ DVD recorder – this method has significant advantages if you can record only what you want onto the DVD (ie you don’t want to edit the video afterwards) since it utilises a SCART connection &, providing the record setting is set to the max bitrate, will provide a good, solid recording.
It also does not require as fast a PC since the time/processing power critical portion of the operation is done by the DVD recorder – obviously a slow machine will be slower for editing/re-coding but this will not affect quality…
The huge disadvantage comes if you want to edit the video afterwards on the PC (ie removing ad breaks/trimming in/out points or converting to another format eg wmv, divx, mov, etc) since the vast majority of DVDs I’ve come across recorded in this way have problems with the timecode (short explanation of the affects are that the audio & video lengths aren’t reported correctly so any editing leads to major sync problems without adding extra steps in to correct it – not a problem if you’re happy with the original though).
A secondary, less common, issue is that some DVD recorders create completely non-standard DVDs to prevent them being edited without buying the manufacturer’s own software (or a hell of a lot of Google searching & some trial & error) – unfortunately I couldn’t tell you which ones do & don’t do this as I’ve only had to deal with the effects.
A third, more general issue is that you would need to be very careful about the software used since many editors & DVD encoders (if you edit you’d need to turn it back into a DVD structure) actually recode the video & audio losing quality (this also applies to a TV card but forgot to type it there). Likewise, any actual changes that are done (ie you wanted to add fades) will result in it needing to be recoded losing quality*.
(*some people suggest that you should convert MPEG to a lossless avi format before editing however this will have the same effect as converting an MP3 to a WAV file & back to MP3 – the final version will have less quality than the original),
3. using a miniDV camcorder via SCART (only worthwhile if you own/are buying one any way) – forgetting the price, this method has major advantages over any of the others for 2 reasons –
Firstly, the quality that the video is captured in is significantly higher (a video bitrate at least twice as high, cam model depending) than DVD so that any editing or re-coding is done from the best quality source & can be done losslessly (without re-coding it).
&, secondly, it will capture the whole of the video image including the over-scan (when a signal is broadcast in both 4.3 or 16.9, it is larger than is seen on a TV to prevent blank space on (esp.) the vertical) – what this actually means is that you can capture the whole of the video image rather than just what you’re designed to see, leaving you the choice of having the full image with black bars on the left/right or resizing to the standard.
Obviously, it also has the advantages of not requiring as fast a PC (years back, I had a 800Mz 486 that could handle it - though you will need a firewire card/socket), providing a definitely usable source (no compatibility/time-code issues), creating a ‘master copy’ that will be as good as can be got & can be retained on the miniDV tape.
The big disadvantage (forgetting the cost of the thing if not already owned), is the need for a large hard drive for storage/editing – whilst the maximum standard DVD quality will fit approx 1hr 10mins (ish – depends on menus & opening sequences & things) into the 4.7GB limitation of a cheap recordable DVD (same space then used on the hard drive, plus more for editing), whereas an hour in DV will be around the 13GB mark.
* * * * *
Other things to mention –
TV cards – the more modern cards are, well one would imagine, better but cost more... People tend to recommend Hauppauge ones, but have a good look around.
DVD-Recorders – money spent does not necessarily equal quality or usability; you need to do a thorough search (via Google or whatever) of forums to try & find any limitations that other people have found with a particular model.
miniDV – really check out the features on a camcorder to make sure it will do what you want – personally, I would tend to recommend Sony as the lens quality is amazing, but even within a brand some cams are better than others. Also it doesn’t have to be new – I still use a 6 (ish) year old TRV30E just for doing this & the results are still top notch (though have obviously a newer HD one for filming).
The most important things to look for are that it will actually take a TV signal in, it has firewire in/out so that you can put the edited version back onto tape to retain a master copy (some don’t), & the image quality (higher the better) – otherwise, some can do a straight pass through to the PC, some are both PAL & NTSC compatible (if you need that), etc…
Also, remember that you don’t need a specialised capture card (just a firewire socket & software).
Software – (if you’ve got the cash then… Otherwise, whilst I’m not endorsing it, things can normally be found on eMule/bittorrent sites).
For any MPEG encoding or editing I would highly recommend “TMPGEnc Studio” since, with a bit of playing, you can losslessly edit reasonably well. Also, for quick start/end trims, Boilsoft’s “AVI MPEG ASF WMV Splitter” is both very quick & lossless though is less functional.
For AVI editing (well DV is an AVI format), I personally prefer Adobe’s “Premiere” (ver 6 for slower PCs or the latest ver 2 Pro on newer ones esp., in the latter case, with the integration with “Audition” for audio editing & enhancing via “Adobe Bridge”), though other people (esp. Mac users) swear by either Avid or Final Cut Pro.
For making the final DVD with advanced menus (again my preference) I’d go for “DVD-lab PRO” as there’s a level of control in there that I’ve not found with any of the other software I’ve tried (& there’s been a lot).
Other quick notes –
Which ever method’s chosen, obviously the archive material’s on VHS but for future recordings you’ll get a better result be going straight to the TV card/DVD rec/DV cam from the satellite/cable box or TV SCART.
Also, should quickly mention TIVO, etc (if you have something akin to either that or Sky+ in Australia) for temporarily capturing new things, just to say that these methods do not capture the signal exactly as was (they record it like a video recorder – TIVO esp at a lower pixel ration & much lower bitrate) & it’s adding an extra step into the capture process -> less quality.
Conversely, it has been suggested that some digital cable recorders do an exact 1:1 copy, but more research would have to be done on a particular system.
Oh, & simple things like clearing the heads on your video recorder & fast forwarding (& rewinding) the tape through a couple of times to align & average out the tension in the tape & before capturing will also help things.
& written off the top of my head, but should cover everything that’s important - TiM.