I'm confused. I go to some sites and people there say that the quality of their transfer from vhs/minidv to DVD using a PC is superb, exactly as the vhs/minidv. Even a friend at work says the same and she uses NERO. I've tried several softwares and nothing seems to work, I've tried NERO and let it work automatic, I've tried Pinnacle (which wasn't too bad, but not the same as the original tape), and adobe something? Anyway, someone please help, I'm using a Sony PC350 which has a doc that converts from analog to digitial and I've hooked up a vcr to it, the tansfering to my PC seems to be ok. I've got tons of tapes I'd like to convert to DVD of course removing all the "camera on and not knowing" shots. Can someone just guide me thru this. Do I need other software? other card? I'm using a fairly new Sony VAIO, higher end model. PLEASE PLEASE HELP

Analog capture is supposed to be lossy anyway.
What exactly is it that you don't like about your results? Is the the resolution, the colors, the sound, maybe artifacts or horizontal lines etc.?

When I try to copy a Minidv to DVD, I get some flickering effects occassionally , also the picture is not as clear. For example when I play my Minidv thru my camera onto the TV, I can clearly see peoples faces and expressions and the color is very good. When I copy it to DVD, the faces are not as clear. It gets worst when I go from analog to DVD, but for now I'm more intereseted in Minidv to DVD. I've thought about AVID but didn't want to spend the cash if my results would be similar. Do you get similar results like mine wiht AVID, I mean not the exact relica of the tape but good enough?

Digital capture (aka MiniDV/D8 to PC via Firewire) is simply a transfer of bits, you can't lose quality.

I have a sony vaio as well, and if you use dvgate to capture, then you should be able to go in and choose a setting that says no compression on import. this should solve your crappy capture problems!

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Hi Chalmin

I take it you are using Firewire and not USB? Personally, I wouldn't use a laptop to capture, edit or burn video back out to dvd. They just don't have what it takes in terms of memory, cpu speed, fsb speed and the hard disks are too small capacity wise and they are too slow.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...

Wow, this site and you guys are awesome, Nikosony even made me laugh out loud. Anyway sorry if I confused you all. I can capture very good, the problem lies when I burn to DVD and play the DVD in my DVD player, the quality just isn't there. I've read some other messages and perhaps I need to play with compression settings or something when I go to burn my DVD. Please if there's anything that you might think I'm doing wrong on the output, please let me know. When I go to burn using Pinnacle, there's an icon for "High or Low Priority", Would you happen to know what this is for. Maybe its got something to do with quality. I do use Firewire for capture.

Whenever you are going to burn your DVD always go for the highest quality setting, it might be called HQ and be set to 60 minutes. Bitrates also play a part, personally I use VBR or variable bit rate (the amount of data recorded to the disc goes up and down depending on the amount of detail, colour and movement in every scene) but others use one called Constant Bit Rate or CBR where it stays the same regardless of what is on screen. Always go for the highest settings when burning your final DVD.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...

Thanks for the guide, I just made some very good DVDs using Pinnacle. I made one DVD using CBR and one using VBR. The VBR seemed to provide better picture flow. You said you use VBR, have you experimented with both in the past? and chose VBR for that reason? Just curious cause if you found VBR to be better than I'll stick to that. Thanks for all your help, my new DVDs came out excellent. Even my VHS to DVD is very good.

CBR uses the same data bitrate for all segments of the video, therefore more quality resources are wasted (for instance you need a high bitrate when your scene contains a lot of motion, but not if it's a still pic etc.). So VBR is optimal.