I've recently acquired a Canopus ADVC 100 to convert my VHS tapes to DVD and need some help please.

1. I have Pinnacle and Nero Vsion Express
2. What should I capture the footage as - mpeg or DV?
3. What format does it need to be in to burn to DVD?
4. Is there a maximum amount I can capture. Pinnacle said I could only capture 17 mins in one go which is a pain.

Maybe someone could give me some straight forward steps on how to achieve the best quality picture from their own experience.

Also I have noticed a very thin line at the bottom of the screen when I capture - any advice on why this happens?

Many thanks in advance.

See number 9 in the FAQ here:

http://www.videoforums.co.uk/reviews/faq

The limit on Pinnacle sounds a bit wierd, it's probably because you only have enough space on your HD for 17 minutes of full quality DV, it take sup a lot of space. (see FAQ again)

should answer most of your questions. The thin line is just because of the VHS source not filling the whole frame, you probably won't see it on the TV so don't worry about it.

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That's because the partition you use for video capture is formatted in FAT, which has a 4 GB file size limit. Convert it to NTFS.
You won't see it on your TV because of overscan, so don't worry.

Thanks for the advice. I burnt the project onto DVD using DVD santa and I'm not 100% happy with the finish. The lines blur at some points. COuld this be because I am using a VHS PAL and burnt onto NTSC DVD.

Your DVD software should give you the option of recording a PAL DVD or a NTSC DVD and do the conversion for you, regardless of what format you captured it in. Although trying to play back the NTSC disc on a PAL tv will result in you only getting a black and white picture - not too sure what the results are using a PAL disc on a NTSC tv.

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

It would help to know if you are saving camcorder video or backing up a personal collection of shows- you might want to organize things differently.

I went through this recently, and found that my time was more than doubled using a computer as compared with a stand-alone DVD recorder.

A couple observations:

A number of people have reported that homebrew DVDs have failed in as little as 6 months, not from scratches or poor storage; perhaps from defective media? Don't toss your tapes prematurely.

If you are transferring one-of-a-kind vids, keep in mind that DVD is in a major transition and will be for some time- will dual layer take over or blu-ray or something else? Will you be doing the job all over again in a year or so?

If you will be editing, you want to save as DV. (A cheap kludge option for that - an 'obsolete' Sony Digital8 camera with passthru.) You may want to check out data DVD procedures if ultimate quality is an issue...

Good luck!