I can’ believe how hard it is to copy a VHS tape to a DVD.

[sgregory]

I can’ believe how hard it is to copy a VHS tape to a DVD. The problem I am having, which seems to be common from what I am reading in other posts, is the audio syncing up with the video. I am able to capture the VHS tape fine. I have tried several different authoring programs and they all appear to play the video without a problem. It all looks great and the video and audio all sync perfect, or close enough. The problem occurs when I actually create the DVD files (to the hard drive not the DVD drive yet). Early in the video the audio and video appear to sync fine, but by the end of the video they are off by a second or so.

Without spending a fortune, or getting an advanced degree, is there anything I can do? I am not looking for really great quality, just something reasonable.

Please help! Starting to get frustrated.

Facts:

Windows XP
Tried both an internal AverMedia capture card that used the line in from from sound card, and also a TDK Indicapture external USB II connected with both Audio and Video. The TDK unit works great but I can only seem to get the capture to work with Showbiz, every other program either does not recognize the device or can’t connect, but that’s another issue. Showbiz creates a MPEG II file.
Plenty of disc space and defraged. 2.4 processor with meg of memory.

 

[ChickenMan]

The progressive out of sync is normally accociated with dropped frames while capturing the video. A video frame is missed (dropped) but the audio is not, hence out of sync.

Just try different capturing programs, have you tried VirtualDUB yet? It will tell you how many frames are dropped. Is there an option to "Sync Audio to Video" in your capturing software? If so, change its setting. I have tried quite a few software capturing programs and finally settled on Ulead Video Studio 7 as I got 0 or very few dropped frames. You can capture to AVI or to MPEG2. I then re-encode to DVDR with CCE using DVD2SVCD. Result is always perfect sync for me.

EDIT: Check out http://www.virtualdub.org/docs_capture and make sure your cap card has the latest drivers.

 

[sgregory]

One last question to show my stupidity

I read a lot of posts and guides before I posted my question, and what I read and what you said makes all the sense in the world except for one thing - the the captured MPEG file plays fine. No sync problem. The problem is always when I convert the Mpeg to the DVD which is of course after the capturing stage.

What am I missing?

I seem to have a lot of problem getting capturing software to work with the external USB connected device I have, although they all work with the internal card I have. I don't care which I use although I think the external device is a better device with more "on-board" processing.

Of course, thanks for taking the time to help a newbie like me.

I have been looking at DVD2SVCD and I see lots of AVI to DVD conversion but no MPEG to DVD conversion. Am I looking in the wrong place?

 

[ipdave]

Probably not your solution, but after trying all kinds of hardware and software, what I use now is a Sanyo settop unit that has both VCR and DVD-Recorder built in. Dub to DVD, then import in DVD Author, add menus and crop out whatever, re-burn.

I tried copying to my DV camera or streaming it and importing via firewire, but sound sync was an off and on issue. I guess I am getting lazy and don't have time for all the 39 steps to get it to disk, and this is my $300 solution (my Dazzle PCI cost almost that just for analog capture!).

 

[ChickenMan]

I tend to capture ONLY in Ulead VS7 as an AVI (with Huffyuv codec & WAV 16bit 48khz audio) then convert to DVD with DVD2SVCD using CCE as the encoder. This encoding part Tutorial is at http://www.dvdrbase.com/showthread.php?t=25572 I have NEVER had a sync problem doing it all this way.

I suspect your "authoring" software is doing more than Authoring, its encoding/transcoding as well.