Moving old media to DVD

[LegendKiller]

My boss wants to take old VHS tapes and move it onto his computer for eventual dvd burning, same with older casette tapes. It would be easy but he has a notebook.

Are there any external burners with composite-in? Any PCMCIA capture cards?

[Merlin]

Would something like this work for you?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7127129&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat13900050019&id=1109938021726

One of those DVD recorder/VHS combo units? It does not put it on a PC but does go from tape to DVD which sounds like your ultimate goal.

[Merlin]

Another idea is if you have access to a miniDV camcorder. Most models have an input that you could use to capture the analog signal and then you could move it to the PC via firewire.

[DarkFury]

Honestly, a DVD Burner would be much nicer to do that than trying to move it to a computer and then burn it to DVD later.

I don't know how much money the boss wants to spend, however the recent DVR I bought (see this thread here: http://www.gotapex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91603 ) allows you to copy the VHS to the hard drive on the unit, then it allows you to set up your "chapters" and what not for high speed dubbing from the HDD to DVD.

Pretty sweet setup if you want to transfer alot of VHS tapes to DVD.

[InfiniteNothing]

There are USB capture cards. There was one on the deals page 2 months ago for like $20 a/r. Buy.com doesn't carry it anymore but it can be found here: ebay (http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&fkr=1&from=R8&satitle=kworld+usb&category0)
I should warn you that it's alot of trouble. Quality is largely dependent on VHS quality.