Doug;
There is another cheap way to digitize your VHS and 8mm tapes.
I use my sony trv27 minidv camcorder as a "pass thru"
to convert analog tapes to digital.
The quality of the DVD is about the same as the VHS tape, depending
on how much compression you use when you render the DVD.
 Not sure how many other cameras have this analog-to-digital conversion
feature
but it works great. It is time consuming playing thru all the tapes, and
produces
large files so you need plenty of  hard drive space.

All I had to do is add a firewire card to my computer to hook up the
camcorder.
 I got a combo firewire/ USB 2.0 card for under $30
An internal DVD burner is cheaper and faster than an external drive.
The NEC 2500 8X drive is popular right now and is under $100

----- Original Message -----
From: "D. Kit" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 1:53 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Which hardware for converting video?


> I have many hours of home video(analog) on vhs and 8mm  that I wish to
save
> in digital form.  My question is should I get an external or internal DVD
> burner for my computer?  My video card does not have the connections to
plug
> in a video camera so I believe I would need to install a video capture
card
> in order to use an internal DVD burner.  I do not believe my computer has
> USB-2 which is what the external burners want to connect to a computer so
> I'd have to install that (card/device?). Which will serve me better in the
> long run?

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