Mini DV, VHS, Audio Cass to PC hard & software

[Magilla]

Hi all, I need to archive family videos from Mini DV, VHS, Audio Cassette to digital.

What card(s), software and video format do you suggest?
The the equipment I have is:
SSD main drive, win7 64bit, 4gb ram, NVIDIA GeForce GT 240
+Onkyo dual cassette deck with RCA no toslink
+Some average VHS machines

I have some 60 mini DV's to convert to a different digital format.
I was going to buy a mini DV player on Ebay for a few hundred $ thinking I'd get better quality out of than buying another camcorder then sell lit when I'm done but someone told me it wouldn't matter so I may buy a local used camcorder.
What do you think?

What software would I use that would keep the audio sinc'd well with the video when ?transferring and what format would you suggest?
?Will the firfewire on my pc take care of both audio and video?

Thank you

 

[Fat.Clown]

what's your budget for this?

for cheap solution, buy something like this Amazon.com: Belkin Audio Y Cable Splitter 1-Mini Plug, 2-RCA Plugs (6 feet): Electronics

and just connect the Onkyo dual cassette deck you have to the Microphone port on your computer. then import the audio with Audacity.

I think using an audio interface, such as Amazon.com: Behringer UCA222 U-Control Ultra-Low Latency 2 In/2 Out USB Audio Interface with Digital Output And Massive Software Bundle: Musical Instruments would get you slightly better quality than using the Mic port on the computer.

for mini DV and VHS tapes. the audio is interleaved with the video, so you shouldn't have to worry about sync issues. to import them, I'd use something like this Amazon.com: Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder: Electronics connect the hd pvr to your computer and install the software. then connect your mini DV player/VHS player to the HD PVR and record. it records in H.264 format, which I think is a very good codec. save the files in MP4 container, and it will play on practically any media player.

I had a Sony Mini DV recorder back in like '03 and I was able to import video (and audio, since it is interleaved) via firewire using Sony Vegas. However, I suggested the HD PVR because you wanted to import VHS tapes too. unless the mini DV player can also somehow play VHS tapes, then you can skip the HD PVR.

 

[Magilla]

Thank you very much, this was very helpful. I'll be working on it for the next few weeks.