VHS->DVD

[Bill Davidsen]

Alan Cox wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:42:13 +0100
> Andrew Haley<aph at redhat.com>  wrote:
>
>> On 10/14/2010 12:33 PM, Alan Cox wrote:
>>> On Thu, 14 Oct 2010 06:29:10 -0400
>>> Tod Thomas<fr33zone at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>
>>>>    I remember reading some time ago that VHS was a proprietary standard
>>>> and without special equipment it was difficult to transfer it to other
>>>> media.  I'm pretty sure I heard within the last couple of years that the
>>>> VHS standard was retired, or its patent ran out, or something.  I
>>>> expected someone would eventually pick up on that and develop an open
>>>> source process for transferring old VHS content to DVD.  Is there
>>>> something likes this?  Am I dreaming?
>>>
>>> You need a capture card for own stuff. It may be macrovision
>>> protected so you can't do it without either other trivial bits (which I
>>> believe are now illegal in the USA) or a tv capture card that doesn't get
>>> confused by it.
>>
>> I have a need for this (an old wedding video).  I'd be interested to know
>> if anyone here knows of a tv capture card that works well with Fedora.
>
> I used an old Brooktree BT848 based card for doing mine. The 848/878
> based cards are normally found for peanuts over here these days and also
> do analogue TV if you are in a part of the world that still has the old
> system in use.
>
> Alan

Many of us are in the part of the world where the cable provider puts (must put) 
anything broadcast in HD on as clear QAM, and most of the original analog 
channels on so people with old TVs will still buy cable. I have several tuners 
which will do both, but haven't found a viewing/recording application to control 
and use the tuner. And mythtv is way too heavy weight for casual use, what I 
want is the old xawtv or similar which knows about both analog and digital.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot