I am a novice with video formats.  I am looking for software that I
can use to

1) Back up my DVD's to VCD
2) Convert my VHS tapes to VCD

I would prefer something reasonably priced (under $50) also any other
info and guidance on this topic would be helpful.

Thanks in Advace!

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Request for Question Clarification by bikerman-ga on 21 Nov 2002 11:18 PST

Hi, tigers-ga.

Would you mind telling us what type of hardware you run (e.g., PC or
Mac) and what OS you run (e.g., Windows 98, Linux, Mac OS X, etc)?

Thanks,
bikerman-ga

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Clarification of Question by tigers-ga on 21 Nov 2002 17:07 PST

I have two systems one is Win 98 and the other is XP.

for vhs tapes you'll have to have a way to 'input' the video to the pc
to burn a vcd/dvd (ie. a video card with a/v inputs such as
rca-component in) or have something between lets say the vcr that you
are playing your vhs tape on and converting it to digital on the fly
before it gets to the pc..I'm a novice so don't take my comments to
heart, but i have taken a vhs video tape and made a vcd, using a
relatively cheap piece of equipment, however, it converts it and sends
the signal into the computer via the USB port.  Quality was not the
greatest 240x320 or something like that and it was in an
uncompressed(huge file size) .avi file and with some freebie software
converted it to and .mpg/.mpeg file(compressed) so basically the end
result was 1 hour of video(including sound) across two 700meg cd's.
check this site out and poke around a bit, maybe it'll help.
http://www.afterdawn.com/articles/archive/musicvideo_guide_part_1_capture.cfm

Jusr for you info, SVCDS (better quality than VCD) can hold about 45
minutes of high quality video.

A great site to check out for encoding/decoding, etc. is
http://www.vcdhelp.com