archiving VHS on DVD

anyone have experience archiving VHS tapes onto DVDs?  i have a ton of ol=
d=20
home movies from my mom (and soon my gf's mom) that she wants archived on=
=20
DVD ... i have all the equipment (ATI AIW 9600 non-pro, Hauppage WinTV-Ra=
dio,=20
DVD+/-RW, VCR :P) i need, but haven't been very satisfied with the result=
s so=20
far ...

(note: yes, i do realize the AIW capture capabilities don't work in linux=
 .. i=20
was initially using the software that came with the AIW in XP to try to=20
capture, but ran into some problems, see below)

i've been really pleased with (gasp) the windows software that came with =
my=20
AIW for authoring DVDs (menus, titles, etc), but whenever i captured from=
 the=20
VCR, the picture was either choppy (from too many frames dropped when usi=
ng=20
higher res) or it was "blotchy" (when using the lower res) ... i figured,=
=20
since my home theatre is run by linux, that i could probably get better=20
captures in linux because of better performance, stability, etc, but i'm =
not=20
completely sure where to begin capturing in linux ...=20

at this point, i would like to capture the videos in linux, then take the=
m=20
into XP and use the software (can't recall the name) to put them all toge=
ther=20
on a DVD and burn ... i'd like to get the videos as close as possible to =
the=20
original quality so they can be enjoyed at their current quality level be=
fore=20
they deteriorate anymore!

one of the biggest questions i have is what the optimum resolution would =
be=20
for capturing ... obviously a dvd resolution will be higher than the orig=
inal=20
vhs, so i'm not sure which to capture at to prevent too much scaling or i=
mage=20
quality loss when playing back on a set-top DVD player ...

suggestions?  tips?  all are appreciated!

jesse
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