VHS to Digital Question, S-Video worth it?

[DavidRand]

I have some VHS tapes that I would like to convert to digital and burn onto DVD. Obviously I would like to be able to retain as much quality as I can. I've done some reading on how to do this but have some questions on what will be the best way.

1) VCR connected to video capture card via RCA.

2) VCR connected to video capture card via S-video.

3) VCR connected to Camcorder via RCA connected to to capture card via Firewire/S-video/etc...

Everything I've read says that option 1 would give the worst quality. But then they go on to recommend something like option 3. I don't understand though. If an RCA connection is the weak link in option 1 how would putting a camcorder in the middle make it any better? A slow link (RCA) connected to a fast link (Firewire, etc...) is still only going to go as fast as the slow link. Or is it not the speed but the way data is formated for RCA that makes it bad? It seems to be that the best option would be 2. But then since these tapes are not SVHS would it really matter if I had an S-video output from my VCR anyways?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

cdbeaver@hotmail.com

Anyway you look at is, it's going to be analog input. I don't think the quality is going to be any different betwen any of the three options.

I'd say get the best dedicated capture card you can afford if quality is that big of a factor.