Capturing Analogue (VHS) Video

[Rich]

I am trying to capture a VHS tape to my computer however I am getting
nowhere fast and would really appreciate some help/advice/opinion. I
normally use movie maker with my dv camcorder as it is simple and easy.
According to the help file it will work when trying to capture from a vhs
vcr but whenever I try I get an error that no video capture device was
detected. I have connected the VCR to the computer using various leads (S
video, RCA etc) but it will not seem to recognise that there is anything
there, even when the vcr is switched on and playing.

Would it seem likely that any capture card on my computer is only able to
work with dv input?

Any help is gratefully received,


Rich

 

[Edgar Meluso.]

I had the same problem and the trouble was the video
card,your card should be capable to capture analog
signal,from vcr.The tv tuner is not the same.And some
card has only S-VIDEO and AVI OUT,if your card has S-
VIDEO or AVI IN,you should check your driver.

 

[Guest]

You have to have an analog video capture card to capture the video from your VCR or you may try to connect your VCR to your DV recorder and attempt to capture it through your usual ieee 1394 connection...just a thought.

Adaptec has a analog video capture card available...there are several others.

 

[Graham Hughes, MVP Digital Media]

Other than internal cards, you can also get external convertors, see
www.canopus.com and view the advc range of products. These are quality,
there are also cheaper versions around like the dazzle, but not as good.

To use pass through, as described above, you'd need a cam that was able to
do this and an app that would accept it, MM doesn't, although windows do a
windows capture app which will!!

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.simplydv.co.uk
www.dvds2treasure.com

You have to have an analog video capture card to capture the video from

your VCR or you may try to connect your VCR to your DV recorder and attempt
to capture it through your usual ieee 1394 connection...just a thought.

 

[Guest]

I am currently using an nVidea Persoanl Cinema graphics card to capture VHS
into my PC and save it to DVD. The Personal Cinema card combines television
tuner capture, RCA jacks in (as on older VHS players) and S-Video in (as on
newer VHS players and analog video camcorders like mine). It installs itself,
and on reboot, a menu will appear. choose "edit video, and it will load the
necessary application to capture (very simply) and edit your VHS format and
transfer it to any other format, including DVD, AVI, and MPEG.

 

[Guest]

I have an NVIDIA GeForce 6100 video card. I also have an analog video camera.
Will Windows Movie Maker see my camera if I connect it through the TV Tuner
card's coaxial cable port? And by going through the TV Tuner, will I get the
same grainy quality that I do when I watch TV with Media Center?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

a) Probably. But a third party video editing applications may give better
results.

b) No the signal should be as good as the source... so if it's a good
picture on the camera, it should be good (less one generation) on the TV
Tuner. It will never be as good as the original analog recording. Your
grainy quality may be caused by the tv source.... how many times is your
antenna signal split?

 

[Guest]

Cari, Thanks for the heads up. Did you have any 3rd party apps in mind when
you recommended that? I just bought this PC back in January, and I'll be
trying this for the first time.

Signal is only split once, and it reminds me of the quality you used to get
before cable, when there was an antenna on the roof!

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

My antenna on the roof provides very good OTA (over the air) signals... but
then I'm not far from the transmitter and they're digital signals as well as
analog.

I'd probably use Cyberlink's PowerDirector... v5 is the latest. It's very
similar to Windows Movie Maker but does capture analog very well. If you
already have Nero or Roxio, they will do the job as well, but they're not
quite so simple to use.