How to copy from VCR to computer ????

[Opusita]

Hello,

I have 2, that's all 2 (about 8 hours), VHS video tapes that I would like to
transfer to CD and in the future to DVD. I have tried connecting the VCR to
a TV tuner card and doing a video capture but the quality is poor.

In reading around it sounds like most captures directly from analog video
result in poor quality. I'm not looking for studio or art quality......just
close the video. Here's what I have..........VHS tapes.........VCR with 2
RCA output jacks (1audio, 1 video)........GeForce FX5200 graphics card with
DB15, S-Video, DVI connectors.......and Pinnacle express capture software
and the Aver TV tuner card. USB 2.0 only, no Firewire.

Is there a way to connect the VCR (RCA jacks) to USB or the S-Video on the
graphics card?.........if so is it probable that the quality will be
improved? Any and all comments will be appreciated.

Marian

 

[Nick Burns]

My 5200 card does not have video capture...? What are you capturing with..?
The quality of any capture is determined by the rate of capture.

 

[Opusita]

All I can add is that is listed as Aver TV WDM.

The problem is that the video display is "washed out" from the Aver TV card,
be cable TV or from the VCR.....and so is the capture.

Marian

 

[John A]

I suspect there are lots of folks doing this in lots of different ways,
however, I will offer my two cents. I have just converted 8 VHS video
tapes to DVD. I have a Leadtek WinFast Deluxe capture card that cost
around $50 and it contained Ulead Video studio 7 and Ulead Movie Maker
2. This is the process I used and the resulting quality was much better
than I expected.

1. Wired VHS player's composite video out and audio out to the capture
card inputs. The RCA Mono out of my VHS player took some special
adaptor connectors from Radio Shack to split the mono RCA plug and feed
into the stereo audio-in plug on the capture card. The Leadtek card came
with a cable that provided inputs for both S-video and Composite Video
(RCA plug).
2. Used the DVD-NTSC capture profile in the Winfast PVR program that
came with the capture card.
3. Captured video to MPG file. One hour if video produces approximately
3.5G mpeg file. I suspect you can use lower resolution capture profiles
if you want smaller files, at the expense of video quality.
4. Inserted this video into Ulead Video Studio 7 to do editing and then
generated an updated MPG file.
5. Inserted the modifed MPG file into the Ulead Movie Maker 2 session,
defined the chapter points, and burned the DVD and saved to hard disk

Results were very good. I cannot see any difference between viewing the
VHS tapes and viewing the resulting DVDs.