importing vhs tapes

[Guest]

I have hooked up my VCR to my computer to import old VHS-C tapes. I am able
to record to VAIO (Sony's) Gigapocket the movies - so I know it is hooked up
correctly. But when I import to Movie Maker, I only get audio and If I
import to Sony's MovieShaker, that I have used before with mini-DV, it
doesn't playback the sound. I would love to be able to do this easily and
import directly from the VCR to a program that will allow small amounts of
editing and music adding. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong.

I have lots of other programs on my computer for video editing but most seem
to want to work with the Mini-DV camcorder.

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Hi, I am doing something similar right now. I am taking a friends VHS tapes
and using Gigapocket to record them in the same way as you are. I am then
burning these directly to dvd....and am going to show him how to edit them
later in Movie Maker. Gigapocket records the VHS tapes into MPEG format
which will not work in Movie Maker......you need to convert those files into
a different format, such as AVI. I use AVS Video Converter to do that....you
can find it at www.avsmedia.com and costs $29.95... its a great program
and a utility which I use all the time. You can import your 'recorded' file
directly into it, and output it as a selected format....most often I choose
either Xvid or Divx. If you do, Google for Divx and download the 'free'
codecs/etc. After you convert the file format you can import it directly
into Movie Maker and edit to your hearts content....if you are later going to
burn a dvd, then 'save to computer' in DV-AVI format to keep best quality for
your video. Have fun.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info. I tried it on a sample with the free trial download.
It worked great. Excuse my stupidity, but why do I need the other part -
codecs? I found it on google but not sure what it is for and do I use this
as part of the conversion, importing or making the dvd. Thanks for the help.

 

[Guest]

Oh, I didn't explain that very good. I meant to say if you 'convert' your
file into DIVX format (an AVI type)....you would need the DIVX codec on your
machine so you can play it in a player (i.e. Media Player). Its a free
download at www.divx.com ...where you see 'Divx Play' you will find the
free download right underneath it. Check out the other stuff on the site
while you are there...they have their version of high def and lots of
trailers and various cool things. Divx is a good thing to have if you
download a lot from the net or convert into that format. I sometimes use it
since you will see it has higher specs when you check it out in the AVS Video
Converter. If you get that click on the 'advanced' tab and check out the
listed items of what you are converting and what it is being converted
to.....that way you can see the different specs of the format you choose to
use. Have fun!