OT: Copying video onto CD/DVD

[Bobby]

I have a couple of old video tapes that I want to copy onto digital
media (CD or DVD). But I dont know how to go about this.

I have a (digital) TV card in my PC with RF IN/OUT, AV (Composite) IN
and S-VHS connection (an input I presume).

I have an old VCR player in my house.

How do I connect the VCR to my PC? And once connected, how I do record
the videos onto my PC?

I don't want to do any fancy editing but what software is best for
basic editing? Can MovieMaker edit videos?

Cheers.

Bobby

 

[Panic]

I have a couple of old video tapes that I want to copy onto digital
media (CD or DVD). But I dont know how to go about this.
I have a (digital) TV card in my PC with RF IN/OUT, AV (Composite) IN
and S-VHS connection (an input I presume).
I have an old VCR player in my house.
How do I connect the VCR to my PC? And once connected, how I do record
the videos onto my PC?
I don't want to do any fancy editing but what software is best for
basic editing? Can MovieMaker edit videos?
Cheers.
Bobby

Your final goal is probably to be able to play your DVD video on a TV set.
It costs a little more but you might consider buying a DVD recorder for your
TV. If you already have a DVD movie player for your TV, read the manual
and find out what kind of home recorded DVD disks it will play. All TV DVD
players I know of will play commercially pressed movies but many will only
play certain media that you burn at home. +R, -R, RAM, etc are some
variations. It would be wise to buy a DVD recorder that can burn DVDs in
the format that your existing DVD player can use. (Of course your DVD
recorder will also play back anything you burn on it but it makes your
system more flexible this way)

I have my TV setup with my DVD/VCR player using RCA video/audio feedis to my
DVD recorder which hooks into my TV through RCA video/audio inputs. I set
up my DVD recorder to "look" at the RCA inputs to record. That way I can
make a DVD copy of anything I play on my DVD/VCR recorder and monitor what's
going on by tuning my TV to Video 1 input. Works fine. Remember, though,
if you want to play your burned DVD on another DVD player you must finalize
the disk.

 

[dobey]

I have a couple of old video tapes that I want to copy onto digital
media (CD or DVD). But I dont know how to go about this.

I have a (digital) TV card in my PC with RF IN/OUT, AV (Composite) IN
and S-VHS connection (an input I presume).

I have an old VCR player in my house.

How do I connect the VCR to my PC? And once connected, how I do record
the videos onto my PC?

I don't want to do any fancy editing but what software is best for
basic editing? Can MovieMaker edit videos?

Cheers.

Bobby

Find out if your TV card actually does accept input, as not all do.

All you would need is a cable that goes from the video out of the VCR to the
video in on the capture card.
Either it will be an s-video cable, or RCA to s-video, depending on the
outputs on the VHS machine.

You will also need a cable to capture the audio from the VCR to your line-in
on the soundcard. (Don't use mic-in).

It's basically the same as connecting your VCR to your TV set, but you could
need adapters to make the proper connections.

Usually there will be an option to record from and an input source using the
software that you use to watch/record TV programs.

Look out for something like VirtualDub, or even better try the Doom9
forums - they could help you with free tools ect.

You will likely need to experiment with compression methods, depending on
the power of your PC, though it might be better to record it uncompressed
from the VHS source, edit, then compress. This will result in a huge file
initially, depending on the length of the movie.

If you want DVD,(video), you will need to convert to MPEG2, of which there
are a number of basic converters around that will dump it to a disc for you,
and are easy to use (though many don't include menu creating functions).

MPEG4 will allow you to get more on a disc though, so it depends on your
what you want to do with the disc afterwards. There are programs around that
will offer compression presets with fair results.

It's can be quite a long process and a steep learning curve so you need to
do a bit of reading first.

In general, don't choose the highest resolution to record in as it will be a
waste of bandwidth and space, (VHS resolution is quite low, but I can't
recall it off hand).
Don't forget to compress the sound.
Use small files as a test bed when experimenting with compression - nothing
worse than waiting an hour to find something hasn't worked properly. Things
like fast action and fog can cause problems, so test your compression
methods on those scenes.

It can take quite a long time to encode your videos.

Good luck...

 

[Panic]

I have a couple of old video tapes that I want to copy onto digital

Your final goal is probably to be able to play your DVD video on a TV set.
It costs a little more but you might consider buying a DVD recorder for
your TV. If you already have a DVD movie player for your TV, read the
manual and find out what kind of home recorded DVD disks it will play.
All TV DVD players I know of will play commercially pressed movies but
many will only play certain media that you burn at home. +R, -R, RAM, etc
are some variations. It would be wise to buy a DVD recorder that can burn
DVDs in the format that your existing DVD player can use. (Of course your
DVD recorder will also play back anything you burn on it but it makes your
system more flexible this way)

I have my TV setup with my DVD/VCR player using RCA video/audio feedis to
my DVD recorder which hooks into my TV through RCA video/audio inputs. I
set up my DVD recorder to "look" at the RCA inputs to record. That way I
can make a DVD copy of anything I play on my DVD/VCR recorder and monitor
what's going on by tuning my TV to Video 1 input. Works fine. Remember,
though, if you want to play your burned DVD on another DVD player you must
finalize the disk.

Whoops. Typo. On the 4th line from the bottom where I wrote DVD/VCR
recorder I should have written DVD/VCR player.