VCR to PC

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Kingrow

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#10382 19-Nov-2006 00:25

Does anybody know what's available here in good ol' Kiwiland when it comes to transferring old videotapes to the computer (and then to DVD/VCD)? I'm ever so keen on backing up my old tapes that are slowly deteriorating. Is there a specific hardware you need to buy - and where can I get it (for how much)? From what I've researched so far, my computer has the right software to do it. It's just getting the 2 machines linked that's the problem...

tonyhughes

Hawkes Bay
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#52965 19-Nov-2006 01:16

any video card with an input of some kind will do... - a TV capture card would be good - just send the signal through via the RF cord, and the PC will tune to the Videos signal, thinking its a TV channel.

Mark

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#53021 20-Nov-2006 10:49

I did a transfer for a friend, I've a DVD/Hard disk recorder plugged into the TV, just plugged his VCR into the recorder, pressed play and then recorded it straight to DVD ... easy peasy.

Using a PC instead does mean you can do some smarter editing if you want, but if it's just a straight VCR to DVD copy then a DVD recorder is so much simpler.

Jama

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#53023 20-Nov-2006 11:03

I plug my VCR into my video camera and then plug my video camera into my PC via firewire. It works well.

TinyTim

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#53032 20-Nov-2006 13:42

I'm using one of these Leadtek USB TV tuners to transfer my videos to my laptop. Being a tuner it also replaces your VCR for recording TV as well. If you have a desktop you can probably get an internal card for cheaper. $200 - cheaper than a HD recorder. (Though I'll soon need this hard disk to go with it!)

Kingrow

40 posts

Geek

#53040 20-Nov-2006 15:05

Mark: Using a PC instead does mean you can do some smarter editing if you want

This would be along the lines of what I'm looking for. I've got a few self-made films that would be useful for selling to the public (I'm working on getting into the music scene, by the way).

Just in case anyone asks what hardware I actually have, I'll list what shows up in my Device Manager (only what seems important or I don't know what it is...):

Computer - ACPI Uniprocessor PC

Display Adapters - VIA Chrome9 HC IGP

IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers - Primary IDE Channel, Primary IDE Channel, Secondary IDE Channel, Secondary IDE Channel, Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller, VIA Bus Master IDE Controller

Network Adapters - VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter

Processors - AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2800+

Sound, Video and Game Controllers - Audio Codecs, Legacy Audio Drivers, Legacy Video Capture Devices, Media Control Devices, Realtek High Definition Audio, Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device, Video Codecs

Mark

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#53042 20-Nov-2006 16:15

Kingrow:
Mark: Using a PC instead does mean you can do some smarter editing if you want

This would be along the lines of what I'm looking for. I've got a few self-made films that would be useful for selling to the public (I'm working on getting into the music scene, by the way).

Computer - ACPI Uniprocessor PC

Display Adapters - VIA Chrome9 HC IGP

IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers - Primary IDE Channel, Primary IDE Channel, Secondary IDE Channel, Secondary IDE Channel, Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller, VIA Bus Master IDE Controller

Network Adapters - VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter

Processors - AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2800+

Sound, Video and Game Controllers - Audio Codecs, Legacy Audio Drivers, Legacy Video Capture Devices, Media Control Devices, Realtek High Definition Audio, Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device, Video Codecs

Hi there,

OK so if you want to edit video as well as transfer it to DVD you're going to need a DVD writer for starters and as much RAM as you can cram into your computer 512Mb minimum, your processor and graphics card look good enough for the job so no point changing them (unless you want to real-time compression to DVD format MPEG-2 .. that does need a lot of processor power and while it's doing it don't bother trying to use your computer for anything else), the next big hog with video is disk space, video likes disk space .. seriously it REALLY likes LOTS of disk space, and FAST disk too :-)

As you are coming from horrible old VHS as your video source then you might not have such great results, what happens when you record video to go on DVD is that the compression process (MPEG-2) basically throws a lot of data away (by data I basically mean picture quality), so if you have poor video going in then you will get even worse video once it's been compressed .. not a huge amount you can do really.

If you are to buying a video capture card try to get one that does hardware MPEG-2 compression/decompression, that'll free up your computers CPU a bit and most the time the quality is good, also see what bundled software you get .. you don't want to be forking out another bundle of money for video editing software).

It's been a while since I looked at video stuff (I used to work for the BBC, but since moved from video to data storage) .. but you should get some nice stuff for not a lot of money.

Have fun!

Kingrow

40 posts

Geek

#53097 21-Nov-2006 00:42

Kingrow:
Mark: Using a PC instead does mean you can do some smarter editing if you want

This would be along the lines of what I'm looking for. I've got a few self-made films that would be useful for selling to the public (I'm working on getting into the music scene, by the way).

Just in case anyone asks what hardware I actually have, I'll list what shows up in my Device Manager (only what seems important or I don't know what it is...):

Computer - ACPI Uniprocessor PC

Display Adapters - VIA Chrome9 HC IGP

IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers - Primary IDE Channel, Primary IDE Channel, Secondary IDE Channel, Secondary IDE Channel, Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller, VIA Bus Master IDE Controller

Network Adapters - VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter

Processors - AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2800+

Sound, Video and Game Controllers - Audio Codecs, Legacy Audio Drivers, Legacy Video Capture Devices, Media Control Devices, Realtek High Definition Audio, Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device, Video Codecs

For the record...I didn't list the obvious hardware, such as CD drives, memory, and hard drives. Without those, I would be kinda stuffed.

What's listed above is the list of things I wasn't too sure about when it comes to the video conversion process.

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sonu2

14 posts

Geek

#54473 2-Dec-2006 13:05

Jama: I plug my VCR into my video camera and then plug my video camera into my PC via firewire. It works well.

how you do that and what kind of wire your need i i know about firewire and do you just plug your video cam to your vcr via audio video cable or some kind of other cable?