Creating computer files from VHS Tapes?

Hello all,

What hardware & software is needed to load VHS tapes on my computer.

Can someone refer me to a website on the subject or walk me through what is required?

My goal is to be able to post some hi lights from hockey games on HFBoards. I guess I need to know what hardware to buy to save VHS Tapes to my hard drive. Once the tape is on my hard drive, what kind of file will it be? Is there a website/software/application that will help me edit this file to pick the clips I want to post? Then how to I post these clips so they can be viewed using one of the more common media players.

PM me if needed and thanks in advance.

bossy22

Pls note I'm not looking to pirate just provide some clips.

I too would like to know....Bossy, let me know when you've got it figured out.

You need a capture card and encoding software. There are different options for decoding hardware, mainly if you want internal (PCI) or external (USB 2.0). My current setup is using an older ATI TV Wonder, with my CPU (XP 3200+) I can encode at MPEG2 and only drop a few frames. I am looking into getting a newer decoder though.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-144-502&depa=1

It's gotten good reviews and it can encode Divx in the hardware.

You need a capture card and encoding software. There are different options for decoding hardware, mainly if you want internal (PCI) or external (USB 2.0). My current setup is using an older ATI TV Wonder, with my CPU (XP 3200+) I can encode at MPEG2 and only drop a few frames. I am looking into getting a newer decoder though.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-144-502&depa=1

It's gotten good reviews and it can encode Divx in the hardware.


guinness,

Many thanks for the info. I'm far from an IT guru so can I ask you a few questions to clarify some things?

guinness,

Many thanks for the info. I'm far from an IT guru so can I ask you a few questions to clarify some things?

Ask away.

Ask away.

I guess I may have to contact the distributor or manufacturer.

My PC operates Windows ME and is a Pentium III. I think the converters you linked require XP or 2000.

What type of hook ups or ports does my VCR need? Its pretty old but does have video and audio hookups.

I'm not looking to produce Hollywood movies, I just want to post some clips and to ensure they are decent quality.

Not sure the difference in all the file types. I'm assuming MPEG is a common digital file for media players? If i can save my tapes to my PC, does the coverter help me crop or edit to make the short 20 second clips I want?

Can you elaborate on these comments for me? I don't know what they mean.

"if you want internal (PCI) or external (USB 2.0)" What is meant by internal vs. external?

"dropping frames" Does this mean the conversion is incomplete and the end result skips or jumps?

"can encode to DivX" What is DivX and why is this benefical or important?

Again thanks for the help.

I guess I may have to contact the distributor or manufacturer.

My PC operates Windows ME and is a Pentium III. I think the converters you linked require XP or 2000.

What type of hook ups or ports does my VCR need? Its pretty old but does have video and audio hookups.

I'm not looking to produce Hollywood movies, I just want to post some clips and to ensure they are decent quality.

Not sure the difference in all the file types. I'm assuming MPEG is a common digital file for media players? If i can save my tapes to my PC, does the coverter help me crop or edit to make the short 20 second clips I want?

Can you elaborate on these comments for me? I don't know what they mean.

"if you want internal (PCI) or external (USB 2.0)" What is meant by internal vs. external?

"dropping frames" Does this mean the conversion is incomplete and the end result skips or jumps?

"can encode to DivX" What is DivX and why is this benefical or important?

Again thanks for the help.

Most any old VCR will work, mine is mono-only audio, it has both composite RCAjacks and coaxial, I use coaxial so that I only need to run one cable to the the back of my tv tuner. Most of the decoder cards have jacks for composite, coaxial, S-Video and left/right RCA jacks. Coaxial is the lowest quality, S-Video the best, composite in the middle.

Depending on the software, you can record in AVI, MPEG, or Divx (a compressed AVI container). AVI is usually pretty good, but takes up huge amounts of space, since it usually isn't compressed. MPEG-2 is DVD quality (and also good to use since if you want to record to a DVD and skip a transcoding step). Divx is good to use when you are more concerned about file space, Divx movies are a lot smaller than AVI or MPEG, while still having decent quality.

PCI cards are hardware that you install into the white slots on your PC's motherboard. Not hard to do, just open the side of the case, press the gold connnector into the slot and tighten it down with a screw. USB devices are connected to your USB port. Pretty simple to install, just install a driver, restart and plug it in.

Since you have a PIII, I would recommend a device like the one I linked to. It does the encoding in special hardware in the device, usually much better and faster than the CPU can, so that you don't drop many frames. The more frames you drop, the less fluid your movie will be, basically like you mentioned, skips and jumps a little bit.

For editing/capturing the video, I use Nero. It's not too bad, but it's limited in what it can do, but it works for me (and it came with my DVD burner).

There are lots of articles on Google that explain it better than I can, I think I have to clean the tapes heads on my VCR (I got a bunch of "snow" on the last tape I recorded). This article isn't too bad.

http://www.signvideo.com/conv-v-to-d.htm

Thanks for the info and links. I really appreciate it.

Spoke to a couple of IT people at work today and they told me I need lots of hard drive space so I may need to upgrade to a new CPU. I thought you'd have to load the whole tape to your hard drive and then edit. Didn't know you could just take clips or samples from your tapes. So maybe my exisitng CPU is good enough.

Thanks again.

Thanks for the info and links. I really appreciate it.

Spoke to a couple of IT people at work today and they told me I need lots of hard drive space so I may need to upgrade to a new CPU. I thought you'd have to load the whole tape to your hard drive and then edit. Didn't know you could just take clips or samples from your tapes. So maybe my exisitng CPU is good enough.

Thanks again.

If you know what part of the tape you want to make clips of, you can capture just those parts. However, if you plan on recording something like a 2 hr movie (like I usually do), then you will need quite a bit of HD space. Last movie I recorded took up about 6.5 GB of space. I have a 120 GB HD (which seems to be nothing anymore), so it wasn't a big deal. I just recently bought a 120 GB drive for my other PC for around $50 after rebate, so adding another drive isn't as expensive as it used to be.

Or you could buy a mac and make it a whole lot easier:)

I had old VHS tapes, I rented a DV Camera for a day ( cost me $25) plugged it into my VCR..transfered all the tapes to the Cam...then plugged the cam into my mac and iMovie imported it all in, and you can edit as you go..then you can do some really nice editting after like cropping, adding transitions, special effects..songs and or sound effects...narratives..really really easy. Then when your all done and have a finished product you can just hit the "iDVD" button, it imports it over..add chapter markers and special pictures or titles..(just like a DVD movie has) hit "Burn DVD" and go grab a Beer..come back in an hour or so and you have a DVD that will work in anyones DVD player. Or you can save it as QT, WMV, AVI or even have export for Web streaming.

I have made movie on a PC with Premiere and Windows movie maker..and of course on a Mac..I tell ya what, if this is something you are going to do often,,,youd be a fool not to serious look at buying a mac IMO