VHS to Digital

[Samurai]

Hello all,
What is the best why to make small digital video clips from a VHS tape?
I can get a digital camera that takes small MPEG movies, is there a way to hook that up to a VCR to record small clips?
Thanks
Jeremy Bays

[Scott Danziger]

Hi Jeremy.

You'll need a capture card and a connection to a vcr or camcorder.

What you do is hook up the cables, be it s-video cable or composite (RCA jacks) to the output of your VCR and into the capture card's inputs. Some computers now use iLink 1394 cables for Digital Video camcorders.

Start your capture program while the tape is running. There should be something on the program to "Start" capture and "Stop" capture. The you save the file to disk. The instructions will carry you through this. It is super simple.

Some cards only capture AVI's but these can be converted to MPEG. Programs like Video Wave will do that.

One computer I have uses the ATI All in wonder. It is an older version but works well. I currently use the Pinnacle DC10plus. It captures well and makes good AVI's but it's output back to videotape is giving me problems. You may not need or want this feature. It also comes with pretty good editing software.

Best bet is to go online and search out Capture Cards. Read and compare and determine what is right for you. They can range in price from $65.00 - over $1000.00.

Keep in mind that capture cards are NOT video cards (per se). The ATI All in wonder has both. To capture video, you must have a capture card. Also, make sure the one you select is compatible with your video card and computer. They all are not. For example, Pinnacle does not recommend Compaq's be used with their card. Probably Compaq's card.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Scott


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[Allen M.]

Jeremy,

If you live near a computer store chain, armed with what Scott just related, you can ask some good questions to get you started. Comp-USA has a good Fire-wire card (same as iLink) for about $150.

Scott, Does the All-in-Wonder have multiple spigots for multiple simultaneous monitors?

[Scott Danziger]

Not the one that I had. It was the old 4MB. It's about 3 years old or so. I don't know about the new ones.

[gmattson]

With my Hitachi handheld camera, I simply plug into my camcorder or Video machine and capture up to 20 minutes in small clips or single video. When finished, I pull out the Hitachi hard drive and plug it into my computer, where I can do anything with the digital file/s I wish.

Not sure why this Hitachi didn't catch on. What a great all around camera. (It takes up to 3000 digital still pictures too)

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GEM

[Scott Danziger]

Now THAT is cool. And seems very simple to use as well.

[Samurai]

Thank you all for your replies. Presently I have access to a University owned Digital Camera that records MPEG video but I wanted to get some of my VHS tapes into small digital clips. I will look into a capture card.
Thanks Again,
Jeremy Bays

[Tony-San]

I use the Dazzle. It goes into the USB port and has alot of different inputs. Very nice perephrial but it's kind of expensive. check it out at:
www.dazzle.com

[Allen M.]

I got a Firewire card from Comp USA yesterday for 49.95, complete with video editing software. The box and manual read good. Seems to be a good way to go for inexpensive video transfers from camcorder to PC. Samurai may or may not be interested in one, or in the Sony camera mentioned below.

For the latest in MPEG photography, Sony has a new digital camera that writes directly to it's mini-CD which fits directly into the PC CD player.

I don't need another hard drive, but notices Maxtor has an ATA-100 80 Gig hard drive. for $299 before rebates.