Converting VHS Tapes ?

[willbemcse]

I have a tv capture card with rca inputs, I was wondering what cables I need to connect my vcr to my pc . I have these questions:-
a) Connet the vcr with rca cables on the back of the tv tuner card.
b)What kind of cables I need so that whatever is playing in my vcr I can see it on my computer screen. Do I need a coax cable going from the vcr to my tv tuner.

I also want to watch tv also .

 

[gsellis]

An RCA cable for the video (yellow ends usually signify video, but you can use any) and (depending on the VCR - stereo vs mono) a two plug RCA cable with a RCA to 1/8" mini cable to go to the Line In on your audio.

Watch your capture while you do it. If you have any glitches in the tape, you may lose audio/video sync.

 

[willbemcse]

Ok so I will connect those, so I only have to use yellow cable not red and white. What cables I need to connect so whatever is playing in the vcr shows up on my moniter? or yellow cable should be fibe for Video and two plug RCA cable with a RCA to 1/8" mini cable to go to the Line In on your audio.

 

[gsellis]

Yes, yellow is video and goes into the video in. Red and White are audio. They are the one's that need the RCA to mini-jack stereo connector to go to Line In - unless your TV capture card has a Line-In on the card or BOB (Break Out Box).

 

[willbemcse]

Ok I connected my vcr to PVR 250 capture card, the drivers are installed for the card . Nothing is showing up on my moniter . I tried using Adobe Premier and Windows movie maker nothing is showing up on the screen. On the back of my vcr there are two coax outlets. One says going to tv , other says tv in. The message I get is no device installed.


Do I need to connect my cable to my vcr and then run a cioax from my vcr to the tv tuner ??. What I am doing wrong here .

 

[gsellis]

I don't think Premiere can capture an MPEG stream. I am fairly sure Movie Maker will not either. I think Studio 9 can, but I will not swear to it. Can you capture the stream using the Hauppauge tool and import it into Premiere? If Premiere will not accept the stream, you can go to http://www.videohelp.com and find a MPEG to AVI converter in the tools section.

 

[willbemcse]

No my Hauppauge card didn't came with anything except the drives . I dont think I am trying to do something impossible , the sites yiou mentioned are not very helpful either as I cann't post anything for a week.

I have the same card which is used in Media Center PC''S do I need special software for this.

 

[gsellis]

You did not get the software CD?

 

[willbemcse]

No it was OEM but I can download software from the site, which is ok. Do I need any special software for capturing vhs tapes ??

 

[gsellis]

Quite possibly. I do not know if they can use the WDM capture module. I know that my NLE will not capture from a card unless it has support. You should be able to use Hauppauge's apps to capture and then convert from there.

 

[rocketbubba]

Yes, you'll need software to capture video to mpeg, but until you get that software you can experiment with Windows Movie Maker which will let you save movies to .wmv files (playable through Windows Media Player) . Also, I have not tried it, but I understand Movie Maker will also save to .avi which can be converted to .mpeg. I have a VCR connected to my Leadtech Winfast capture card and I capture video to burn onto a cd-r to mail to relatives. My capture card came with Ulead editing software that will save in mpeg format, but I've had problems with that software. Anyway, if your capture card is installed and connected correctly, Movie Maker should find it and you should be able to view TV/videos (on a little tiny view window). Once that works, then you can move to better software. By the way, MS recently published an updated version of Movie Maker. Hope that helps.

 

[willbemcse]

No for some reason movie maker is not recognizing the vcr connected to the card, I dont know why, the card shows up in the device manger. I also have ulead movie factory but it doesn;t see the vcrr.

What connectiosn are you using to connect your vcr . My card has all these connections
125 channel cable ready TV tuner


Composite/s-video plus stereo audio inputs to connect to VCR, camcorders or set top boxes


High quality MPEG1/MPEG2 video and audio encoder based on the Conexant -416 MPEG encoder


But its still not working .

 

[gsellis]

Movie Maker cannot capture MPEG2 IIRC.

 

[rocketbubba]

Here's how I have my sytem setup to record from a VCR:

- coax cable from wall to VCR (coax in)
- composite RCA video (yellow) out from VCR to composite RCA in on capture card.
- stereo RCA audio (red and white) out from VCR to mini-plug adapter to audio-in on capture card.
- stereo mini-plug cable out from capture card to line-in on sound card.

My capture card came with an installation disk with drivers and basic operating software (in addition to the Ulead editing software). My guess is that you have the drivers, but maybe you're missing the software part? Even though your system "sees" the card, it may not know what to do with it. As you mentioned previously, I would download the basic software from the manufacturer for that card and install it. Then the first thing I would do to test the card is try to watch TV with it. After that, you can use the Ulead software to make the mpeg files you'll need for dvd. gsellis is right about Movie Maker - I only mentioned it because I found it to be a good way to get aquainted with video editing even though it's not useful for making dvds. Good luck!

 

[willbemcse]

My vcr also has two coax outlets and on my tuner only one for cable. Should I try it also. I tried to download the software from the manufactures's site the program keeps on crashing.


Do I need coax from my vcr to my card to capture vhs tapes ??

 

[lobadobadingdong]

how many tapes do you need done anyway?

 

[Arkali]

Here's how to do this:

Download and install Hauppauge's WinTV program.

You can use this to watch TV, but many will argue there are better programs out there (SageTV...).

What you need to do is create a custom channel. In the WinTV program, click the menu button, and select "Suite Manager." From there, you can click "Add" and add a source, in your case, with an RCA input, I believe you will choose "Composite". Then, specify an unused number for this composite input.

Connect the composite RCA jack to the PVR-250, as well as the RCA left/right to minijack audio input cable.

Change the WinTV channel to your specified composite input channel. Press play on the VCR, and you should see the tape displayed in WinTV. Then record using WinTV, using the desired MPEG-2 quality settings.

See:

SHSPVR

SHS Forum

Hauppauge PVR-250

 

[gsellis]

On the crashing issue, also make sure you are up to date on your video driver. That can be one major source of instability for video editing/capture systems.

 

[willbemcse]

Ok I finally captured a vhs tape , burned the file on to a dvd. The format was mpeg , but it doesn't play in my dvd player , does the video has to be in dvd video or vcd format. If I use dvd which format it should be ??