Need Help ASAP Recording Video AND Sound From Comp To VHS

[cashel]

Ive got a school project due on friday on World War 2, and I have decided to record the intro video of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault as my multimedia for my presentation. I went out and bought an S-Video Cable, and hooked it up like I should and booted up my comp. The TV/Monitor thing works great until it gets into Windows, where the screen is all funky, it shows my blue background with what looks like very messed up tracking, and no desktop at all. Just a blue screen. Oh and its not like I have the S-Video cable sidetracking through devices to get the the TV, its going straight from the computer to the TV. Anybody have any clue as to what may be wrong? My system Specs are as follows:

ECS K7S5A Mobo
PNY Geforce 3 TI200
IBM 40 gig
256mb PC133 Ram
Athlon 1600+
Audigy Gamer

I really need this thing by tonight or tomarrow at the very latest so I can work on other aspects of the report (such as the report itself ) Also, on the sound issue, I read somewhere that you need a 1/8" stereo audio cable AND a 1/8"-to-RCA Y-patch cable, would this workout for recording sound to VHS? If anybody could help me out that would be great.

 

[LoverBoyJ]

For the video, you may need to lower your screen resolution to 640x480 or 800x600. Remember, your tv cannot use the same high resolution/refresh rate as with your monitor.

As for the sound, yes you need 1/8" stereo plug-to-RCA "Y" adaptor to be able to connect to your VCR Audio L/R in.

 

[cashel]

I have the resolution set at 640x480 and at a refresh rate of 60hz, which I heard is whats best for the TV, and I am still getting the messed up picture. Thx for the help though. Anybody else?

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Are you trying to record on VHS?

Or are you trying to make a video file, playable in a laptop?

For the latter case, it may be possible for you to look directly for the video file inside the game data.

If, however, you're doing VHS, you should try to connect the computer directly to the VCR, and from the VCR to the computer.
What kind of video card do you have? Does it have output AND input as well?

I've recorded many times video from my computer - whether it was the beginning of the movie "Patton" (The famous speech scene), or some rare DVD trailer which I saved on Digital video... So I think that everything is possible, with abit of ingenuity and patience. And also, providing that you have all the hardware you need.

So please post again what you want to do - in detail. And list all your hardware, including cables. Then tell us how you plan to do it. It'll be a snap to figure things out.

 

[cashel]

Alright well Im just going to start from the begining so you guys know everything . I was assigned a project on The Normandy Invasions of World War 2 in my English Class, and Ive got to give a report on it and have some form of mulitmedia to go along with it. I came up with the idea of using the intro video of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, since it shows the whole Omaha Beach scene.

At first I thought I could convert the media file into an AVI, but I quickly found that I couldnt. I then decided to record the video from the game using a program called FRAPS (used to record Game Demos and stuff). After I had the video, I opened up Adobe Premiere and put the video on one track block, and took the MP3 part of the intro and put that on another track (FRAPS cant record sound for some reason). Afterwards I slowed the video down a tad to match it with the sounds, and then recorded it to an AVI file. The problem was that after it created the file and I opened it up in my media player, it would play sound but not video. I was at a loss of what to do, so after 4 days I decided to capture the video some other way.

This is where the VHS part comes in. I read that you could basically use your TV as a monitor, and so I figured that I could load the game up through the TV, and hit record to start recording when desired, and stop recording when desired. So I go out and buy a 12ft long Radio Shack S-Video Cable and a 6ft long Radio Shack Audio Cable with the Y connector already attached to the single cable. I plug everything in, and boot up the computer. The TV/Monitor thing works great untill it gets to the Windows desktop. There, I can see my blue background, but thats all. I cant see any actuall desktop, and the blue screen looks like it has a real bad case of bad tracking, except I cant fix it, because it has nothing to do with the VCR, as the VCR isnt even on.

So Im wondering if anyone could tell me whats going on for either problem. Also, I would really rather not have to spend any money because
A) Im buying this crap, not my parents, and Im already trying to earn money for a watercooling setup for my comp for a science project
B) The project is due Friday

BTW, the graphics card I have, only has TV-OUT, not IN. But I still think it should record, cuz im not recording something from the TV. Im doing the exact opposite.

Also if someone does figure out the Adobe problem, I need for it to basically be playable on a MAC, since thats what my Highschool has :disgust:. Im not sure if my teacher is hooking up her computer to a projector or what, but as long as the CD/VCD/Whatever is compatible w/ her computer.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

wrong.

Connect the video-out of your graphic card to the video-in of the VCR. Hook up the audio card to the VCR as well. Connect the VCR to TV using the RF cable (channel 3 or 4 on your TV). Make sure you select AV as a source for the recording.

You should be now able to record anything you want on the VCR. I record stuff like that all the time.

As for Adobe, good luck trying to make that program work... try something friendlier, like Ulead, and go for VCD quality.

 

[cashel]

Well this may be a dumb question, but if my VCR doesnt have and S-Video Port, what then? What sort of cable should I get?

 

[LoverBoyJ]

Originally posted by: cashel
Well this may be a dumb question, but if my VCR doesnt have and S-Video Port, what then? What sort of cable should I get?

I've got an old Sharp VCR that doesn't have any S-Video in port but have an RCA video-in, you can use that, BUT if your PC video card doesn't have any RCA out then ur screwed in this case an alternative would be to use a video cam corder with S-Video in-port and record the video/sound using the camcorder. When done, you can use the camcorders RCA video out & sound out to connect to the VCR's RCA video input and sound input. Although this meathod will significantly degrade your video quality due to analog-analog-analog transfers, this can be a last resort.

Good luck!

 

[Nailbunny]

You're not totally screwed if you don't have S-video on your VCR/TV and no camcorder...just gotta find a S-Video to RCA converter/adapter . Dunno if Radioshack sells them or not. Never had to use one, but I know they make them.

Svideo to RCA video

Just a few brainstorming thoughts:

You do need to go in connection order out from PC to in on VCR then out to TV to record on to VHS as AnitaPeterson said. Might try adusting the screen size using the Nvidia TV out utility installed with the drivers. Dunno what would cause the "bad tracking" static look except for maybe driver or svideo cable issue.

Try hooking up the PC to the VCR then just hit record...see what you get. See if it records the anomolies or not.

If all is fine till windows loads, then it's most likely a driver or video setting issue.

 

[cashel]

Well thanks for all your help, but I tinkered around with Adobe Premiere, and fixed my problem with no video, so now I have a quicktime video at a resolution of 640x480. Im just curious though, if Ive made this video on a windows computer, and burn it to cd, will I be able to take that cd, put it in a mac, and play the quicktime video? Better yet, if my teacher does end up having a projector hooked to her MAC, will I be able to play the video at a decent quality? Thanks for all the help, and while this new question may not be entirely hardware related, Ive already started this post, so why not add on to it with a similar problem?

 

[LoverBoyJ]

Since you ported it to Quicktime, it should be ok to use on any MAC with ease. Quicktime is made by Apple and MAC are also made by Apple.