Basics of video capturing

Hello,
i was lookin on this site and came across these video capturing threads. Im not to much of a techy but knew there was a way to transfer the files i have on my vhs tapes to the computer and also the television shows i have recorded on my dvdr for comcast cable. I guess im in the right forum.
To capture vhs tapes and dvdr recordings, what exactly would i need? im gonna start from scratch because all i know about this is scratch. Can someone please help?

 

The most important thing you need is a Capture device so you can transfer the VHS Video to your PC....

But if you have Movies on DVD you can Simply rip them to your PC useing your DVD Drive on your PC and for TV shows recorded to a DVR Unit there might be a way to Transfer these Files to your PC without a Capture device, You might want to look at the Back of the DVR and see if there is a serial Port or USB port that you can connect to it....

You would also need Capture/Editing/DVD authoring Software....

Im sure if you Look through some Old Posts you will Find all the Info you need because someone Comes in here a couple Times a week and asks the exact same question you did....

 

Hey minion thanks for the info.

Do you know of any good capturing devices for vhs tapes. I have videos on dvd but some of my older videos oare on vhs and would like to move them to my pc.
Also i have a comcast cable dvr box and read some forums where people have said they transfered there videos over by a firewire port. Is a firewire just a cable that transfers data?
One more thing. If i get this capture device that captures the vhs tapes, will it be able to capture the videos on the dvr?

Thanks again

 

A Good Capture device is the "Hauppague WinTV PVR 150" and it Costs about $75 and Installs in your PC"s PCI Slot....

If your DVR Has a USB or Firewire Output then you should be able to transfer the Files off of the DVR to your PC without any quality Loss, and Yes a Firewire Port/Cable is used for Transfering Data much Like a USB.....

You should be able to Capture Video from the DVR but transfering it through USB or Firewire would be ebst because there is no quality loss which there would be if you used the capture card....

Cheers

 

I am getting a pci-express nvidia graphics card in a week. I would be putting that in the pci slot right? There are more than one slots arent there?
Sorry for the dumb question

 

No, There is a Differance Between PCI and PCI-Express...PCI-Express 16X is Strictly a graphics Interface for Video Cards so Hopefully you have a Newer PC as older PC"s(Older than a Year Old) will not have a PCI-Express slot in them....

If you do have a Newer PC that does Have PCI-Express slots then it will Likely Have One PCI-E 16X slot for Graphics Cards and a Couple PCI-Express 1X slots and a Couple Regular PCI Slots which is were you would install the Card....

Cheers

 

ok thanks.
And im guessing it coems with software and instructions on how to do it? is this one you recomended strictly for capturing video from tv and vhs?

 

how would i be capturing it? through a cable like svideo that i connect from my tv to pc?

 

Yes this Card is Good For Captureing VHS and TV...It has a Built in TV Tuner so you Connect your Cable TV to it and for VHS It has S-Video and RCA/Composite Inputs....

It will come with Basic Capture software and Instruction on how to use it....

Cheers

 

i went to the website which sells those cards and it said i will eb able to capture live tv. That is good but will i be able to capture the stuff that is on my dvr hard drive from comcast. I have about 75 percent of that dvr filled up. It only says capture live tv, but didnt say transfer files from dvr hard drive.

thanks

 

Well Like I said before you Don"t need a Capture device to "Transfer" the Files off of the DVR to your PC...Look at the Back of the DVR and Look for a Serail or USB or Firewire Port on the Back and "IF" it has One then that is How you transfer the Files offof the DVR to your PC....

If your DVR Doesn"t Have these Outputs then you can Connect the DVR"s Video and audio Outputs to the Capture Cards Video and Audio Inputs and "Capture" the Video to your PC (Not Transfer which would be a Lossless Copy of the Data from the DVR HD to your HD were a Capture is not a Direct Data Transfer)....

I hope you understand Now...

Cheers

 

Yeah i am gonna try connecting the usb port on the dvr box to my pc but as i did some research on here, a bunch of people on forums said that comcast made this usb connection on the comcast digital cable dvr box to be inactice for now. They plan on using it in the future. I dont know if theres any truth to this but i am going to try it that way.
If that doesnt work, then im gonna capture it with that card you recomended me. I dont quite understand what you meant when you said "Not Transfer which would be a Lossless Copy of the Data from the DVR HD to your HD were a Capture is not a Direct Data Transfer".....what did you mean by lossless? and also did you mean i wont be able to transfer the files?

 

here is my method of transferring vhs to pc http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/288149

 

"Lossless" means that the Copy is 100% Bit for Bit the Same as the Original...

So if you transfered the Files off of the DVR useing the USB or Firewire what you have on your Hard Drive after trnansfering the File would be 100% Bit for Bit the Same as what is on the DVR"s HD...

If you were to Capture it with a capture Card it would not be exactly the Same data captured as is on the DVR it would be less quality and not the same data because a Transfer is Digital and a Capture is Analogue....

Cheers

 

hmm i see thanks

 

I'm sorry to intrude in this thread but I know next to nothing about computers, although I've been using them for about 20 years. They still intimadate me.
I was reading this thread and checked out the 'Hauppauge WinTV 150' and saw that it's a card that goes into an open slot in my computer. For one thing I'd have to find someone to install it for me because I would never open up my computer myself. My question is what would I do if I were to get this device? Would I then hook up a VCR or something to get my VHS tapes to copy to a DVD recorder? Forgive my stupidity but I'm 62 years old and technology is not something I've been able to keep up with. I almost need to be directed as if I were painting by numbers, if the younger generation understands that term.
I have videos of my family on VHS tape and purchased an external DVD recoder several years ago only to have it attached to my PC to do nothing.
Please help me understand how to do this as I am so anxious to learn. I know you're probably thinking this old lady should just pay someone to transfer these videos for her but I would really love to learn how to do this myself.
Again, I apologize for intruding on this thread but I am anxious to get more information on this procedure.
Thanks for any help anyone can give me.
Linda

 

The capture card goes in a PCI slot in your PC"s Motherboard it is extremely easy to install.....

After that you Would Connect the VCR to the Capture card which you would Access at the back of your PC...It would be the same as Connecting the VCR to your TV set accept you would be connecting the Cables from the VCR to your PC....

You would then use the Capture software to capture the VHS video to your Hard Drive and after Captureing the Video you would need to use a DVD authoring Program to Put the Captured Video on to DVD....

Well that is the basics....

 

Minion, can you recommend a good external TV tuner/Video capture device for transfering TV and VCR to a sony VAIO notebook? The notebook runs at 1.7 GHz, 100 GB external HD, 1 GIG ram, and has firewire and USB 2.0. I want to then burn the saved video to DVD. What is a good software to convert the saved files to DVD format(MPEG 2 or maybe 4 to video.ts?)? I have NERO express...will that work well? I know there is an ATI TV WONDER USB 2.0 device...any thoughts on that? Also AVERMEDIA makes a PCMCIA device I could use. Your thoughts and recommendations would be appreciated.

 

I suggest the "Hauppague WinTV PVR USB" (Not to be confused with the "Hauppague WinTV USB" which is an awefull device) which is a Good USB Capture device that uses hardware Mpeg-2 compression which is the format used on DVD"s so you don"t need to re-encode your captured files before putting them on DVD.....

With this device all you need is a Basic mpeg-2 editor so you can edit your captured Files and a DVD authoring Program so you can Put the captured Files on to DVD....I would NOT suggest useign Nero for authoring these files to DVD because nero has a bad Habbit of re-encodeing files that are allready DVD compliant which ruins the quality and Takes up a Lot of time and becides Nero SUCKS.....

A Basic mpeg editor like "Womble Mpeg2VCR" and a DVD authoring program Like "tmpgenc DVD author" or "MediaChance DVDLab pro" is all you would need with a device like this and it will come with capture software......

Cheers

 

Hey a wuick question about nero.

I use nero to burn all my movies to dvd. Should i not be using this software since you say "it sux". All my movies are mostly xvid and then i burn them onto dvd-r's with nero. Does nero ruin the qualkity or does nero only ruin the quality of movies already in dvd format?
Can someone please explain in non technical terms for me please? I wanna be using the best possible dvd burner to burn my xvid/svcd movies to dvd-r without losing quality