How to record VHS tape (PAL) on laptop w/DVD recorder

Hello,
I just bought a DELL Inspiron 6000 with DVD recorder/burner. My laptop does have USB, Firewire, and s-video ports. MY VCR is NTSC and is of the composite type (ie. no s-video). I have a VHS tape (PAL system) which of course doesn't play on my VCR. I was wondering is it possible to record this VHS tape on my laptop's DVD, and if such a thing does exit, how and what are the software/hardware/cables needed? I'm a newbie at this but since I've bought my laptop I've been on this forum and it's helped me a lot to understand all the technical language that I didn't understand before, so thanks.

 

You need a capture device, and a PAL VCR.
First, see if you can borrow or rent a PAL VCR somewhere.
If you can get that, you can purchase USB capture devices fairly cheap (that also give decent quality), and they come with all the software you need.

 

Hello, thanks for replying. Much appreciated.
I don't actually want to watch the tape on VCR. I just want to be able to record it on an NTSC system so that I would be able to transfer it to my laptop. The reason I'm saying this is that almost all video capture devices that I looked into, said that they're compatible with NTSC only for example, Dazzle 80 or 90. So I'm trying to think how can I convert this PAL tape into NTSC so that I would be able to capture it with on my laptop then burn it on DVD and watch it. If I get a PAL VCR, I don't believe it will work, since none of the capture devices have PAL on it and it won't even play on my TV since my TV is NTSC. I have no idea waht would solve this issue but I really need your help. This tape is my wedding tape and I fear that the tape might waste, and also I want to be able to watch it with digital quality. Please advise as to what are possible solutions. Thanks.

 

Doesn't matter if you want to watch or not, you need a player that can properly play a PAL tape.
The outputs from that player would then be plugged into some type of capture device, either a digitalcam, then firewire to the computer, or a USB device for avi or mpeg capture.
The whole idea is to get this into an NTSC format, which is exactly what the NTSC capture devices will DO (with, or without software assistance).
You WANT an NTSC capture device, but you STILL need a PAL VCR to play the tape properly, allowing the capture device to do the conversion, or simply digitizing it on the computer. Then you can use software to make it NTSC.
It doesn't matter if you choose a $50 avi capture device, an mpeg-2 capture device, or a DV TBC device (for firewire, if your laptop has that), you still need a PAL VCR.

 

Thanks again. Please bear with me, I'm new at this. So if I understand you correctly, I need to get a PAL VCR to play the tape, even though I won't be able to watch what's it playing since my TV is NTSC but I still need to have a PAL VCR just to identify the tape, is that right? Then, I'll connect this VCR to a capture device that has an input of NTSC only through a USB to my laptop. This will take care of the conversion from PAL to NTSC. I hope I'm getting this right. (The part I don't understand is where you say the capture device will do the conversion then you say the software will convert it to NTSC. Please help me understand). So lets say I manage to get a PAL VCR (or will multiformat VCR player work better?)and I buy Dazzle 90 (I heard it's good)it comes with a software. The hardware specs say: Inputs: NTSC only. The software specs say: Import video: AVI, MPEG and the Output is: MPEG, AVI, Real, Windows, DVD, that I will be able to get my wedding tape on a dvd.
Thanks again.

 

Correct.

Many devices don't care what the input is...beware the Dazzle because of this!

Two ways to get what you want.
1.) USB tuner/capture realtime mpeg-2 encoding device.
This will take composite outputs from the VCR, and hook up to the laptop via USB. With it's combined software, it records an NTSC mpeg-2 video, ready to author and burn.

2.) USB TBC device.
This is simply a digitizer, between the vcr and your computer. Video is saved in DV-AVI format, which will then need software to convert to NTSC mpeg-2.

#1 is faster, but can result in lower quality, depending on the device used, and the software. I would recommend the Hauppauge PVR-USB-2

#2 is better quality (usually) but requires a good mpeg-2 encoder, and is more timeconsuming.

Then there's #3.
Take it to a shop and have them do it all for you. Probably cheaper than purchasing all this equipment for ONE tape!
If you had 50 tapes to do, get the TBC (#2) such as a Canopus ADVC-110.
If you want to be able to capture live TV, as well as tape/cam sources, get #1.

 

Many thanks for your advice. You're right, I thought it would be easier and cheaper. I guess I'll try and find a shop that can do it for me. I'll let you know how it worked out.
Thanks again.