Simplest way to just watch VHS on PC?

Hi everyone,

I am trying to tackle a project for a friend's birthday present and am very confused! I want to hook up a VCR to her PC (running Windows ME) to she can watch older movies that are only available on VHS because she doesn't own a TV.

From what I've googled and read on these boards, I either have to purchase a VCR with S-video out and make sure the video card is S-in (which I doubt, it's a Sony Vaio from a few years ago), or purchase an intermediary TV capture card.

I decided to go the second route since I have no A/V setup experience. There are two cards that look like they will do the job: the Pinnacle PCTV USB2, or the Hauppage WinTV USB. I chose USB because I didn't want to mess around with the PCI cards and fry her computer (I have to try to sneak in and set it up during the day while she's at work).

I don't need to do video capture nor use the TV tuner, so I'm thinking this is what I need to do:

- buy a VCR and one of the TV cards mentioned above
- hook up the TV card to the computer
- hook up the VCR as the input source

Does this sound about right? Is there any particular feature in the VCR or TV card that I need to look for? Also, when I set up the TV card can I skip the cable card and just fiddle with the VCR?

If anyone has done this before, or have any suggestions, I would really appreciate it if more information was posted!

Thank you!

 

the simplest way is
VHS player > TV Card
or if you have Video-In on you gfx card

 

Thank you! I guess the best thing is just to buy both and give it a try!

 

you just need to buy one TV card USB or PCI

 

do you have msn? meybe i can help you

 

before you go into any of that you need to get rid of windows ME. above all that should be top priority. After that she you can use WinDVD to capture the video(assuming you have some sort of analogue/digital video converter)

 

I purchased a Pinnacle PCTV PCI card today and haven't opened it yet... the box says it's compatible with Windows ME so I'm not sure why it has to be upgraded? Unfortunately, I can't do that since it's not my own computer. It sounds like WinDVD will actually encode and store the video, is there software that will just play the tape instead of encoding it? Apparently the card is bundled with the PCTV Vision application.

And yes wiak, I do have MSN - I can PM you with my MSN contact if you're still interested in helping a newbie. Thanks!

 

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just buy her a TV? That would be a lot cheaper, easier, faster, and simpler to set up and use.