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by game masta on February 2nd, 2006

game masta

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How can I record a VHS video onto a disc?

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  • by RedJohn on February 5th, 2006

    RedJohn

    Transferring video tapes to DVDs requires special hardware and software:
    - An analog video card, capable of recording composite video and s-video, if required. Some video cameras and VCRs record and playback using s-video.
    - A two-channel audio card to record the audio output from the VCR.
    - Software that can be used to record the video and audio, edit it, and author DVDs.

    Most computers include an audio card of some kind, though the quality varies from acceptable to terrible. I use a two-channel semi-professional audio card to record both analog and digital audio (M-Audio Audiophile 2496). It is superior to the audio cards usually sold in computers.

    Some laptops have video recording capabilities built in, but many of these rarely rise above the adequate. I use a Pinnacle AV/DV video card that handles composite video and s-video, as well as providing a Firewire interface for digital video. Digital cameras send both the audio and video data over the Firewire interface. The card does not provide support for analog audio, but that is handled by my audio card. Pinnacle makes several different video cards, some of which include audio. The Pinnacle cards are not professional, but do work quite well.

    The Pinnacle AV/DV hardware came with Pinnacle Studio; the current release is version 10, which requires Windows XP. I use Studio version 9, as I run Windows 2000 Professional on my home computers. Studio can record video and audio, incorporates an NLE (non-linear editor) for audio and video editing, provides basic DVD authoring tools, and supports several output formats, including DVD and video tape. The Studio software sells for about US$100 by itself; the AV/DV package is more expensive, because it includes the video card.

    There are several similar software products on the market, such as Adobe Premiere Elements, which also does a fine job. You must ensure that the software you use for authoring the DVD can directly support your video hardware or can import the video files created by the recording software. For example, Premiere does not support my Pinnacle video card, but can import the AVI and MPEG files created by the Pinnacle software.

    You also need a powerful system on which to work. Video editors are processor intensive and require as much memory and disk space as you can provide. I use a dedicated 200GB hard drive for my video projects. Since each project can easily require 25 to 50GB to record and render the video, a large disk, regularly defragmented, is essential. You should have at least 512MB of memory and a Pentium 4 processor running at 2GHz or better, otherwise the rendering process can move at a glacial pace. Do not use the computer for any other activities while recording, editing, rendering, and burning DVDs, because of the significant system demands of these operations.

    Comments

    • please help me! I'm confused! I have gone to the BBC iplayer website and am trying to save the file, how would I go about saving it and can I copy it onto a CD and just watch it on a dvd player although it were a normal DVD? Hope that made some sort of sense!

      Amy_K4612

      by Amy_K4612 on January 11th, 2011

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