PCTech Forums

Hi to all on site. This is the first time I have been back on here for a few months, and I like the new layout . I was wondering what kind of Hardware I will need to Rip some old VHS Video onto the Computer (with a veiw to transferring this to DVD) I have plenty of space 160GIG, but am not to sure how to go about this?
Your expert advice is called for once again!! Thanx in advance Pete

the all-in-wonder card solution is a good one (I actually went this route myself), but If you don't need a whole new video card, you could get away with spending less money.



I give you a link to newegg becasue they have a pretty good selection of cards. These are all TV tuner cards, which means they will be useful to actually watch/record TV on your PC (sort of like tivo). Some of them even come with remote controls. I didn't have a way to sort out ones that have optional video-in ports like s-video and composite, so you'll have to search.



This was a search on "video capture" which wouldn't neccassarily have a TV tuner built in. You might get a better price/quality ratio without a built-in tuner.

Another possible workaround if you have a digital camcorder is to record the VHS to the camcorder, then send it to the comp by firewire. I'm guessing you might not get as good quality this way but if you already have the camcorder it would be free!

I have been researching this for some time now.
Please be warned that alot of capture cards (especially TV cards and the cheaper cards) on the market suffer from the audio going out of sync with the video if you transfer more than 15 minutes at a time. You need to spend at least £200 for a decent unit to avoid this according to user reports.
Also if your trying to copy VHS from an analogue VHS recorder you need an anologue capture/tv card not digital.
All I'm saying is beware before spending your hard earned cash.

depending on if there actual videos (not home movies or whatnot) you might be able to use bittorrent for this instead.... that would save you some $$ and also save you the trouble of having to worry about quality of audio/video.... get em at supernova.org... thats the best place i know if your looking for some quality vids.

My uncle baught this hard drive for his tele, so its liek sky plus but he only payed a one off payment as its a hard drive. What he does i think is connects the hard drive to the pc and then uses a program that came with it to convert to ether mpeg or avi. Im sorry that im not any more use than that.

Venney