Recording from VHS to PC

[Beechy101]

Does anybody know if this is a straight forward process or is there some equipment or software i need to buy??

[Buenchico]

If your PC has got a built-in TV card, it will probably have an appropriate input (for S-video or composite video). Otherwise you'll need to buy something like this:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.ht ml?HAU-LM600

Unless your video recorder has an S-video output, you'll need to buy a Scart to AV lead. The video phono plug goes into the USB-Live device but you'll have two phone plugs (for the left and right channels) to connect to your PC's sound card. As most sound cards don't have phono inputs, you'll also need a phono to mini-jack adapter.

Lastly, you'll need some suitable software but the USB-Live comes with some (as do most rival products).

Chris

[Ethel]

Far far easier to buy a cheap stand alone dvd recorder hooked up to your tv and video, unless you specifically want the recording on your hard.

Even so, easy enough to copy from the recorded dvd disk.

[LeMarchand]

I agree with Ethel, having tried both methods. The video capture method often creates files with synch problems (at least on my ancient PC - may be better on a well-specced box).

I record the VHS onto a rewritable DVD, stick it into my PC and then copy the relevant VOB files to the hard disk. I then edit using Mpg2Cut2, saving each "block" as a separate file, I then use WinAVI to convert and rejoin the relevant "blocks" and (in my case) then use Nero to burn the edited footage back to DVD.

[Quizmonkey]

You need a product called Grabster - they're the leading name in VHS transfer. Try Googling.