Backing up video tapes with windows media center

[macmaster]

I'm tired of my old VCR collecting dust. I want to convert my old video tapes to DVD and pitch the old VCR.

My vcr has the yelow, white and red outputs. It also has a coaxial output. My Haupage HVR-1800 tv tuner has coaxial, s-video, and white and red inputs. So the only way to connect the vcr is to use a coxial cable, which I did with an old cable I found laying around.

After screwing around with windows medi center for a while I was able to succesfully record one of my video tapes (a 2 minute video of me riding the Skycoaster at the Kennywood amusement park).

Here is my question. I'm worried about the format. Will I still be able to watch it 10 years from now? And if I burn it to a DVD, will any DVD player be able to play it.
Thanks

[redwudz]

What video format is it? I'm guessing MPEG-2. If the format is DVD compliant, (See 'WHAT IS' DVD to the upper left on this page} you should be able to author it to the DVD format and burn it as a DVD that will play on most any set top DVD player. You can use a program like MediaInfo to get information about your video file.

For a simple DVD authoring program, try DVDAuthorgui.

DVDs will be around a long time, so no problems using that format.

If your capture card has any way to input with the yellow, red and white cables, (composite video, stereo audio) I would use them instead of RF as you will get better quality. I would check the cards manual.

And welcome to our forums.

[buckethead]

Get yourself a female 'f' to a male 's video' adapter. This will allow you to input the composite video (yellow plug) into the card's s video input. It will not up the resolution to s video, but it will look much better than the coaxial (rf) input.
Give it a try. If you can't get one locally, try mcmelectronics.com.