Need help to caputure VHS, Hi-8 & Mini-DV onto computer?

[caseychu]

Hi.

I just got this huge new harddrive (the prices are very reasonable now). And I would like to caputure my VHS, Hi-8, & Mini-DV tapes and store them on my computer (Desktop PC with Windows ME). Can anyone recommend good reliable hardware and software for the job?

I heard that I can copy my mini-DV in digital format, how is this different from my VHS?


Many thanks for anyone who can give me some recommendations and advice.

Casey Chu
Hong Kong

[Craig Tucker]

To capture from VHS you will need an analogue capture card, or an analogue-digital converter so it can be transferred via firewire. Some DV camcorders have this A-D passthrough feature allowing you to do this. For your DV tapes you just need a firewire card which allows you to transfer the digital information from your tape to your hard drive. Have you read through the how to capture guides on the left of this page. There is a lot of useful information there.

[Gil T Pleasure]

Also note that you will need lots and lots of hard drive space for your miniDV's since they can take up to 10GB+ per 1 hour of video... unless you compress them to, say, MPEG2 format.

[spiderman2k1]

ATI AIW are the best for vhs capture's but there is one problem some old vhs tape's that are ntsc do not display right there is a fix to send the signal out ona world wide vcr as pal and capture as pal but your file will still be ntsc if you live in the USA

[Rich927]

Look at Pinnacle LINX USB for analog capture or, Pinnacle Studio AV. Both come with software.