from the Newbie's Newbie: when copying from VHS to DVD burn,

[gustf7131]

do I have to capture something first?
I mean where can I find the MOST BASIC STEPS for copying from my own VHS video to DVD? I am lost in the trees.
This is what I have on my computer.
Dell 8300, Intel 4 Pentium, w/HT technology
3 g Hz
512 DDR Sdram at 400 MHz
245 g hard drive (s50GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200 rpm)
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
Intel Pro 100M integrated PCI NIC Card
8X DVD+R/RW CD-RW Combination Drive
16X DVD-Rom Drive
Cyberlink software Decoding for DVD drives, Media Center Edition
Infor, 16X DVD ROM and BX DVDRW Drive
Dell Photo Album std

I also have Nero 6, and Videowave7 Professiona Home

[jimmalenko]

I would suggest that you do some reading in the capture section.

The basic rundown is that you need to capture the VHS output to your hard drive. There are a number of ways to do this and there are a number of devices you can use, ranging from a PCI capture card or an external device that connects via USB or firewire. Once captured, you may or may not have to/choose to re-encode the captured file. Then you need to author the file into IFO, BUP and VOB files. Then you need to burn these files using a suitable template in your favorite burning software.

[gustf7131]

I appreciate your comments so, so much. Thanks. So I will learn how to capture to my hard drive. Then I will look at re encoding to see if I have to do that or not. What I am not sure of is how to author that into VOB, backup, and IFO files. Do I do that with DVD.decrypt? But I suppose my old VHS programs are not encrypted anyway.
Is there another term for authoring?
Sincerely, new new newbie

[jimmalenko]

I appreciate your comments so, so much. Thanks. So I will learn how to capture to my hard drive. Then I will look at re encoding to see if I have to do that or not. What I am not sure of is how to author that into VOB, backup, and IFO files. Do I do that with DVD.decrypt? But I suppose my old VHS programs are not encrypted anyway.
Is there another term for authoring?
Sincerely, new new newbie

Authoring is simply turning your MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 file into IFO, BUP and VOB files. Check out the Authoring section also.