How to capture VHS on my PC

[daveh]

Complete newbie here!

I have a Dell Dimension Pentium PC with a soundblaster live! sound card and a 256mb ATI Radeon X600 graphics card. Now these seem to have suitable connections for me to find a cable to go from my scart plug at the back of my video to my PC so that I could transfer some bits and pieces I have on video to my PC for future burning to DVD. Is this the case, or do I need to install a specific capture card?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards
David Hedges

[guns1inger]

Is the radeon a VIVO (Video In, Video Out) or does it just have an s-video output ?

[daveh]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm fairly sure it just has s-video output.

[Richard_G]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm fairly sure it just has s-video output.

In that case you'll need a capture card. However, you don't need anthing fancy, something like this http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=1196 or a simple TV card with analogue input will do the job (but only if you've removed most of the resource hogging crap that Dell insist on installing on their machines....).

[daveh]

Thanks very much for the reply and the link. I feared as much, but it's nice to get it confirmed. Hmmm, yes, Dell do seem to put a lot of unnecessary stuff on the PC!

Cheers, David

P.S. With the Dazzle recorder, would I need to get cables as well?

[MickKnipfler]

I'm trying to do this from a sky+ box. I just vought the Twinhan USB Freeview box. It has S-video and audio in. It works a treat.

Something we both then need to know is - how do you then burn to the DVD disc? My Dimension has Sonic Digital Media installed. However, I used it to write to a DVD and the disc can't be read on a DVD player

Hope I'm not hijacking the thrread but I think essensially, we're both trying to do the same thing

[Richard_G]

No, I don't think you're hijacking the thread, as you say, the end result is the same for both of you. In order to create a DVD disc that will play in a DVD player, the correct files and file structure needs to be created. If you look at "What is DVD" at the top left of the page, this shows what you need to get. Ideally you want to start with a DVD compliant file. For full frame (UK spec) PAL DVD, this is mpeg2 at 720 x 576. There are lower quality resolutions that are still DVD compliant too. The compliant file then needs to be converted into the correct file names and structure for a DVD. This process is called 'Authoring' and you will end up with a number of files with .vob, .ifo and .bup file extensions. The authoring process also allows you to create titles and menus.

The device I linked to appears to come with a piece of authoring software. How good it is, I have no idea but it is a start. Authoring software varies greatly in capability, complexity and price! Some is quite simple to use and wizard driven, others are more complex but require you to know a bit about what you are trying to do. There is one called TDA (that I have never used but many swear by it), Ulead DVD Moviefactory is pretty good (fairly easy to use, capable of some quite complex menus and a free 30 day download is available from www.ulead.co.uk), later versions of Nero come with a fairly simple authoring module (NeroVision) and there are many others. Do a search in tools for authoring software and you'll no doubt find many more.

[Richard_G]

P.S. With the Dazzle recorder, would I need to get cables as well?

The only cable you would need would be a scart out to three phono lead. Make sure you get scart OUT as a scart plug uses different pins for the video and audio output (from scart to something else) to video and audio input (from something else to scart). Tesco do a very cheap one under the Technika brand name.

Unless your video is a SVHS model, you will need to use the composite video (yellow) phono connection and not S-Video. A normal VHS video machine will not output an S-Video signal and if you try to use an S-video input on a capture device you will only get black and white.

[MickKnipfler]

I have a device that plugs into the scart socket on the VHS player and then has an s-video out so I can then use an s-video lead to connect to my twinhan with a phono audio lead

[Richard_G]

I have a device that plugs into the scart socket on the VHS player and then has an s-video out so I can then use an s-video lead to connect to my twinhan with a phono audio lead

These are quite common as an adapter that plugs into a scart socket and gives three phonos (yellow for composite video and black and red for stereo audio) as well as a 4 pin mini DIN for S-Video. The S-video socket is only any use if there is a S-Video signal present. You obviously have a high end VHS machine that outputs S-Video, most don't (those that do are usually marked as SVHS) and the image received is in black and white (as S-Video separates the video and colour information). Either that or you Twinhan device is clever enough to realise that there is no colour information so drops back to accepting a composite video signal through the S-Video input.

However, no matter what the ins and outs of it, it is obviously working for your setup, so don't knock it!

[daveh]

P.S. With the Dazzle recorder, would I need to get cables as well?

The only cable you would need would be a scart out to three phono lead. Make sure you get scart OUT as a scart plug uses different pins for the video and audio output (from scart to something else) to video and audio input (from something else to scart). Tesco do a very cheap one under the Technika brand name.

Unless your video is a SVHS model, you will need to use the composite video (yellow) phono connection and not S-Video. A normal VHS video machine will not output an S-Video signal and if you try to use an S-video input on a capture device you will only get black and white.

Thanks very much for this. I think I now have all I need to start purchasing!

Cheers, David