Analogue Video transfer

[nigelf1234]

I have an analogue video recorder, which I have no plans to replace anytime soon. It is fine, except that editing the tape using a video recorder is a pain, Is there a way I can transfer the recordings on to PC and then edit them and finally transfer tham to DVD? Can it be done, and if so what hardware and software do I neeed/ would anyone recommend?

[rojash]

Yes, it's quite easy. First you need a means of getting the video on to your pc, and you have two choices: either an analogue capture card, or a an analogue to digital converter and firewire.

You will find details of analogue capture cards at the site below. Although it's a US site, it will give you a good starting point from which you can them Google for products in the UK.

http://www.videoguys.com/vidcap.htm

If you have a digital video camera that includes analogue in and out connections, you can use this to convert the output from your VCR to digital and send it to the pc via firewire. I have a Canon MVX 250i which has this capability.

If you buy a capture card, it will almost certainly include some editing software, and of course, digital video cameras usually have some software bundled as well.

Personally, I use Pinnacle Studio, ( http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Home/ ) but there are lots of other editing suites available form Ulead, Adobe and others (just google these names)

[LeMarchand]

Part 1: What you will need

You'll need a video input card or device (they're not a standard PC item). Most will come with editing software, though it is usually fairly basic. XP comes with "Windows Movie Maker" which has more features but is not well regarded.

You will also need a reasonably fast PC processor, as much RAM as you can afford and quite a large hard disk to store the files on whilst working on them. If you haven't already got one, a DVD burner with the appropriate software would be useful to archive the finished product to disc; you could make do with a CD burner and create VCDs, but these are of much lower quality and you can't fit as much footage onto a disc. If you are considering archiving to disc (though it is of course possible to outut back to VHS), some DVD players will handle DivX files, which means you may not have to burn your DVDs in DVD format (or CDs in VCD format), but may be able to create "data" discs.

More help/advice/hardware reviews at http://www.videohelp.com/

[rojash]

Just realised that the pinnacle site also features a product specifically designed for your needs. You will need a high speed USB port (alos called USB2) on your computer, but if you don't have one, they are easy and cheap to get and fit.

Take a look at this:

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/uk/Products/Consum er+Products/Home+Video/Dazzle/Digital+Video+Creator+150. htm

[LeMarchand]

Part 2: Quick & Easy solution

This is probably not the best/best quality way to do things, but it is quick and easy!

1. Get an input card (eBay can be a good source)


2. Fit it and test it


3. Download and install VirtualDub (free) from http://www.virtualdub.org/


4. Capture some video


5. Use VirtualDub to edit it. It's a bit of a "blunt tool", but it is very easy to use - there are walkthroughs at VideoHelp - you just set start and end points for edits and press "delete"

I then tend to archive to VCD (no DVD burner :o( ) by using WinAvi (c �30) to convert the file to the correct format. When I was playing around with the program, I noticed that it seemed to have incorporated the DivX and xVid codecs (free downloads) as compression possibilities, but have yet to experiment to see if this actually works. If it does, it will compress the VDub output considerably.