How can I put old Video tapes on my PC to copie them to DVD?

Answer 1

I bought a product from Wal*Mart for about $78.00 U.S. called DVD Xpress DX2. It allows me to hook up a VCR, DVD player even my PlayStation 2 in to the back of the box it comes with and hooks up to my computer by a USB port. The software is easy to use. The company's website is www.adstech.com. I hope this helped. Plus it's much easier that having to open up your tower or laptop.

Answer 2

You could get a TV Tuner card which slides into an empty PCI slot. The TV Tuner card has a coaxial cable jack on the back (the screw thing you plug your cable tv wire into) and it also have a Video input jack (RCA jack). Screw the cable wire into the Output of your VCR (the side that normally goes from the VCR to your TV) and screw the other end to the screw on the back of tv tuner card (the connector will be in the back of the computer after you install the card). TV cards usually come with some software that will let you record. Once you record it, the recorded video will be on the computer. From there burn it onto the DVD. The videos aren't saved in DVD format, usually its in .avi format (meaning you can play it on the computer). You might need to get a video convertor program to convert it from AVI to VOB (vob is DVD, the term vob is due to the reason that if you stick a DVD in your computer's dvd player and view it in My Computer, the main files end with .VOB). I use http://winavi.com for that purpose. From there, you burn the video_ts folder (this folder name is on all dvd's, the .vob files should be a folder called video_ts, and you copy the video_ts folder to the dvd).

Here's some example of TV Tuner cards: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=tv+tuner&Submit=ENE&N=0&Ntk=all

Answer 3

You definitely need to purchase a "video capture" device. You can buy a video capture "card" that fits into one of the empty PCI slots, in the back of your PC. They also make a video capture device that simply plugs into your USB port. I would go for PCI card, myself. The usb device is probably more expensive and more cumbersome to use. (If you do get the USB kind, make sure you have usb 2.0 (not 1.1)).

They also make dvd-recorder/vcr combos. With those you wouldn't have to use your PC at all.

Answer 4

There are dvd burners with vhs players built in, so you can dub them to a dvd. Once its on a dvd you can take it to your pc and edit the video and reauthor it, if you want.

You can also attach a vcr to a tv board. ATI makes an ok tv board but the best is a german board. Named hauppinger, I think...