heres what i have....... a VCR a laptop and DVD burner (and applicable programs) is there a way to burn the vhs movies (home and a couple kids movies) to DVD? i know the quality will not improve obviously, but just wondering if there is a way without buying any extra stuff (besides maybe some cables.)
Hi. You have to have the ability to capture analog video on your computer and convert to digital, so unless your laptop came with a video-in port, you'll need some additional hardware/software like a Dazzle Digital Video Creator or something similar. They also have a direct to DVD device as well. I don't vouch for any of this hardware as I've never used it.
It's probably s-video out for displaying the laptop video on a TV, etc. If you don't need to edit anything from the VHS, you might try borrowing someone's standalone DVD recorder, connect your VCR to that and record directly to DVD. Standalone recorders can be had for under $100 on sale. I can't vouch for their quality. Video capture on your PC also requires quite a bit of hard disk space. so you need a pretty large hard disk with space available. It also needs to be fairly speedy. You might have some dropout if you only have a 4200 rpm drive. You may need a 7200 rpm external. I can't say for sure not having tried on a laptop or used this hardware.
thanks alot, i dont think ill try it then, and your right, now that i think about it, the s-video im sure is an out for displaying the laptop on a tv.
I use a Pinnacle Dazzle 150 and have coverted all my old kids vcr tapes to dvd disc and they look great it was well worth the money to get the home movies to a disc
