What do I need to transfer my old VCR tapes onto my PC?

Sophyschoice

Honorable
Dec 11, 2012
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10,510
I would like to transfer my old vhs tapes onto my pc (and then burn on DVD) They are videos we took ourselves of family events and we'd like to preserve them in digital format. I have a PC built by Chillblast with a Palit Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 card & Asus P8Z77-V motherboard, Windows7 with Movie Maker. I presume I don't have an internal Video Capture device? My Panasonic VCR has 2 x SCART (AV1, AV2) sockets, plus RF In and RF out coaxial-type sockets, L & R Audio out sockets. What equipment will I need to transfer from this VCR to my PC please? Help much appreciated, thanks.
 

IInuyasha74

Honorable
I have only ever seen this done two ways. I am sure other ways are possible but I do not know any others right off.

You can buy a VHS to DVD recorder. It is a lot like a VCR with DVD player built in one, but its able to burn new information onto the DVD. Using one of these its simple to put the film onto DVD. You could also look for a friend or a business that does this also. I know some business's do this as just an extra service they have, but most of them have probably stopped by now.

Option 2 would be to buy a Video Capture Card. It would then need placed inside of your system and would have the ability to plug in a coaxial cable. Once you have this, you plug the output from the VCR into it, and press play and tell your computer to record the footage it is detecting on that channel. After just make sure you save it and you can do whatever you want with it. Upload it online, keep it on your computer, burn it off to a DVD.

Come to think of it I miss using VCR's, everything seemed simpler some how. Owell. Good lucky getting them copied.
 
An extension to Option 2 is to get Video Capture USB device (Google/Bing for "USB Video Capture). Prices range from $15 to whatever you're willing to spend, and some of the packages come with capture software as well (Video Movie Maker is missing capture capabilities in latest Windows versions).