Looking to move old VCR tapes to my external hard drive

[scott1147]

Bit of background. I'm a band conductor and want access to all of these VCR tapes on my external hard drive so I can make a "best of" compilation dvd. I'm looking to do both audio and video simultaneously.

Info you might need:
I do have a Toshiba DVD rw drive
Video card is pretty old school Radeon 9500PRO/9700 device manager says
320 Gig external hard drive so space isn't an issue. (initially anyway :eek:)
I also have my dvd/vcr combo player I can bring downstairs for the project.

Additionally what editing programs do you recommend for this project:confused:

Many thanks

[mjc]

You'll need a video capture card of some sort...

Is the combo unit one of those that allows you to record DVDs from tapes?

If it is, then it may be much easier to do the initial conversion that way and then do the editing on the computer.

[scott1147]

Video capture card..is there anything external that will do the trick from a usb2 port instead? I'm not sure I have room for another card in there...I'll have to check. No, unfortunately the combo unit does not let you record dvd's from tapes. It sounds like this just got a lot harder....

[Rick]

A few external units are around
Dazzle units attach to the USB and will capture your tapes

Dazzle web site (http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/Family.htm)

You can get the unit bundled with Pinnacle software
It is not the greatest video editing software
But it does work
and for under $90


Make sure you double check the System specifications TAB (http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/Dazzle+Video+Archiving/Dazzle+Video+Creator+Plus.htm)

[scott1147]

Thanks Rick. I'm good with the system specs, but I'm not sure how to check if my system is DirectX9 compatible. I guess I'm assuming it is because I've never seen any warnings or error screens saying differently from other things I'm running. I'm assuming that is the least of the problems on the system requirements.

Do you know if the quality of this option is relatively good? If Pinnacle is not that great can you recommend other editing software or am I forced to use Pinnacle if I go with the Dazzle option?

Man can I rate you guys up? This forum rocks!

Thanks again!
Scott

[scott1147]

In doing some quick research on release dates (thanks Wikipedia!) I should be fine with the DirectX 9 compatibility on both. One less wrinkle!

[Rick]

Thanks Rick. I'm good with the system specs, but I'm not sure how to check if my system is DirectX9 compatible. I guess I'm assuming it is because I've never seen any warnings or error screens saying differently from other things I'm running. I'm assuming that is the least of the problems on the system requirements.

Do you know if the quality of this option is relatively good? If Pinnacle is not that great can you recommend other editing software or am I forced to use Pinnacle if I go with the Dazzle option?

Man can I rate you guys up? This forum rocks!

Thanks again!
Scott


I said it wasn't the greatest
But for the price it is very good

The single problem I have had with it is
The sound video match almost always required a separate sound card Not the on board integrated sound card

Almost any sound card worked ( Even the cheapest sound blaster ) just not the integrated one on the mother board