I have a number of home movies that are on VCR and wish to download to my
hard drive, edit, and then burn to DVD. I cannot find any reference or
assistance for doing this. Any ideas?

Michelle

You need some video capture hardware and software. Since you are posting to
the mediacenter newsgroup, I'll assume you have an MCE. Given that you
likely have video and audio input jacks on the back of the PC that you can
hook to your VCR audio and video out, given the right cables. Most media
centers have some sort of movie editing software, and most of them have a
way to input video from an external source, such as a video camera, or an
analog input. You would need to see what input options the program has and
see if it can't be set to your video card's composite input.

Hope this gets you moving in the right direction. Post back with what model
PC you have, and maybe someone can be much more specific. If it is not a
MCE, then there are some pretty decent USB based capture devices that can be
used to do this sort of thing as well.

--
Sven
MVP - Mobile Devices
"Michelle" <Michelle@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:360621CE-0073-4BCC-83D6-D72AEB2905B8@microsoft.com...
>I have a number of home movies that are on VCR and wish to download to my
> hard drive, edit, and then burn to DVD. I cannot find any reference or
> assistance for doing this. Any ideas?
>
> Michelle

Hi,
I actually have the same question. I have an HP Media Center m7167c.
Can't I just hook up my VCR to my MC PC and copy the VHS tapes to the hd?
Then burn the content to a DVD? If not, what do I need to do?
Thanks,
Rowena

"Sven" wrote:

> You need some video capture hardware and software. Since you are posting to
> the mediacenter newsgroup, I'll assume you have an MCE. Given that you
> likely have video and audio input jacks on the back of the PC that you can
> hook to your VCR audio and video out, given the right cables. Most media
> centers have some sort of movie editing software, and most of them have a
> way to input video from an external source, such as a video camera, or an
> analog input. You would need to see what input options the program has and
> see if it can't be set to your video card's composite input.
>
> Hope this gets you moving in the right direction. Post back with what model
> PC you have, and maybe someone can be much more specific. If it is not a
> MCE, then there are some pretty decent USB based capture devices that can be
> used to do this sort of thing as well.
>
> --
> Sven
> MVP - Mobile Devices
> "Michelle" <Michelle@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:360621CE-0073-4BCC-83D6-D72AEB2905B8@microsoft.com...
> >I have a number of home movies that are on VCR and wish to download to my
> > hard drive, edit, and then burn to DVD. I cannot find any reference or
> > assistance for doing this. Any ideas?
> >
> > Michelle
>
>
>

My HP Media Center has WinDVD Creator 2, with it you can choose record to
DVD (or hard drive), choose whatever input connection/cables you used to
connect the VCR to the computer, set a length of time to record, and click
record. WinDVD Creator also allows for reordering of segments of video,
manual commercial editing, adding simple menus, etc. I have looked at
recording through Media Center, and cannot find any way to choose a
composite input, or if attempting to record through the tuner the recording
will shut off when the current show on channel 3 ends. (So, this would be
fine if there happened to be a 6 hour movie starting on channel 3 when I
connect to record!! LOL)


"Rowena" <Rowena@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7E45B74E-D96A-4E01-821C-563DF025BA7A@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
> I actually have the same question. I have an HP Media Center m7167c.
> Can't I just hook up my VCR to my MC PC and copy the VHS tapes to the hd?
> Then burn the content to a DVD? If not, what do I need to do?
> Thanks,
> Rowena
>
> "Sven" wrote:
>
>> You need some video capture hardware and software. Since you are posting
>> to
>> the mediacenter newsgroup, I'll assume you have an MCE. Given that you
>> likely have video and audio input jacks on the back of the PC that you
>> can
>> hook to your VCR audio and video out, given the right cables. Most media
>> centers have some sort of movie editing software, and most of them have a
>> way to input video from an external source, such as a video camera, or an
>> analog input. You would need to see what input options the program has
>> and
>> see if it can't be set to your video card's composite input.
>>
>> Hope this gets you moving in the right direction. Post back with what
>> model
>> PC you have, and maybe someone can be much more specific. If it is not a
>> MCE, then there are some pretty decent USB based capture devices that can
>> be
>> used to do this sort of thing as well.
>>
>> --
>> Sven
>> MVP - Mobile Devices
>> "Michelle" <Michelle@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:360621CE-0073-4BCC-83D6-D72AEB2905B8@microsoft.com...
>> >I have a number of home movies that are on VCR and wish to download to
>> >my
>> > hard drive, edit, and then burn to DVD. I cannot find any reference or
>> > assistance for doing this. Any ideas?
>> >
>> > Michelle
>>
>>
>>

Generally, you can not record from an external video source like a VCR
with WMCE. You can minimize WMCE to get to the Windows XP desktop, and
use Windows Movie Maker to record with it.

If your WMCE box has a TV tuner, check the back of the box for an
svideo or composite input port. The svideo and/or composite input are
for video capture.

Connect the VCR video out (svideo or composite out) to the video input
on the WMCE. Turn on the VCR. Start Windows Movie Maker. Select "Video
Capture", and you should see the specific capture devices available,
usually the svideo or composite connections on the TV tuner cards. Go
through the wizard, and begin capturing video. The wizard will give you
various options and settings to select.

As was stated in the other post, Intervideo's WinDVD Creator is an
excellent application for doing this. I've found it to be very flexible
and configurable.

The best way to get your VHS tapes to your hard drive is with a miniDV
camcorder. Connect the VCR to the camcorder, and then connect the
camcorder to the pc with a 1394 connection. Using Windows Movie Maker
or WinDVD Creator, you can capture nearly lossless video from the VHS
tapes because the miniDV camcorder converts the analog video from the
VHS tapes to digital as it goes through the camcorder to the pc.

With WinDVD Creator, you can record pure digital video to the hard
drive, or you can capture, edit, convert, compress and burn DVDs in a
single process.

Be aware that not all miniDV camcorders can do this. Some don't have
any analog video input ports, or some don't have 1394 out ports.

Thank you all for your advice. I was eventually able to also use the HP
Sonic MyDVD program as well as it came with my model. I have since
downloaded Win DVD Creator 2 and will use that for editing based on your
advice. Thanks.

Michelle

"GeekFunk" wrote:

> Generally, you can not record from an external video source like a VCR
> with WMCE. You can minimize WMCE to get to the Windows XP desktop, and
> use Windows Movie Maker to record with it.
>
> If your WMCE box has a TV tuner, check the back of the box for an
> svideo or composite input port. The svideo and/or composite input are
> for video capture.
>
> Connect the VCR video out (svideo or composite out) to the video input
> on the WMCE. Turn on the VCR. Start Windows Movie Maker. Select "Video
> Capture", and you should see the specific capture devices available,
> usually the svideo or composite connections on the TV tuner cards. Go
> through the wizard, and begin capturing video. The wizard will give you
> various options and settings to select.
>
> As was stated in the other post, Intervideo's WinDVD Creator is an
> excellent application for doing this. I've found it to be very flexible
> and configurable.
>
> The best way to get your VHS tapes to your hard drive is with a miniDV
> camcorder. Connect the VCR to the camcorder, and then connect the
> camcorder to the pc with a 1394 connection. Using Windows Movie Maker
> or WinDVD Creator, you can capture nearly lossless video from the VHS
> tapes because the miniDV camcorder converts the analog video from the
> VHS tapes to digital as it goes through the camcorder to the pc.
>
> With WinDVD Creator, you can record pure digital video to the hard
> drive, or you can capture, edit, convert, compress and burn DVDs in a
> single process.
>
> Be aware that not all miniDV camcorders can do this. Some don't have
> any analog video input ports, or some don't have 1394 out ports.
>
>

I am using an HP m7360n computer. I can record analog video, but I cannot
get any sound.

This is secondary, my tapes and VCR are SVHS but I can only get composite.
George65



"Sven" wrote: