How to Record a VCR Onto My PC
- 1). Insert the USB cable attached to your video-capture card into any one of the USB ports on your PC.
- 2). Use A/V cords to link the A/V Out jacks on the back of your VCR to the A/V In jacks on your video capture card. Match the color of each A/V plug to the color of the A/V jack it's inserted into.
- 3). Plug your VCR into a power outlet and turn it on.
- 4). Launch your video-capturing software. Different video-capturing applications have different protocols when it comes to setting up a video-capture session. With some applications, as soon as you launch the program you are greeted with a program wizard that's designed to walk you through the steps of setting up a capture session. With other applications you have to open a new file before you are presented with the option to use the program wizard to set up your capture session. And with yet other video capture applications there's nothing to initially set up. Follow the protocol that's required for the type of video-capture application you have in order to begin capturing video from your VCR. Keep in mind the device you intend to capture from, when you select your video-capture card.
- 5). Insert into your VCR the videotape you would like to dub to your PC. Navigate to the spot on the tape where you would like to begin recording. Use the preview window on your video-capture software to see where you are in the tape. Once you find the spot you want, stop the tape.
- 6). Initiate Start Capture or Record mode in your video-capture software. Then press "Play" on your VCR to begin transferring your VCR recording to your PC. This transfer takes place in real time--that is, it will go no more quickly or slowly than playing the VHS tape would take.
- 7). Stop Capture in your video-capture software when the transfer is complete. Then press "Stop" on your VCR.
- 8). Manually save your newly recorded video file if the file is not automatically saved at the end of your capture session. Many times when you set up a capture session through a wizard, the video you capture is saved automatically to a destination that you set up during the initial setup process.
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