help to put video tapes onto vcd

[winstonpup]

hi can anyone advise me on how to put my old video tapes on to vcd ,eg which software i should purchase which would be easy for a first time tryer ,is my computer faster enough 256mb 1.80ghz, i,m quite new to computers so don,t know alot of the complicated talk,also i have just brought a digical camcorder so will need to be able to but these on to vcd also regards wendy

[Rich2Putt]

Hi Wendy,

In most applications, 512mb is required.

I would suggest tranfering video from your camcorder to a DVD rather then CD (that's if you have a DVD burner) Reason being, you can store more video on the DVD and the picture quaility is much better.

VS9 in particular can transfer video from a camcorder to a CD/DVD burner, but you will need a firewire connection on your pc.

There are several steps to accomplish this but we will need more infrmation as to what your pc has. (i.e. video card)

[sjj1805]

winstonpup

Pleae update your system specifications on your user profile page.
I hope you're not running Windows XP because you do not have enough RAM, You may be (just about) OK if your running Windows 2000, but even then you could do with upgrading your RAM.

If your still on Windows 98 then you are going to run into trouble with the large file sizes involved when working with videos because Win98 uses FAT 32 rather than a NTFS filing system.

[DVDDoug]

...my old video tapes...

VHS tapes? Transferring video to your computer is called capturing. (Technically, "capturing" refers to analog video.)

Step 1 - Capture
Your digital video camara will have either a Firewire or USB interface, which you can plug into your computer. If it has both, use Firewire. The specs for USB-2 and Firewire are about the same, but most people have better results with Firewire. The camera should have come with software and a cable. Ulead's video software also has "capture" features.

VHS - If your camera has regular analog audio/video inputs, you can plug it into your VCR, and then plug you camera into your computer. If your camera does not have this feature, you need a capture device. These can be cards that are installed inside your computer, or external devices that connect to your computer's USB-2 or Firewire port. ATI All-In-Wonder cards are very popular. Pinnacle also makes various capture deices and cards. I believe the Pinnacle products come with software similar to Video Studio.

Step 2 - Video Editing
Ulead Video Studio is a video editing program with limited DVD authoring/burning features.

Step 3 - DVD Authoring & Burning
I agree that you should skip the VCD idea, and go with DVDs, if possible.

Ulead Movie Factory is a DVD authoring/burning program with limited video editing. (DVD authoring is adding chapters, menus, and other DVD-specific features.) Ulead DVD Workshop is an advanced DVD authoring tool that allowa you to add multiple soundtracks, subtitles, etc.

You can download trial versions of the Ulead programs before you buy.

Here are the minimum System Requirements for Video Studio:

Intel® Pentium® III 800 MHz or higher
Microsoft® Windows® 98 SE, 2000, Me, XP
256 MB of RAM (512 MB or more recommended)
1.2 GB of available hard drive space for program installation
4 GB+ hard drive space for video capture and editing
Windows®-compatible display with at least 1024x768 resolution
Windows®-compatible sound card
NOTE : 1 hour of digital video requires about 13GB of hard disk space

4G of disk space is unrealistically low... AVI/DV (from your video camera) takes about 13 GB per hour. Plus, you'll need twice the calculated space to store both unedited and edited versions of the video. So, for two versions of a 2-hour AVI/DV file, you need 56 GB... Get a big hard drive, if you don't already have one!

Analog capture is the most demanding process. If the system can't keep-up with the real-time analog video, you'll get "dropped frames" (or worse). Otherwise, a slower system will work fine... but everything will take longer.