Converting VHS to DVD: the Procedure

Plug one end of the cable, whether RCA or Firewire, into the Output jack(s) of the VHS source. Plug the other end into the Input jack(s) of the video capture card.

Put the VHS tape into the VCR and a blank DVD disc in the computer's DVD burner drive. Rewind the VHS tape to the beginning.

On the computer, start the video editing application. Be sure the video source points to the video capture card. Press the Start button on the VCR. When the video appears in the window of the application, begin the Capture function. When the tape ends, stop the Capture function.

Now that the contents of the VHS tape are stored in a file on the computer, you can use the editing function on the video. When you're done with your editing, burn the output files to the DVD. Pull out the DVD disc and play it.

No matter which method you use to convert VHS to DVD, there are some operational practices you should always follow:

• Before you start, clean the tape heads on your VHS source, whether it's a camcorder or VCR. Cleaning cartridges are usually available, but, if not, carefully use a Q-tip with rubbing alcohol to remove tape residue from the heads. Residue on the tape heads will cause frame dropout and poor quality images.
  
  
• When running the VHS tape in a VCR, turn down the Sharpness control, if there is one. Doing so will make it easier for subsequent steps to improve image quality.
  
  
• For audio output, pick a compressed format -- Dolby Digital/AC3 is a good choice. Uncompressed audio output in PCM format creates huge files whose space on a DVD could be better used for video files.

Finally, let's talk about video compression and file size. If the process you are using involves creation of intermediate Digital Video (DV) files, be aware that not compressing these DV files will result in file sizes much too large to fit on a DVD disc. One hour of video can become a DV file 14 gigabytes in size, which definitely will not fit on a DVD disc that can hold only 4.7 gigabytes.

You have two choices to compress the size of the output file: either use a high-quality MPEG-2 encoder somewhere in the process or use a DVD authoring method that allows encoding of half-resolution video. Normal video resolution for a DVD is 720x480, and either of the choices above should allow use of a 352x480 resolution as output. Two hours of VHS video will then become a DV file that will fit on one DVD disc, and still result in good video output.

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