Convert analogue videos into DVDs

Converting VHS videos into DVDs should be so simple that you don’t have to give it much thought. But the minute you do start to think about it you can quickly become bogged down. How do you connect an old analogue camcorder or VCR to your PC?

What if you no longer have the camcorder? Which capture codec should you use and, if the video quality is mediocre, how can it be improved? Getting video into your PC is only half the battle.

Once it is digitised you’ll want to make adjustments and use filters to improve the video and audio quality, edit it, perhaps combine it with new footage shot on a DV camcorder, and then burn the entire project, complete with menus, to a DVD.

You’d easily be forgiven for dropping the whole idea were it not for the fact that our superguide answers all these questions and guides you through the entire process from capture, through editing and improving video quality, to burning.

Capturing video
In the days of analogue video editing it was commonplace to transfer footage from 8mm camcorders to a standard VHS tape. This provided the opportunity for simple editing as well as a means of distribution.

Being analogue, such a transfer involved some loss in quality, so if you have the original tapes from the camcorder it’s better to use these. Connecting a camcorder to your capture device using the analogue video-out port is quite straightforward.

If you no longer have the camcorder you may still be able to use the original tapes – VHS-C camcorders recorded onto a compact VHS cassette and shipped with an adapter that allowed you to play the tapes in a standard VHS VCR.

Making the connections
The first thing to think about is how to connect the analogue player to the capture device. In most cases this is a question of connecting your VHS VCR to your PC.

In essence, there are three connections you need to make between the player and the capture device: one for video and one for each of the left and right stereo audio channels.

At the capture-device end these are almost always colour-coded RCA phono connectors – yellow for video, red and white for the right and left stereo audio channels.

Although some camcorders have a yellow composite video-out port, the audio is often on a single port and you may find that both the composite video and the audio ports are combined into a single ‘AV-out’ socket.

Whatever the setup, the camcorder will have been supplied with a cable to connect the AV port to the inputs on your capture device.

In the case of a VHS VCR, the output options will depend on the model. More expensive models will provide more outputs, but on cheaper models you may find that the only output port is a single Scart socket used to connect the VCR to a television.

If this is the case you can get an adapter that fits into the Scart socket to provide composite video and stereo audio outputs.