What are you going to do with all those old videos? Especially the ones of family reunions, perhaps some of the last videos of various people who have passed on. As those videos get older, they only become more brittle. But with modern software and hardware you can transfer them to your computer, make archival copies for yourself on DVD, and even be able to pass out DVD's to others.
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Pinnacle dazzle
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Audio video cord
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VCR
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Video tape that you want to have transferred
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 | Be sure you have plenty of hard drive space because videos are space hogs. |
| It takes as much time to capture the video as it does to play the video so only do this when you are not needing the computer for other purposes. |
Step 1: Install Pinnacle
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/
This comes with a piece of hardware--a gadget that plugs into your computer's USB port and that allows your audio/video cord from your vcr to be plugged into it. It also comes with software which must be installed.
| Considering everything Pinnacle Dazzle does, it is a good deal for the money. You may be able to buy it locally or you can buy it by mail order. |
Step 2: Hook Up Hardware
Hook up VCR to pinnacle gadget & plug the gadget into the USB port of your computer. Make sure your VCR is plugged in and everything has power (if you are using a laptop, plug it in so it doesn't go to sleep on you in the middle of the job).
Step 3: Open Software
Open the studio software. There will be a menu items for capturing video and that is what you want to do. When you hit record on the computer within this software and play on your VCR, you should see your video playing in the little television window.
Step 4: Save Video
You can save the video. Also, if there are commercials, you can edit them out. The software is pretty easy to use. Once you have edited your video, you can burn it to a DVD and get rid of the video file on your hard drive.
| You can use a cassette deck and an RCA plug to plug into the audio part of the Pinnacle gadget and put your cassettes on your hard drive. When I tried this, the sound came out real quiet but I was able to clean up the sound using audacity, a free sound-editing piece of software (audacity.sourceforge.net). |
This process is a little more complex than using basic computer skills--but in the process of doing this you will save important family history and you will learn a lot.
