I was wondering how I would go about doing this. I would rather use my TV Wonder Elite, although I do have a Radeon X800. I have the input block for the TV Wonder Elite so I can just plug the VCR in directly. I guess What I'm really looking for is a program that willl let me record from the input block and a tutorial on how to use it.

Thanks in advance

I'd say go with the TV tuner card--download ATI's updated drivers from their site, install Cyberlink's Power Cinema PVR software that came with your card, and reconcile yourself to learning how to use it. Reviews suggest that it's a really nice piece of hardware (I'd like to have a hardware MPEG2 encoder), but that Power Cinema leaves a bit to be desired.

I have ATI's old TV Tuner Pro (Philips chip), but the theory should be the same: connect your VCR to the tuner card (I use the coaxial cable and skip ATI's block thingie), open your tuner/PVR software (I use ATI's MMC stuff; you'll probably use Power Cinema), tune in to the channel your VCR is playing on (mine uses 03 as the default), and record the video to a 720x480 MPEG2 file if you're in NTSC land. This is the same format a normal DVD uses, so you can author it directly to DVD if you like.

Play around a bit. It might take you a couple hours of trial-and-error; probably it won't.

Sorry if I didn't offer much in the way of actual help. I guess I'd just like to encourage you, because if you just jump right in you'll sort it out pretty quickly.

Thanks, I downloaded the software (not the ATI edition, I had to get Power Cinema 3 from the cyberlink site) and I can record things from the input block. There is one problem though... When something moves really quickly on the screen there are lines, and I was wondering if there is a way to fix this?



If you look at the letters you will see, and it's like that during the film aswell (even though I recorded this from my Dreamcast, I'm sure the results will be the same with a VHS tape

The lines are interlacing, which you will pick up on a computer monitor, but not a TV. If your output will be back for viewing on a TV (DVD, VCD, etc), don't wory about it. If the video will just be for computer viewing, you'll want to deinterlace at some point in your editting/encoding.

Thanks for the info, you guys are great

Hey, I was wondering which type of deinterlacing I should use, software or hardware? I don't like the lines when I'm watcing TV with my tuner, they are starting to bug me. Are there any tweaks I can do to make things better? Which program provides the best qualtiy picture? My computer has excellent specs, except the RAM is low, but should still be more than enough.

Pentium 4 @ 3.4 GHZ w/ Hyper Threading
160GB Serial ATA HDD (using the special connector, not the standard IDE cable)
ATI X800 (128 mb of video ram ) Using PCI Xpress 16x slot (it's a 16x card)
ATI TV Wonder Elite
512 mb of memory
DVD +/- R Writer (shouldn't matter)
DVD-ROM drive (shouldn't matter)
Windows XP Home edition verison 2002 w/SP2

As far deinterlacing in realtime as your watching video from your input, it depends on your TV Tuner software. I don't watch TV on the computer (just use my hardware for converting analog to digital), but I remember VirtualVCR having an option to deinterlace as it was capturing. It's free, so you might give it a try. Hopefully someone will have a better suggestion than me

ok, thanks. i'll give it a shot.

hmm... I can't get it to work. I have my VHS tape, but the picture is just like snow. I've been googling and I have found that there is some copy protection nad i need a macrovision remover >.< . Is there any software that will let me backup my movie to DivX or DVD that I don't need a macrovision remover thing to work?

Read this:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/dvdguides/...eg/atimpeg.htm
I use a combination of this (read the paragragh on Macrovision) and this device. It works very good:
http://www.checkhere22.com/stabilizer.html
Depending on the VCR you use you might be able to get by with the driver hack for the ati card

Hmmm.... I don't have the specialized drivers installed. I don't want to spend $30 on one of those devices. Could I just plug my VCR into my tv, then use TV out to record it? or would it still be messed up?

Not sure what drivers you are talking about. In order to capture you have to have capture drivers. If you use the solution for the MV, you MIGHT be able to get an ok picture, depending on the vcr you are using, and being expensive does not garantee that it will not have remnants of the MV. I use a fairly inexpensive 4head vcr and can get a fairly good picture without the device but it is much better with it. As for the TV removing it, It would be nice if it was that easy,

Sorry, I was talking about the macrovision hacks (to get rid of it or fix it, whatever that file does). Sorry, I meant to say the specialized codecs, not drivers. I don't have the drivers . I really don't want to spend $30 on the video stabalizer, since I only want to make a backup of one movie, and don't plan on backing up any more.